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Assistant Extension Professor of Rural Sociology
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology
The Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Auburn University is seeking candidates for the position of Assistant Extension Professor with a primary focus on rural sociology to join a diverse environment of high-quality scholars dedicated to the discovery, education, and application of research-based knowledge. This is a 12-month non-tenure track position (100% Extension). The successful candidate will provide leadership for extension programming at the intersection of agriculture, organizations, and communities in relation to social and economic well-being. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to assess evidence-based outcomes that will inform solutions, program direction, and policy. Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated expertise and extension interest in one or more of the following areas: processes of domestic social change; inequality; food and agriculture; political economy/ecology; rural communities, including resilience and/or adaptation to climate change; and other environmental and natural resource challenges. Teaching opportunities (e.g., Extension Methods), may be possible upon agreement of the Department Head, the Director of ACES, and the faculty member, but teaching is not required for this position. The expected start date is Fall 2022.
Specific responsibilities include the following:
- Develop a robust, scholarly, and data-driven extension program in rural development and document its impact,
- Serve as a member of Extension’s Farm and Agribusiness Management and Community Resource Development Priority Program Teams to develop needs-based plans-of-work,
- Ensure that program supports activities by Extension teams in Agriculture, Human Sciences, and Forestry and Wildlife,
- Build capacity among Regional Extension Agents and County Extension Coordinators to implement and multiply educational programming consistent with plans-of-work,
- Deliver relevant, new, and creative programming through workshops, county/state/regional presentations, short-courses, and digital products,
- Write Extension and popular press publications, as well as in other media (broadcast radio/TV, social media, podcasts, etc.),
- Collaborate with other professionals at Auburn University to develop and disseminate high-quality research-informed Extension education programs, which are funded by external grants and contracts,
- Generate scholarly output including articles in peer-reviewed journals and/or peer-reviewed Extension publications,
- Provide leadership to the profession through state and regional professional society participation,
- Interpret U.S. Census and Census of Agriculture data to inform internal and external stakeholders of demographic directions and trends,
- Fully participate in Department activities as a faculty member.
Qualifications include an earned Ph.D. in Sociology, Rural Sociology, Demography, Geography, or closely related applied social science field from an accredited institution. Additional qualifications include a practical knowledge of challenges and solutions in U.S. rural development, including relevant policy, as it relates to institutions, food and agriculture, and community development; candidates ought to illustrate an ability to increase this knowledge, especially with regards to Alabama. Strong training is necessary in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, and evidence of skills in data visualization will be a desired criterion. Excellent interpersonal skills are required. A clear interest in public service and Alabama demographic trends is also desired. The successful candidate must meet eligibility requirements for work in the United States at the time the appointment begins and continue working legally for the term of employment.
Application: Applicants must apply for this position by visiting the link: https://www.auemployment.com/postings/29377 and attach the following:
- Cover letter that addresses the experience and/or potential pertinent to the position’s responsibilities plus a vision for this Extension program
- Current curriculum vita,
- Unofficial copies of all academic transcripts (official copies are required for hiring)
- Diversity statement
- Contact information for three (3) professional references (letters of recommendation will be requested for shortlisted candidates).
The College of Agriculture is committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Our goal is to equip students and employees to achieve their full potential by supporting a diverse and inclusive culture that is welcoming and respectful. In your application packet, please include a diversity statement addressing how you have supported DEI in the past or your ideas of future support. Additional information about the college’s DEI goals and objectives can be found at the following link: Diversity Inclusion Plan / Auburn University College of Agriculture
When prompted during the on-line process, please provide names, email addresses and phone numbers for three (3) professional references. Only completed application materials will be considered. To ensure consideration for the position, applicants are encouraged to apply by end of business July 15, 2022. The search may continue until the position is filled. Questions about this position should be directed to Dr. Michelle Worosz, Search Committee Chair, email: mrw0016@auburn.edu.
