Dean: School of Intercultural Studies

Job Description

Job Description:\n\nDescription:\n \nWilliam Carey International University seeks a distinguished Christian scholar, intercultural practitioner, missional thinker, and globally experienced academic leader to serve as Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU. \n\nThe Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU serves as the chief academic and administrative leader of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU and provides intellectual, missional, strategic, and organizational leadership for academic disciplines concerned with cultures, peoples, mission, global Christianity, language, migration, diaspora communities, refugees, intercultural communication, and cross-cultural engagement. \n\nThe Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU will cultivate an internationally engaged academic community that equips reflective scholar-practitioners to interpret cultures carefully, engage diverse communities respectfully, conduct rigorous intercultural research, and participate faithfully in God's mission throughout the world. \n\nThe Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU will bring theology, missiology, cultural anthropology, migration studies, language, history, social sciences, and applied intercultural practice into meaningful academic conversation. \n\nThe Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU will steward WCIU's commitment to global and missional education while positioning the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU to make significant scholarly contributions to contemporary questions involving global Christianity, migration, contextualization, diaspora, language, intercultural leadership, and the Missio Dei. \n\n Academic Scope of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIUDepartment of Global and Intercultural Engagement\nWithin the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU, the Dean will provide leadership for scholarship and programs addressing:\n· Intercultural studies\n· Missiology\n· Global Christianity\n· Frontier missiology\n· Cultural anthropology\n· Contextualization\n· Cross-cultural leadership\n· World Christianity\n· Global and intercultural engagement\n· Mission theology\n· Religious and cultural encounters\nDepartment of Language and Professional Communication\nWithin the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU, the Dean will promote programs and scholarship related to:\n· TESOL\n· Language learning and teaching\n· Intercultural communication\n· Professional communication\n· Language and culture\n· Communication across cultural boundaries\n· Linguistic dimensions of global service and leadership\nDepartment of Migration and Refugee Studies\nWithin the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU, the Dean will advance interdisciplinary education and research addressing:\n· Migration\n· Forced displacement\n· Refugee studies\n· Diaspora communities\n· Humanitarian response\n· Resettlement and integration\n· Migration policy\n· Cultural adaptation\n· Advocacy\n· Church and community engagement with displaced populations\nEssential Duties and Responsibilities1. Strategic and Missional Academic Leadership\n\n Establish a compelling intellectual and missional vision for the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU.\n Develop strategic priorities aligned with WCIU's mission, vision, and academic standards.\n Position the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU as an influential center for intercultural, missiological, migration, and global Christian scholarship.\n Foster rigorous interdisciplinary engagement among theology, anthropology, missiology, history, migration studies, language, and related disciplines.\n Identify emerging global realities requiring academic attention.\n Ensure programs prepare students to engage cultures without reducing cultural complexity to simplistic assumptions.\n Promote scholarly inquiry characterized by cultural humility and intellectual rigor.\n Advise the Provost concerning opportunities in international and intercultural education.\n2. Curriculum and Academic Program Leadership\n\n Provide oversight for all academic programs assigned to the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU.\n Lead development and review of certificates, master's degrees, doctoral programs, and other approved offerings.\n Ensure curricula reflect current intercultural theory, research, global realities, and Christian theological reflection.\n Promote appropriate integration of anthropology, theology, missiology, language, history, migration studies, and social-scientific research.\n Ensure advanced graduate and doctoral programs demonstrate appropriate research rigor.\n Lead curriculum mapping, learning-outcome development, assessment, and continuous improvement.\n Identify opportunities for interdisciplinary and international programs.\n Ensure academic programs reflect global perspectives while remaining attentive to local contexts.\n3. Faculty Recruitment and Development\n\n Recruit distinguished scholars and scholar-practitioners with strong disciplinary and intercultural expertise.\n Develop an internationally informed faculty capable of serving globally diverse students.\n Mentor and evaluate Department Chairs assigned to the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU.\n Oversee annual faculty evaluation and professional development.\n Promote high-quality teaching in online graduate education.\n Encourage faculty research, publication, conference presentation, and professional service.\n Support scholarly collaboration across cultures and disciplines.\n Encourage faculty engagement with global scholarly communities.\n Develop emerging academic leaders within the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU.\n4. Research and Scholarly Leadership\nThe Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU will cultivate a research culture capable of making significant contributions to intercultural and missiological scholarship.\n\n Promote original research in intercultural studies, global Christianity, missiology, migration, diaspora studies, anthropology, language, and related disciplines.\n Support qualitative, ethnographic, historical, theological, and interdisciplinary research methodologies where appropriate.\n Encourage faculty and student publication.\n Strengthen doctoral research culture where applicable.\n Develop international research collaborations.\n Encourage scholarship that listens carefully to voices beyond dominant Western academic traditions.