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Oct 31 / BARD CEP

Assistant Professor, Environmental Policy — UC Berkeley

Organization: DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, POLICY, AND MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

Job Title: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Location: Berkeley, CA

Application Deadline: Applications will be accepted through December 3, 2012.

Posted On: Oct. 24, 2012

Organization Overview

ESPM is a large and diverse department with strong science and social science contingents, and is directing itself towards multi-disciplinary approaches to environmental problem-solving.

Environmental Policy is a central component of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Many ESPM faculty members conduct basic and applied research on resource management and socio-ecological processes.  Understanding the formation, effectiveness, and implementation of sound social and environmental policies is critical to their development and reform, as well as to the integration of ESPM research.  Climate change, which poses threats to ecosystem health and human well-being across diverse global, national, and local scales, is a highly challenging environmental problem resulting from, and shaping, complex human behaviors and politics. ESPM research themes include global change, humans and the environment, but we do not currently have a social or policy scientist working specifically in this field. Funders and leading environmental policy making agencies such as the Ford, MacArthur, Pew, Hewlett, and Rockefeller Foundations, the National Science Foundation, the US Forest Service, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency, and other government and private institutions recognize the need for interdisciplinary understandings and approaches to addressing the causes and negative effects of climate and global change  The successful candidate will engage with scientists and social scientists at ESPM and other departments across campus in environmental policy research initiatives. ESPM’s contribution to the campus-wide initiatives in climate change would be interdisciplinary in its approach to identifying the sources of conflict and problems and both critical and practical in its consideration of potential avenues for policy and practical solutions.  In terms of teaching, the successful candidate will augment the Society and Environment Division’s capacity to carry the social science share, particularly in environmental and resource policy, of the core ESPM major curriculum in undergraduate and graduate courses.

Description

The Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) at the University of California, Berkeley is recruiting for a tenure-track (academic year) assistant professor faculty position in the field of Environmental Policy, with a focus on climate change, with an expected start date of July 1, 2013.

ESPM’s Division of Society and Environment seeks an environmental policy scholar with interest in innovative approaches to analyzing environmental regulation, the management of public lands and resources, climate change adaptation and mitigation, urbanization and land use, and/or environmental policy processes. We are particularly interested in applicants whose work focuses on climate change related issues and policies, in the U.S. (though not exclusively), and who are able to work with scholars across the natural and social sciences.

Responsibilities

 Research Duties: The successful applicant will be expected to develop a nationally recognized research program on environmental policy and governance, preferably focused on the social dynamics affecting climate change, environmental policy formation and institutional practice, or new dimensions of natural resource law and policy (including agriculture).

Teaching Duties: The successful candidate will teach an undergraduate core course on U.S. environmental policy formation (addressing the challenges of making and implementing climate change, agricultural and/or natural resource policies and management) and a graduate course in his/her area of specialization. He or she will share in teaching the department’s required interdisciplinary graduate and undergraduate courses.

Qualifications

In addition to a scholar focused on environmental policy, we seek a broadly trained social scientist from the fields of political science, sociology, law, science and technology studies, public administration, or geography, or with a PhD from an appropriate interdisciplinary program.

The successful candidate will fit with this mission by teaching and conducting research that is sensitive to rapidly changing social, political, and environmental contexts and oriented toward finding solutions to environmental problems.

How to Apply

To Apply: The successful candidate will have an earned doctoral degree in a relevant field such as (but not limited to) the social sciences, such as political science, sociology, science and technology studies, geography or from an appropriate interdisciplinary program, such as public administration, public policy studies, environmental studies, or law.
Evaluation of applications will continue until the position is filled.

The Ph.D. or equivalent is required by date of hire. We are interested in candidates who will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education through their teaching, research, and service. UC Berkeley is committed to addressing the family needs of faculty including single parents. Women and minority candidates are especially encouraged to apply.

Interested individuals should submit the following application materials online athttp://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF00080: 1) a cover letter,
2) a curriculum vita, 3) a statement of research interests, teaching experience, and service, 4) pdf copies of up to 3 recent publications, and
5) three letters of recommendation (requested directly through our online application system). All recommendation letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law.
Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality: http://apo.chance.berkeley.edu/evalltr.html.

For additional information on the Department and the campus visit http://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu, andhttp://berkeley.edu.

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