Associate Lecturer – Environmental Architecture (0.15 & 0.2 FTE, FTC) at Royal College of Art

Role Overview: Associate Lecturers at RCA contribute to postgraduate teaching, offering specialized knowledge from diverse disciplines to enhance program delivery.

Key Responsibilities:

Learning & Teaching:

• Deliver high-quality, specialized teaching that addresses individual student needs.
• Engage in cross-school and interdisciplinary teaching activities.
• Provide academic, pastoral, and technical support through regular one-on-one tutorials.
• Offer constructive feedback to help students improve their work.
• Stay informed on developments in environmental architecture, ensuring teaching is current and relevant.
• Participate in the assessment of student work.

Academic Delivery, Administration & Citizenship:

• Attend program-level planning events as required.
• Participate in field trips, ensuring they provide valuable learning experiences.
• Conduct risk assessments to ensure the safety of students and colleagues.
• Contribute to curriculum design, ensuring innovative and high-quality content.
• Engage in Staff Student Consultative Committees to review and enhance unit delivery.
• Support RCA’s commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion by participating in mandatory training.

Studio Teaching

Skills, Knowledge, and Experience:

• Environmental Expertise: Familiarity with environmental science, history, and the socio-political impacts of climate change. Knowledge of non-Western environmental traditions and frameworks is essential.
• Contemporary Debates: Understanding of climate change causes, effects, and associated legal and policy frameworks.
• Social Impacts: Awareness of the racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination resulting from environmental transformations.
• Ecological Teaching: Experience in experimental, ecological studio teaching, and collaboration within multi-disciplinary teams.
• Practical Experience: Engagement with issues like resource extraction, environmental pollution, flood risk, and other climate-related challenges, preferably with frontline communities.

Candidates should demonstrate a strong background in environmental architecture, with a passion for interdisciplinary teaching and a commitment to addressing the pressing environmental issues of our time.

Skills, Knowledge, and Experience:

• Climate Change Expertise: Strong understanding of contemporary debates on the causes and effects of climate change, including frameworks such as the Green New Deal and degrowth.
• Social and Political Impact: Experience in seminar teaching focused on the social and political effects of environmental crises, particularly addressing racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination.
• Interdisciplinary Knowledge: Proficiency in delivering lectures and seminars on a wide range of topics, including environmental transformation, climate change, and the Anthropocene, with an emphasis on:
  • Environmental Humanities
  • Ecological and Earth Sciences
  • Biosemiotics
  • Ecofeminism
  • More-than-Human Ecologies
  • Plant Thinking
  • Non-Western, Traditional, and Indigenous Knowledges

Candidates should demonstrate a deep commitment to exploring the intersections of environmental issues with social justice, and possess the ability to engage students in critical discussions on these topics.

RCA Benefits available here: https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/work-at-the-rca/staff-benefits/

The Royal College of Art (RCA)  aims to foster an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity and maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students and stakeholders are respected. 

We recognise the broad range of experiences that a diverse staff and student body brings and how this  strengthens our research and enhances our teaching. In order for RCA to remain a world-leading institution we are committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles throughout all of our processes, from application through to appointment.

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