Dean of Arts and Humanities

Dean of Arts and Humanities

New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) seeks a visionary, dynamic individual with a global outlook and a notable record of research, teaching and service to serve as its next Dean of Arts & Humanities. A world-class research university with liberal arts and sciences at its core, NYUAD resides in the United Arab Emirates at a new crossroads of today’s changing world, and a critical portal in NYU’s Global Network University.

The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated ability and ongoing desire to actively engage across academic and stakeholder communities and will be committed to transparency and inclusiveness, research and inquiry, faculty and student success.

NYU Abu Dhabi is pioneering a new model of higher education for a global world, dedicated at once to excellence in teaching and research and to advancing cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. Drawing on the strengths of the NYU global network, it offers an outstanding liberal arts and sciences education to students from the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and around the world, with a distinctive focus on intercultural understanding and leadership. It supports innovative research that pushes forward the frontiers of knowledge and responds in powerful and interdisciplinary ways to vital global and local challenges. NYUAD advances NYU as a model university for the 21st century and contributes in multiple ways to the development of a sustainable, knowledge-based economy in Abu Dhabi.

The Division of Arts and Humanities at NYU Abu Dhabi encompasses fields of central importance to human culture and creativity. Research and scholarly activity in the Arts and Humanities is creative and collaborative, spanning the disciplines to better understand the human experience from new intellectual perspectives.

Undergraduate programs supporting majors and concentrations include African Studies, Ancient World, Anthropology, Arab Crossroads Studies, Arab Music Studies, Arabic, Art and Art History, Chinese, Design, Film and New Media, French, History, Interactive Media, Legal Studies, Literature and Creative Writing, Music, Philosophy, and Theater. The Division is also in the process of exploring a variety of graduate trajectories. Two crucial partners with Arts & Humanities are the Arts Center, a multi-purpose complex of theaters, performance venues, rehearsal rooms, film editing studios and workshops; a conference center and the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery. The Arts Center and the Gallery together also manage The Project Space.

As chief academic officer of the Division, the Dean will report to the Provost and will provide leadership and oversight of faculty, curricula, research and teaching in a dynamic, diverse and developing environment. The Dean will have the opportunity to collaborate on moving NYUAD to its next phase of growth in research, scholarship, and educational programming. The Dean will recruit, mentor and develop full-time and part-time faculty while providing leadership for an ambitious growth strategy that will introduce new graduate programming and substantial increases in both student and faculty populations while ensuring its continued excellence in undergraduate liberal arts education.

The successful candidate will have demonstrated commitment to institution building and global education; experience as an academic leader with achievements in academic program development, curriculum innovation, and strategic planning; experience in recruiting, mentoring and promoting exceptional faculty from diverse professional and disciplinary backgrounds and experiences; a record of cultivating a collaborative intellectual ecosystem by encouraging mentorship and support among all faculty and staff at various career levels; demonstrated capacity for administrative leadership and decision-making including development and supervision of staff, budget and financial planning, and operational oversight; a record of encouraging and facilitating innovation and collaboration across disciplines; outstanding oral and written communication skills and the ability to listen to diverse voices; and to create an environment that engenders respect, openness and thoughtful discourse; an ability to help shape new research and teaching initiatives and strategies within the Division of Arts & Humanities, within NYUAD, and within the NYU global network; an ability to provide an environment in which complex configurations of faculty can flourish through meaningful discourse and support for creative/artistic work, research, scholarship, and teaching; an ability to effectively articulate the vision of NYUAD and the Division of Arts & Humanities to a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders; and an ability to effectively deal with ambiguity and complexity while providing steady leadership toward achieving goals.

NYU Abu Dhabi has engaged Koya Leadership Partners to help in this search. Please submit applications, expressions of interest, and nominations to Amy Sugin, Andy Evans, and Josyanne Roche here: https://koyapartners.com/search/nyu-dean-of-arts-humanities/.
NYU is committed to equality and is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage inquiries from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of our University.

New York University does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, creed, color, religion, marital status, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, national origin, or disability status in employment, or in our education programs.