How to Apply
Please submit a single file attachment (PDF) with the following materials:
- Cover letter addressing your interest in this position and your skills and experiences that directly relate to the responsibilities and qualifications described above.
- Current resume or CV, including your teaching history.
- Teaching evaluations: Applicants who have held a GSI or other teaching appointment at U-M or other institutions should attach instructor evaluations from courses previously taught.
- The name and contact information of at least one reference who can comment on your qualifications for this position, including classroom performance and your ability to cultivate an inclusive learning community.
- Applications and supporting materials must be submitted through the U-M jobs website.
Job Summary
This is a limited availability position.
The Comparative Literature department is looking to hire 1 GSI, at a 0.5 appointment, for COMPLIT/PHIL 310: Topics in Literature and Philosophy-Rights and Races. This course fulfills the Race and Ethnicity requirement for undergraduate students.
Course Description
Note: This course is offered in alternate years as PHIL 311/COMPLIT 311.
This course explores the long history through which the concept of race is articulated, which means the history of European racism. And it must do this while at the same time studying the origin of the modern notion of rights, beginning with John Locke and the idea of natural rights (to life and liberty). These two stories dovetail, since the ideal of rights proposed as indelible, equal and universal is announced just as, thanks to colonialism and the rise of the modern European nation State, the world is divided into colonizer and native, citizen and subject. This story will emphasize various concepts of race as they play out in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries and the ways Europe sought to provide explanations of racial difference (inferiority).
Halfway into the semester we turn to the Post-World War II culture and politics of humanitarianism. This includes the expansion of kind and character of human rights, including group rights and substantive rights. Second, a fundamentally new form of justice which is confessional and forgiving rather than retributive. Third, the response to genocide. Here we turn to Canada and Australia and their attempts to breed out the Aboriginal from the indigenous person through the forced extraction of indigenous children and their reeducation as European menials. Fourth, the issue of global humanitarian organizations, most centrally the United Nations and the World Court, and the problem of humanitarian intervention. Here the example will be the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Only at the end of the course, after the long and tumultuous history of racism is grasped, will we turn to the philosopher's question: Is there a viable concept of race today? Or are groups earlier targeted as races better understood ethnically. Or through some creative combination of both these concepts.
Class Schedule
310-001 Monday lectures 4-6 PM (GSI attendance required)
Discussion Sections (note each GSI teaches two sections, one on Wednesdays and one on Fridays)
310-002 Friday 2-4 PM
310-003 Wednesday 2-4 PM
310-004 Friday 2-4 PM
310-005 Wednesday 2-4 PM
Responsibilities*
Lead two discussion sections, one on Wednesdays and one Fridays (2-4PM); attend Monday lectures (4-6 PM), hold weekly office hours for individual consultation with students; evaluate student writing; meet once a week with professor and GSI team for course planning (time to be arranged). Attend GSI training, scheduled for Thursday, August 21, 2025.
Required Qualifications*
- To be appointed as a GSI or GSSA, a graduate student must be in good standing in their degree program and be registered for at least six (6) credit hours for the fall term. With written approval of the student's faculty advisor, five (5) credit hours may be acceptable.
Desired Qualifications*
- General interest in issues of race, ethnicity, and human rights
- LSA student enrolled in a graduate program
Modes of Work
Positions that are eligible for hybrid or mobile/remote work mode are at the discretion of the hiring department. Work agreements are reviewed annually at a minimum and are subject to change at any time, and for any reason, throughout the course of employment. Learn more about the work modes.
Contact Information
For additional information, please contact the Comparative Literature office by email [email protected].
Decision Making Process
All applications will be forwarded to the Comparative Literature Department Chair and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for final selection and approval. Once final candidate(s) are selected, offer letter(s) will be authorized. We hope to extend offer(s) by 08/01/2025. You may request the status of your application by contacting Julie Burnett at [email protected]. For the Fall 2023 term GSI appointments for this course, we received 18 applications for 2 positions (no positions were posted for COMPLIT 310 in the Fall 2024 term).
Selection Process
1) Enrollment demand, 2) Faculty preference, 3) Relevant experience, 4) External applicants only if unfilled by Comparative Literature GSI.
GEO Contract Information
The University will not discriminate against any applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, marital status, familial status, parental status or pregnancy status, sex, gender identity or expression (whether actual or perceived), sexual orientation, age, height, weight, disability, citizenship status, veteran status, HIV antibody status, political belief, membership in any social or political organization, participation in a grievance or complaint whether formal or informal, medical conditions including those related to pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, arrest record, or any other factor where the item in question will not interfere with job performance and where the employee is otherwise qualified. The University of Michigan agrees to abide by the protections afforded employees with disabilities as outlined in the rules and regulations which implement Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Information for the Office for Institutional Equity may be found at https://oie.umich.edu/ and for the University Ombuds at https://ombuds.umich.edu/
Unsuccessful applications will be retained for consideration in the event that there are last minute openings for available positions. In the event that an employee does not receive their preferred assignment, they can request a written explanation or an in-person interview with the hiring agents(s) to be scheduled at a mutually agreed upon time.
This position, as posted, is subject to a collective bargaining agreement between the Regents of the University of Michigan and the Graduate Employees' Organization, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO 3550.
Standard Practice Guide 601.38, Required Disclosure of Felony Charges and/or Felony Convictions applies to all Graduate Student Assistants (GSAs). SPG 601.38 may be accessed online at https://spg.umich.edu/policy/601.38 , and its relation to your employment can be found in MOU 10 of your employment contract.
U-M EEO Statement
The University of Michigan is an equal employment opportunity employer.