Associate Professor/Professor of Anthropology and Associate Curator/Curator and Director of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the Penn Museum

About the role

The Department of Anthropology and the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) invite applications for a tenured faculty position and Curator/Director of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center (PennCHC) beginning in the 2027–28 academic year. We seek to appoint an associate or full Professor. The successful candidate should have expertise in archaeology and cultural heritage. Candidates should have a record of bringing together academics with non-academic stakeholders as well as organizing and managing cultural heritage initiatives. While the area of specialization is open, we are particularly interested in candidates with active research in the Americas and/or Africa who situate their research within global heritage scholarship.

Responsibilities

• Teaching responsibilities will include both undergraduate and graduate courses in the area of research specialization; faculty-curators have their teaching load reduced from four to two courses per year.
• Mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students working in these areas.
• In the Penn Museum, serve as associate curator/curator in the Curatorial Section closest to their research specialization.
• As head of the PennCHC, lead or oversee a growing portfolio of global cultural heritage projects with PennCHC principal investigators, including a national survey of museum collecting practices, convening initiatives, and cultural rights programming funded through an IMLS National Leadership Grant through 2028.
• Collaborate closely with colleagues who run other cultural heritage research endeavors across the Penn Museum and Penn, and work with them to position the PennCHC as a research and convening center for discussion of heritage-related activities.
• Create and implement a new, ambitious strategic plan for the Center, in consultation with Penn CHC’s Director of Research and Programs and the Museum’s Williams Director and Executive Team.

Qualifications

• Expertise in anthropological archaeology and cultural heritage.
• Experience organizing and managing cultural heritage initiatives.
• Successful track record of significant scholarship as evidenced by:
  • Research/publication record
  • External funding record
• Teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and mentoring and supporting a diverse student body.
• The direction of graduate/undergraduate research for students from a wide range of backgrounds.
• Candidates are expected to have PhD in anthropology or a related discipline.