The University: The University is an R1 land-grant institution organized into twelve academic colleges and schools. Auburn is ranked 40th among public universities in the U.S. News and World 2021 Report. For 2020, 24,505 undergraduates, 6,232 graduate, and professional students were enrolled. The University is nationally recognized for its academic excellence, commitments to community engagement, positive work environment, flourishing student life programs, and beautiful campus.
Auburn maintains high levels of research activity and high standards for teaching excellence, offering Bachelor’s, Master’s, Educational Specialist, and Doctor’s degrees in agriculture and engineering, the professions, and the arts and sciences. There are 1,450 faculty members who offer more than 200 educational programs. Auburn University is understanding of and sensitive to the family needs of faculty, including dual-career couples. To learn more about the University, please visit: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/provost/facultyjobs/.
The Department: Discovering and transmitting socio-economic knowledge to students, Alabama, and the world is our mission. As a multidisciplinary department, 14 faculty members are agricultural economists and 2 are rural sociologists. This includes a mix of research, teaching, and extension appointments to achieve the department’s mission in conjunction with other university departments, industry, and organizations. With retirements, there has been an opportunity to hire 5 new tenure-track faculty in the past 1.5 years. New faculty are offered competitive start-up packages, have access to state funded graduate students, and internal grant competitions from the Alabama Experiment Station. Faculty and students publish in top journals in their respective disciplines. The Department has excellent facilities, an experimental economics laboratory, over 150 undergraduate students and about 30 M.S. and Ph.D. students. The department website can be accessed at: http://aers.auburn.edu/. A department facilities video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33zsIh31r40.
Extension: The Alabama Cooperative Extension System is the outreach organization for the land grant mission of Auburn University and Alabama A&M University. Its educational programs grow from these two land grant university campuses to serve the people of Alabama. Science-based educational programs are delivered that enable people to improve their quality of life and economic well-being. Information and programs are available online or in person through all 67 County Extension Offices and at teaching sites throughout Alabama communities. For more information, please see https://www.aces.edu/.
The Community: Auburn is recognized as one of America’s best small towns with a moderate climate and easy access to major cities, beaches and mountains. The city is situated along the rapidly developing I-85 Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama corridor. The combined Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Statistical Area boasts a growing population of over 160,000. The City of Auburn grew 43% in the past decade and is known for an excellent public school system and a local medical center acknowledged as among the best in the region. The City of Auburn website has information on the community and services that can be accessed at: https://www.auburnalabama.org/.
Auburn University is an EEO/Vet/Disability Employer
The Department of Environmental Studies is searching for two assistant professor positions as part of cluster hires. Positions are in Water Policy and Governance; and Climate Justice/Urban Sustainability. Brief descriptions are below; See full details at https://www.esf.edu/hr/clusterhire/
1) Urban Sustainability Faculty Cluster Initiative: The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in Syracuse, NY seeks to accelerate transdisciplinary innovations in Urban Sustainability through the addition of three new faculty positions. These new faculty will work with an existing team who are committed to generating actionable science, offering experiential student learning opportunities, and advancing the socio-ecological paradigm as applied to urban sustainability. With robust mentoring and research infrastructure support, new hires will be able to establish interdisciplinary connections, link with community groups and policymakers, and work within new research paradigms. We invite applications for the following tenure-track (10 month) positions: atmospheric science (Department of Chemistry), climate justice (Department of Environmental Studies), and climate-adaptive design (Department of Landscape Architecture).
Successful candidates for these three positions will be expected to participate actively and sustainably in this interdisciplinary initiative, "the Urban Sustainability Cluster." Participation in the Cluster will be an important criterion in performance evaluations.
The Department of Environmental Studies (EST) is seeking candidates for an academic year, tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor rank, starting in the fall of 2022. As part of the Urban Sustainability Cluster, this faculty member will advance scholarship in Climate Justice. This faculty member will contribute an understanding of the social forces that bolster and/ hinder scientific solutions to urban sustainability, within an action-oriented education and social change framework. This person's expertise will be at the intersection of climate/energy justice and urban sustainability, teaching classes of broad appeal, and in support of the new online master's in professional studies (MPS) degree in environmental justice. Priority will be given to scholars whose fields of expertise include climate adaptation and resilience through a lens of social justice, inequality, and differing vulnerabilities. This faculty member will engage with local communities, expanding experiential learning opportunities in environmental health, STEM education, and community resilience (e.g., via initiatives such as the I-81 project and/or NY State's climate initiative). The ideal candidate will have interdisciplinary training that emphasizes the human dimensions of environmental problems. For more information on the Climate Justice position, contact Dr. Mary Collins at mbcollin@esf.edu.
