Description
The Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) Community Leader in Residence (CLR) position serves to bridge the College of Charleston and the greater Charleston community in a knowledge-based partnership. Recommended by the WGS Student Advisory Committee as a strategy to support student leadership development, the CLR will advise student leaders in WGS through workshops and one-on-one mentoring to develop strategies for disrupting and dismantling local systems of oppression. Through rotating one-year appointments, CLRs representing and/or serving marginalized and minoritized populations will help students apply the keystone concepts of the WGS discipline: intersectionality, power, resistance, equity, justice, and advocacy. We aim for this initiative to reflect sustainable, reciprocal partnerships, rippling out into the Charleston and campus communities, strengthening the College’s role as a vital source of ideas and partnerships in Charleston, and across the South. We estimate that the CLR’s work will be approximately 5 hours per week, although this will fluctuate with projects and events as well as with the CLR’s other commitments.
Responsibilities
The CLR is encouraged to build relationships in WGS and across campus, and to challenge and inspire members of the campus community toward deeper understandings in and engagement with pressing issues in Charleston. The duties of the CLR will be determined collaboratively to maximize the expertise and assets of the CLR.
Eligibility Requirements for Community Leader in Residence
• Must be 18 or older
• Must be available for above-referenced responsibilities (some virtual programming is possible)
• Must have documented commitment to leadership on issues relevant to Women’s and Gender Studies as a discipline as well as the City of Charleston/County of Charleston, although these issues may also have national and international application
• Must not be a current full-time CofC student, faculty, or staff member• Must have an interest in working directly with CofC students (faculty and staff)
Application/Nomination process
Application should include a statement of intent (500-750 words), which should offer evidence of a commitment to social issues relevant to Charleston, ideas for working with students, and provisional suggestions for workshops, community forums, and other activities. Please also include a list of three references (minimum) and a resume or C.V.
If individuals have questions or concerns, they can email Aaisha Haykal, Manager of Archival Services at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture and Associate Director of WGS, at haykalan at cofc.edu.