Trinity has begun advertising an Associate Professorship in Sociology, which will focus on the school’s new Black Studies module.
The module was created in June after students in College produced a petition for Trinity to establish a Black Studies module, following the debate on racial education in Ireland.
The module will be the second of its kind in the country. At the time, the authors of the petition issued a statement on social media that they have met with Provost Patrick Prendergast and have his support.
On their LinkedIn page, Trinity are advertising the position of part-time Assistant Professorship in Sociology, in the area of Black Studies to join the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy.
An elective module in Black Studies may be available to students at Trinity from Hilary term of 2021, according to a post from a campaign group advocating for the module.
College have emphasized in the application will have “responsibility for the design and implementation of a Black Studies elective module for undergraduate students”, which will be run each term for the duration of the contract as a Trinity elective.
A “Trinity elective” is the new system introduced in 2019 which allows students to study a module outside of the subject area of their course.
The petition, which first sparked debate on the topic, was written and launched by rising Junior Sophister students Jennifer Waters and Claire Stalhuth. It states that the desire for a Black Studies module stems from a need for “direct implementation [of racial education] in our classrooms with our students”, and that current Trinity engagement is “not enough”.
The petition further states that “The fact that people are individually tasked with unlearning their racism and are educating themselves on white privilege is proof that our academic institutions have failed us.”