2) Water Faculty Cluster Initiative: The State University of New York - Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in Syracuse, NY, seeks to stimulate innovative research addressing water issues. Across the next year, a total of five (5) new faculty members will be hired to join existing researchers who are focused on the challenges associated with sustainable access to water resources in the coming decades. Our faculty will work toward goals including the improved understanding of aquatic ecosystems as well as equitable strategies for watershed stewardship. With high quality research infrastructure and sound mentoring, our new hires will be able to develop their research agendas and cultivate relationships with community groups and policymakers. Avenues for addressing the key challenges in water science include transdisciplinary approaches, student learning opportunities, and community collaborations, among others. Future postings will recruit for four additional positions for the Water Cluster, including: aquatic science - molecular (Department of Environmental Biology); aquatic biochemistry (Department of Chemistry); applied hydrology (Department to be determined); and water quality modelling (Department of Environmental Resources Engineering). Successful candidates for these positions will be expected to participate actively and sustainably in this interdisciplinary initiative, and participation in the Water Cluster will be an important criterion in performance evaluations.
The Department of Environmental Studies (EST) is seeking candidates for an academic year, tenure-track (10 month) position at the Assistant Professor rank, starting in the fall of 2022. As part of the Water Cluster, this faculty member will advance scholarship in the human dimensions of water issues. For more information on the Water Policy & Governance position, contact Dr. Sharon Moran at smoran@esf.edu.
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Celebrating the Diversity of the Family Farm Special Symposium of Agriculture and Human Values
Guest editors:
Michaela Hoffelmeyer, PhD Candidate, Rural Sociology, Penn State, Kathleen Sexsmith, Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology, Penn State; Leland Glenna, Professor of Rural Sociology and Science, Technology, and Society, Penn State
Open call for papers:
This special symposium invites articles exploring the diversity of family farming models in light of the UN Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028), which was declared to celebrate the roles of small family farmers in achieving sustainable rural development. A plurality of family farming models worldwide undertakes environmental, social, and economic practices that present alternatives to global corporate agribusiness. Examples include indigenous communities, pastoralists, communitarian and intentional farm communities, women-owned farms, racial and ethnic minority-run farms, first generation farmers, and others. Their agricultural practices and models are crucial to achieving sustainable agriculture, yet are often overshadowed by the Western, industrialized agricultural system and its accompanying discourse of a ‘family farm’ as a nuclear, often white, inter-generational family farming unit.
This special symposium examining the multiplicity of family farming models is timely at the current conjuncture in the global political economy of the agri-food system. The rise of right-wing populism around the world has fomented colonial, racist, and heteronormative ideals in rural and agricultural areas. This populism has restricted public understanding of the diversity of family farming by promoting the image of patriarchal family farms. Moreover, the invocation of “family farms” as an ideal type of agriculture obscures the realities of farming life and deters the recognition of alternative agrarianisms. Indeed, family farm operations of all types can and do make essential contributions to achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
The global Decade of the Family Farm is a timely moment for questioning how this model has been conceived and applied for decades, and for celebrating the multiple forms of family farming that contribute to sustainable agriculture. Articles in this special symposium might examine the following topics or other related issues:
- Political economy of the emergence of the ideal type family farm as white, male-led, and heteronormative model in the U.S. and other western industrialized contexts;
- Historical analysis of alternative family farm models in western industrialized and other global contexts;
- Alternative agrarianisms and sustainable agriculture among Black, immigrant, indigenous, queer, polygamous, or communitarian farm families;
- Migrant, refugee, and landless labor on family farms;
- Migration, remittances, and family farm viability;
- Patriarchy/ matriarchy and family farms;
- Production/reproduction of Western family farm discourses for university, school, and extension education models and their implications;
- Effects of the idealization of the family farm model for labor conditions, healthcare, childcare, or other social protections;
- Relationship between family farming and industrialization and concentration in the global agri food system.
