Open vacancies

Theatre Academy Helsinki is a performing arts university offering a wide range of education in theatre and dance. It has some 430 students and a staff of 140.
 
Theatre Academy Helsinki invites applications for a

Professorship in Performance Art and Theory
(teaching-focused position)

for a fixed term from 1 August 2013 to 31 July 2018. 

The professor will lead and develop the MA Degree Programme in Live Art and Performance Studies, follow developments in the field and provide teaching based on them. The professor will also participate in international and community interaction. The appointee’s duties will include development and various administrative activities at Theatre Academy Helsinki and the future Art University.

POSITION OVERVIEW        

Theatre Academy Helsinki is an international performing arts school and a bold and ambitious driver of change in the fields of art it represents. It is a pioneer in artistic research, a pedagogical reformer and an intermediary between art and society.

The MA Degree Programme in Live Art and Performance Studies is a meeting place for students with a basic training in various fields of art. It is designed for art students with experience in live art and performance art who are interested in performance studies and willing to develop their research skills alongside their artistic work. The language of instruction in the programme is English.

The objective of the programme is to develop forward-looking artists familiar with tradition who can create new kinds of live art and performance art on the contemporary art scene and engage in the international performance studies discourse. The purpose is to establish an interesting and productive relationship between theory and practice and to combine critical thinking and open-minded experimentation in both artistic work and practice-based research.

The position and its location
The Professorship in Performance Art and Theory is based at the Department of Theatre and Drama, which also employs four other professors, two university lecturers and fifteen lecturers.  The professor of performance art and theory is responsible for the international MA Degree Programme in Live Art and Performance Studies (LAPS), which admits four to six students every other year.

The appointment will be for five years beginning 1 August 2013. According to Section 4, Subsection 2 of the Theatre Academy’s Regulations, positions requiring artistic renewal shall be filled for a fixed term of at most five years at a time. The salary of a professor shall be based on the salary system of Finnish universities and decided when the employment contract is drawn up.

The professor will lead and develop the MA Degree Programme in Live Art and Performance Studies, follow developments in the field and provide teaching based on them. The professor will also participate in social and international interaction. The appointee’s duties will include development and various administrative activities at Theatre Academy Helsinki and the future Art University. Specific duties will be agreed in the work plan for each academic year. 

Required qualifications and skills
According to Section 33 of the Universities Act (No 558/2009), a professor shall carry out and supervise scientific or artistic work, provide education based on it, follow developments in science or art and participate in community interaction and international cooperation in his or her field.

According to Section 4, Subsection 3 of the Administrative Regulations of Theatre Academy Helsinki, an appointee to a teaching-focused professorship shall have artistic qualifications, practical knowledge of the artistic sector and good teaching skills. Artistic qualifications encompass artistic merits, training and work experience.

Provisions on required proficiency in the Finnish and Swedish languages are laid down in Government Decree No 770/2009. Under Section 4, Subsection 8 of the Administrative Regulations of Theatre Academy Helsinki, holders of teaching and research positions must be proficient in the language in which they provide instruction, in other words, English.

To successfully complete the duties of the Professorship in Performance Art and Theory, applicants must have knowledge of the international field of performance art and live art as well as familiarity with the international academic discipline of performance studies.

The professor must also be familiar with combining art and research as well as have good interaction skills. Pedagogical skills and training, experience in international cooperation and collaboration between art universities as well as an applicable doctoral degree will be considered assets.

Teaching skills
Teaching skills encompass the qualifications obtained in teaching positions, pedagogical training and work experience. Statements on a demonstration of teaching skills, if given, will also be considered.

Assessors
The Universities Act stipulates that Theatre Academy Helsinki must request statements on the qualifications and merits of applicants from at least two assessors. The Rector selects the assessors at the proposal of the Recruitment Council.

Selection of the professor
The Rector appoints the professor for a fixed-term position at the proposal of the Recruitment Council. The selection process will focus on comparing the applicants’ merits with the required qualifications and skills. The assessment must be based on application documents, the assessors’ statements, any other statements requested by the Recruitment Council (e.g., statements on teaching skills) as well as interviews. Particular attention will be paid to the applicants’ ability to successfully complete the duties outlined in the job advertisement. Sections 27–29 of the Administrative Procedure Act will apply to the recruitment process.

How to apply
Applications must be accompanied by the following material:

1. A curriculum vitae
2. A list of publications
3. Up to three copies of any written work and publications; each piece of written work or publication must be submitted in three copies
4. One or two DVDs of the applicant’s artistic works that are most relevant to the position; maximum duration of the DVDs is two hours, and each DVD must be submitted in three copies.

Applications, together with the required enclosures, must be submitted to the Registry of Theatre Academy Helsinki, P.O. Box 163 (Haapaniemenkatu 6), 00531 Helsinki, Finland and arrive by Friday, 25 May 2012. The applications and their enclosures will not be returned.

Enquiries
Further information about the position may be obtained from Rector Paula Tuovinen, tel. +358 40 583 8549, paula.tuovinen@teak.fi, and about the appointment process from Laura Jännes, Head of Personnel Affairs, tel. +358 400 792 043, laura.jannes@teak.fi.