Role Profile: Associate Lecturer – Environmental Architecture MA
Position: Associate Lecturer (AL)
Program: Environmental Architecture MA
Institution: Royal College of Art (RCA)
Role Overview: Associate Lecturers at RCA contribute to postgraduate teaching, offering specialized knowledge from diverse disciplines to enhance program delivery. The role involves engaging students in cross-disciplinary learning, focusing on environmental architecture and its socio-political impacts, particularly within the context of climate change and environmental crises.
Key Responsibilities:
Learning & Teaching:
1. Deliver high-quality, specialized teaching that addresses individual student needs.
2. Engage in cross-school and interdisciplinary teaching activities.
3. Provide academic, pastoral, and technical support through regular one-on-one tutorials.
4. Offer constructive feedback to help students improve their work.
5. Stay informed on developments in environmental architecture, ensuring teaching is current and relevant.
6. Participate in the assessment of student work.
Academic Delivery, Administration & Citizenship:
7. Attend program-level planning events as required.
8. Participate in field trips, ensuring they provide valuable learning experiences.
9. Conduct risk assessments to ensure the safety of students and colleagues.
10. Contribute to curriculum design, ensuring innovative and high-quality content.
11. Engage in Staff Student Consultative Committees to review and enhance unit delivery.
12. Support RCA’s commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion by participating in mandatory training.
Studio Teaching
Skills, Knowledge, and Experience:
13. 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.
14. Contemporary Debates: Understanding of climate change causes, effects, and associated legal and policy frameworks.
15. Social Impacts: Awareness of the racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination resulting from environmental transformations.
16. Ecological Teaching: Experience in experimental, ecological studio teaching, and collaboration within multi-disciplinary teams.
17. 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.
Seminar Units
Skills, Knowledge, and Experience:
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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 HumanitiesEcological and Earth SciencesBiosemioticsEcofeminismMore-than-Human EcologiesPlant ThinkingNon-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.