- Other topics related to this call for papers.
If you wish to submit a paper to the special symposium, please submit a 500-word abstract detailing your article’s title, purpose, methodology, key findings, and significance to the special symposium guest editors at kjs95@psu.edu by July 15th 2022. Agriculture and Human Values accepts original research articles, field reports, and discussion papers. All paper formats will be considered although original research articles are preferred. More information can be found here: https://www.springer.com/journal/10460
Deadlines:
Abstracts: July 15th, 2022
Authors notified of invitation to submit a paper: August 1st, 2022
Complete first drafts due to editors: December 15th, 2022
Reviews sent to authors: Spring 2023
Selection of final papers and publication: Fall 2023/Winter 2024
Request for Contracted Service Proposals Exploring Experiences of and Perspectives about Equity Among Rural Missourians
Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) is requesting proposals from qualified contractors to conduct exploratory research to elucidate the narratives that Missourians living in predominantly rural counties use to think about equity and how it relates to their lives and communities.
Description of Services
MFH’s operating definition of health equity is that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. MFH’s mission to eliminate the underlying causes of health inequities, transform systems, and enable individuals and communities to thrive, requires a nuanced understanding of how rural Missourians perceive and experience equity/inequity within their communities and what enables rural communities to thrive in the face of systemic and structural inequity. This project is intended to explore diverse lived experiences, narratives, and values that shape rural life and inform peoples’ perceptions of equity as it relates to their communities’ health, well-being, and ability to thrive. As of 2020, just over one third of Missourians resided in rural areas. Like many other states, Missouri has seen a decrease in its rural population over the past few decades as economic opportunities have dwindled. Essential services like broadband, transportation, and health care are often in short supply, contributing to disproportionately high rates of poor health and poverty, especially among female and/or Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous people. MFH intends to use insights generated from this research to enhance our program, policy, and communications strategies concerning rural health and well-being. The selected partner will work closely with MFH and its partners to shape the research and conduct identified activities, including identifying geographic and topical areas of focus and developing research tools. Understanding that perspectives among Missourians living in rural areas are far from monolithic, we expect the contractor to gather information from a broad sampling of demographically diverse rural residents. Methods may include but are not limited to qualitative interviews and focus group discussions. We welcome applied social science research methods that place minimal burden on participants, center intersectionality, and have an ethnographic orientation. We encourage use of multi-lingual research tools and approaches that enhance participation among people with disabilities and those with limited transportation, as well as analysis and dissemination strategies that productively engage participants in sense-making.
Illustrative research questions include:
• What have rural residents observed or experienced regarding how inequities present themselves in their communities and in rural Missouri more broadly?
• What assets do individuals and communities leverage to overcome issues of inequity?
• What contributes to thriving individuals, families, and communities? What are some things that contribute to the wellbeing of their community?
• What are rural Missourians’ perspectives about how, if at all, society advantages some groups and disadvantages others? How do these perspectives differ depending on participant sociodemographic characteristics, as well as the degree to which their community is racially homogenous or heterogenous?
• What types of equity (e.g., racial, gender, economic, etc.), if any, do people living in rural areas believe are salient to themselves, their families, and their communities?
• What narratives do people living in rural areas use when talking about equity? What values, worldviews, and mindsets seem to drive varying narratives about equity? How does this differ across demographic groups?
General Requirements
Qualified research teams will have:
• Experience working with diverse rural populations
• Experience using applied social science methods, particularly sociology and/or anthropology o Knowledge of theories and conceptual frameworks for studying culture as it relates to equity and health. Examples include, but are not limited to, culture theory, social capital theory, conflict theory, functionalism, and symbolic interactionism.
• Demonstrated commitment to cultural humility Contractors with experience living or working among rural Missourians are preferred.
Proposal Submission
Proposals must be submitted online. To begin a proposal, click here.
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