Search for the Academic Director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC)

We have opened the search for the Academic Director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC).

The university is now looking for a tenured faculty member to take up this important role. The deadline for applications is end of day on March 14, 2025.

Background

The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre is an Indigenous community and Survivor-facing Centre that works across UBC and throughout BC and Canada to address the settler colonial legacy of residential schools, Indian hospitals, day schools and other policies imposed by Canadian government and churches. The Centre works with partners across British Columbia and Indigenous communities in Canada to facilitate access to records, data, information and support for engaging with legacies of residential schools and colonial policies, in Canada. This work supports teaching, learning and departments and divisions across UBC in reciprocal, community-led research and to implement the UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP).

Work of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre includes:

• Provide support and access for Residential School Survivors and their families to their records and information;
• Engage with Indigenous experts, community and academic collaborators around issues of information and records to ensure that policies, practices, systems and protocols are collaboratively developed with Indigenous community partners;
• Support Indigenous communities to access and record their community narratives of residential and day school, including Indian Hospital experiences, through facilitated access to records, and other supportive actions, including recording oral testimonies;
• Support the collection of materials and oral histories of the residential school Survivors, with a focus on British Columbia;
• Curate residential school records and information in the development of exhibitions and resources that support education, research, and public engagement;
• Facilitate meaningful and critical dialogue, host and convene conversations on subjects of importance and relevance to the residential school policy and settler colonialism in Canada

Responsibilities

The Academic Director will provide academic and administrative leadership to the IRSHDC. This role will function in part, as a content expert and will guide the Centre’s work and planning. Duties and responsibilities will include the following:

1. Assuring that the Centre serves as a place where Indian residential school Survivors, their families, and their communities can access their records and other relevant materials in a safe, supportive, and respectful environment and that families and those living with intergenerational trauma, visitors, and staff routinely working with traumatic histories are fully supported.
2. Advancing the work of the IRSHDC including: providing strategic direction and oversight to the development of public and educational programming at the Centre, through engagement and partnerships and online, and to ensure the agreements and understandings with Indigenous governance, provincial and federal governance and UBC are current and encourage innovative exchange and address legacies of settler colonialism, through the mandate of the IRSHDC. This includes providing advice on targeted UBC Indigenous initiatives related to the Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP).
3. Engaging, initiating, supporting and convening conversations and dialogues with multiple parties, including Indigenous communities, Survivor communities, organizations, academic partners, government organizations and other emerging partnerships. This role may include advising on innovative strategies and solutions to improve Indigenous rights and self-determination in knowledge systems governance.
4. Partnering with UBC Media Relations and Communications to coordinate and respond to sensitive media requests, especially regarding records, and speaking publicly on behalf of the IRSHDC.

Appointment

The appointment as Academic Director within the IRSHDC is a shared 50% faculty position, with a reporting line to the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President Academic Affairs at UBC Vancouver. The appointment is for five years. The posting is open to all tenured faculty members with a UBC appointment and relevant experience and expertise.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will be a UBC faculty member with outstanding academic credentials and proven leadership and administrative abilities. The incumbent must have a strong external focus and the ability to engage, build and maintain relationships with Survivor and Indigenous communities as well as other local and national centres.

The ideal candidate will have: a strong commitment to excellence in research, learning and service; a strategic, innovative and participatory leadership style; and a proven collaborative management approach.

The successful applicant will have the following characteristics:

• Strategic Thinker: Broad, strategic understanding and vision for developing, focusing and enhancing the IRSHDC and its activities and ensuring alignment with the Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP) and affiliated UBC strategic plans;
• Relationship Building and Engagement: Strong interpersonal and engagement skills. Ability to build and sustain effective relationships with Indigenous Survivors and communities. Ability to work with inter-governmental agencies (e.g. NCTR) on relevant topics and collaborate with internal partners;
• Expertise and Understanding: Understanding of the history of residential and day schools, related records, Indian hospitals, child welfare system, and community narratives. Maintaining a research agenda related to relevant topics would be ideal.
• Leadership Skills: An effective and resourceful leader; team-oriented and collaborative with the ability to build consensus;
• Advocacy and Support: Ability to support and inform Indigenous advisory committees, and create a culturally safe space to foster and support respectful relations. Strong advocate for enabling access to records.
• Media Relations: Comfort with and ability to speak publicly on sensitive topics, especially concerning media requests advocating for Survivors of residential schools, Indian hospitals and child welfare.

Applications

Interested candidates are invited to submit a statement of interest that addresses the above points, a curriculum vitae, and the names of three referees by end of day March 14, 2025:

• Dr. Tricia Logan, Tricia.Logan@ubc.ca
• Dr. Janice Stewart, Janice.Stewart@ubc.ca

All correspondence will be treated in strict confidence. Interested parties are encouraged to contact us with any enquiries. The position has an anticipated start date of April 15, 2025; however, the start date is flexible.

Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Métis, Inuit, or Indigenous person.