Art History

Art Historians at Bowdoin enjoy a teaching load of two courses a semester. Each semester, one of those classes is generally a "200-level" course: an intermediate course in our individual areas of expertise, broadly defined; these courses are capped at 35 students. Once a year, we each offer an advanced seminar, with enrollment capped at 12 students, on a topic of the individual faculty member's choosing. Often individual faculty members use this course as an opportunity to explore a topic that is closely related to their current research interests. The fourth course that we teach in any given year is generally an introductory level class. Sometimes this means teaching a small, writing-intensive "first-year seminar."  As with the advanced seminars, the choice of first-year seminar topics is entirely up to the instructor (with the stipulation that the topic be accessible to students with little or no prior experience in Art History). Alternately, we lead discussion sections of a large team-taught introductory course (ARTH 100: Introduction to Art History); meeting once a week, the discussion sections are capped at 13 each, with each of the course's three team-teachers taking on two sections. Whether or not we are one of the official team-teachers for ARTH 100, all members of the department lecture 4 or 5 times during the semester to the entire class, ensuring that the course offers a representative introduction to the discipline of Art History and our department. This course is a relatively new offering in our department, and we are eager to work with our new colleague in Asian art to consider ways of revising it to match the future make-up of our faculty. In addition to these standard forms of teaching, we each will occasionally lead individual students in a self-designed independent study; these at times lead to Honors Projects, which are supervised by individual faculty but read and discussed by the entire department.

Our students are talented, bright, and diverse. In terms of its admissions requirements, Bowdoin is one of the most selective colleges in the country. Many Bowdoin students are particularly interested in the arts, and a lively student organization is specifically dedicated to working with the Art Museum. The College has a need-blind admissions policy, allowing it to admit students without regard to their financial resources, and offering generous support for students from less-privileged backgrounds [link to financial aid page]. Our Admissions Office also engages in an energetic outreach program that seeks future Bowdoin students in high schools across the country. These efforts have allowed Bowdoin to achieve significant levels of racial, religious, economic, and geographic diversity, further contributing to the intellectual and cultural vitality of our student population. Not surprisingly given their talents, our students generally do very well in their post-college lives, and many have achieved noteworthy success in the art world. 

One of the great benefits of teaching at Bowdoin is the opportunity for collaboration with students and colleagues across the campus. Many of our courses are cross-listed in other departments or programs, and they draw students from a wide variety of majors. Our relatively small campus setting affords numerous occasions to engage with faculty in other disciplines - encounters that enrich our teaching, our research, and our general intellectual lives. The College offers many further possibilities for such intellectual nourishment, for instance by providing considerable opportunities to fund outside lecturers. The college also offers funding for major symposia (for example: "Inscribing the Body and Gendering the Canon: An Exploration of Women's Art in Contemporary China," a symposium that will take place at Bowdoin in the 2012-13 academic year under the direction of faculty in English and Asian Studies).

The recently-renovated Bowdoin College Museum of Art provides yet another venue for intellectual and cultural activity. Housing a collection whose core objects arrived the College in 1811, the Museum is one of the oldest, largest (over 17,000 objects) and most wide-ranging college art collections in North America. Each year the Museum hosts a number of significant exhibitions, of which the current display of ancient Chinese bronzes is an excellent example [link]. Taken together, the major exhibitions and the wealth of the Museum's permanent collection offer countless opportunities for teaching directly from objects. We often work closely with museum staff on collaborations ranging from small-scale undertakings to ambitious curatorial projects.

Research and teaching are equally valued at Bowdoin and faculty are expected to excel at both. We all have active and productive research agendas. Small class sizes and the 2/2 teaching load help make this possible. In addition, Bowdoin provides annual funds for faculty travel as well as competitive funds for research, travel and course development. There is also a junior faculty sabbatical leave program, granting faculty leave from teaching to pursue in-depth research, usually during the fourth year of employment. This affords an opportunity to make significant strides in research prior to tenure. The college has recently instituted generous post-tenure sabbatical policies as well, creating a new opportunity for sabbatic leave in the second year after tenure and compressing the time between sabbaticals to every sixth year (i.e. after five years of teaching service).

The Location

Bowdoin is located on a beautiful 110-acre campus in Brunswick, Maine   a town of 20,000 that serves as the gateway to the mid-coast region. Brunswick features a welcoming environment for raising families, as well as an array of cultural resources, including galleries, theaters, independent bookstores and restaurants. Several other colleges are nearby (Bates, Colby, and the University of Southern Maine), adding to the region's cultural offerings. The area is also known for its great natural beauty, with beaches, shoreline, forests, and mountains a short drive (or in some cases even a short bike ride) away. 

One-half hour south is Portland, Maine, the state's largest metropolis (75,000) and its cultural mecca. Portland is a lively city with theatre companies, art galleries, bookstores, a symphony, and an art museum . It has also achieved widespread recognition as a home of talented chefs, and features an astonishing array of restaurants serving an equally broad range of cuisine. 

Boston is a relatively easy day trip away, and can be reached by car or bus from Brunswick in roughly two and a half hours. Amtrak will soon extend their "Downeaster" train service to Brunswick, promising several round-trip trains between Boston and Brunswick starting in the fall of 2012. The station from which these trains will depart is an easy walk from the center of Bowdoin's campus. 

For trips somewhat farther afield, we generally make use of the Portland Jetport, which has direct flights to many northeastern and mid Atlantic states. New York City is particularly well-served, with numerous flight options to all three of the city's airports. 

Bowdoin College is committed to equality through affirmative action and is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage inquiries from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of our college. Bowdoin College does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, creed, color, religion, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, national origin, or disability status in employment, or in our education programs.