Chair and Head of Department
King’s College London – Department of Digital Humanities, Centre for Computing in the Humanities
The Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH), King’s College London is looking for a new Chair and Head of Department to succeed Harold Short, the founding Director and Head of Department, who will be retiring in September 2010 after 22 years in the College.
CCH is recognized as an international leader in the application of technology in research in the arts and humanities. It is an academic department in the School of Arts and Humanities, and operates on a collaborative basis across discipline, institutional and national boundaries. It is responsible for a PhD programme and three MA programmes and for teaching at undergraduate level. It has a particular focus on collaborative research, and at any one time is engaged in 30 or more research projects. These cover a wide range of humanities disciplines, including medieval studies, history, literature and linguistics, art history and music, and also include a number of more general information management projects in both humanities and the social sciences. In collaboration with its research partners, it has generated over £17 million in research grants over the past 7 years.
This is an important time of transition, and it is proposed that the name will change to Department of Digital Humanities from October 2010. The new appointment will be leading the department with a number of specific goals in mind: strategic development to ensure that it continues to fulfill its mission to reflect critically on, and make the best use of, new technological developments in arts and humanities research; the development of a strategy for success in the Research Excellence Framework (REF, 2013), both with existing staff and through new appointments; the development of a more broadly based collaborative teaching programme; the continued growth of the PhD programme; the extension of consultancy and knowledge transfer activities; collaborative development of strategy and planning for the proposed ‘Digital and Visual Cultures’ theme within the Arts and Humanities School, in co-operation with other departments.
While the Head of Department will have overall accountability for the department’s performance across its whole range of activity, the role is seen primarily as a strategic one, working in close collaboration with and strongly supported by the senior CCH team who will have operational responsibilities in each of their areas of activity and who will also contribute to the development of strategy, policy and planning. The new Chair will be Head of Department for an initial 4-year term. Thereafter it is envisaged that the Head of Department role will pass in turn to senior colleagues.
The successful candidate will be an individual who has a proven record of research excellence in the Digital Humanities. S/he will be able to demonstrate strong leadership skills, and international standing in the field. S/he will relish the idea of building on the success and reputation of CCH with ideas of their own, and will bring vision about how to maintain the department’s position as an international leader in its field as well as to develop in new areas of activity.
The appointment will be made, dependent on relevant qualifications and experience, within the Professorial scale. Benefits include a final salary superannuation scheme an annual season ticket loan scheme.
For an informal discussion of the post please contact the Head of School, Professor Jan Palmowski via email at jan.palmowski@kcl.ac.uk.
Further details and application packs are available on the College’s website at www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs or alternatively by emailing Human Resources at jcmbjobs@kcl.ac.uk. All correspondence should clearly state the relevant job title and reference numbers A9/AAV/093/10 – LA.
Closing date: 19 May 2010.
Interviews will be held in early June; the date is to be confirmed.
Equality of opportunity is College policy