\n Promote ethical research among migrant, refugee, diaspora, minority, and vulnerable populations.\n Support scholarship that contributes both to academic knowledge and faithful practice.\n5. Missio Dei and Faith-Learning Integration\nThe Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU will provide intellectual leadership for engagement with the Missio Dei as a significant theological framework for the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU.\n\n Encourage rigorous biblical and theological reflection on God's mission in the world.\n Help students distinguish biblical conviction from cultural assumptions.\n Encourage contextual approaches to theology, ministry, mission, leadership, and community engagement.\n Promote respect for the dignity, history, and agency of peoples and cultures.\n Cultivate theological humility in intercultural encounters.\n Encourage scholarship that examines Christianity as a global and culturally diverse faith.\n6. International and Strategic Partnerships\n\n Develop relationships with universities, seminaries, churches, mission organizations, NGOs, refugee-serving organizations, research centers, and international Christian networks.\n Establish academic partnerships that expand educational access and scholarly collaboration.\n Identify opportunities for international cohorts and cooperative academic initiatives.\n Develop appropriate faculty and scholar exchanges.\n Promote reciprocal relationships rather than one-directional institutional partnerships.\n Ensure proposed international partnerships satisfy academic, accreditation, financial, and mission requirements.\n Represent the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU in international academic and missional settings as assigned by the Provost.\n7. Migration, Refugee, and Diaspora Engagement\n\n Encourage research and academic programs addressing contemporary patterns of human mobility.\n Promote academically rigorous engagement with refugee and migration issues.\n Ensure teaching recognizes legal, social, cultural, theological, psychological, economic, and humanitarian dimensions of displacement.\n Cultivate partnerships with organizations serving migrants and refugees.\n Encourage exploration of the role of diaspora communities in global Christianity and intercultural engagement.\n Promote culturally respectful approaches to research and service involving displaced populations.\n8. Enrollment and Global Reach\n\n Collaborate with Enrollment to develop recruitment strategies appropriate to the global audience of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU.\n Build enrollment pipelines through churches, mission organizations, ministries, NGOs, universities, and international partners.\n Monitor enrollment, retention, persistence, completion, and student achievement.\n Identify educational needs of globally dispersed scholar-practitioners.\n Develop programs responsive to changing global ministry and intercultural realities.\n Ensure expansion is supported by appropriate faculty capacity and academic resources.\n9. Accreditation and Institutional Effectiveness\n\n Ensure compliance with applicable institutional accreditation requirements and WCIU policies.\n Lead systematic program assessment and continuous improvement.\n Maintain appropriate documentation of faculty credentials, curriculum oversight, student achievement, and academic effectiveness.\n Ensure graduate and doctoral education maintains appropriate academic rigor.\n Participate in institutional accreditation reviews and applicable change applications.\n Collaborate with the Provost and Compliance on regulatory and academic quality matters.\n10. Budget and Resource Stewardship\n\n Develop and administer the annual budget for the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU.\n Align staffing and course scheduling with enrollment and program priorities.\n Evaluate financial sustainability of academic programs and partnerships.\n Identify grants, research funding, and appropriate external resources.\n Recommend strategic investments to the Provost.\n Exercise responsible stewardship of WCIU resources.\n11. University Leadership\n\n Serve as an active member of WCIU's academic leadership team.\n Collaborate with fellow Deans and University leaders.\n Advise the Provost on international, intercultural, and missional matters.\n Support University-wide strategic initiatives.\n Promote constructive faculty governance and academic collaboration.\n Represent the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU to internal and external constituencies.\n\nTeaching and Scholarly Engagement\nThe Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU is expected to maintain active intellectual engagement with fields represented within the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU.\nThe Dean may teach within the Dean's field of expertise as assigned by the Provost, taking into consideration administrative responsibilities.\nFaith and Mission Integration\nThe Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU shall:\n\n Demonstrate a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.\n Support WCIU's Statement of Faith.\n Model Christ-centered servant leadership.\n Engage the Missio Dei with theological depth and scholarly rigor.\n Promote Christian scholarship that respects the dignity and cultural particularity of peoples throughout the world.\n Encourage intercultural humility, listening, hospitality, reconciliation, and faithful witness.\n Cultivate an academic environment in the School of Intercultural Studies at WCIU in which theological conviction and serious intercultural inquiry strengthen one another.\n Prepare graduates to serve across cultural boundaries with wisdom, courage, humility, and integrity.\nRequirements:\n\n Agreement with WCIU’s Statement of Faith: \n A demonstrated, vibrant Christian faith compatible with the mission of William Carey International University.\nEducation\n\n Earned doctorate from an appropriately accredited institution in intercultural studies, missiology, cultural anthropology, world Christianity, migration studies, theology, international studies, global studies, or a closely related discipline.\nExperience\n\n Significant successful higher education teaching experience.\n Progressive academic leadership experience.\n Demonstrated international or substantial intercultural experience.\n Evidence of scholarly achievement appropriate to the discipline.\n Experience in curriculum development and academic assessment.\n Demonstrated ability to lead culturally diverse faculty and students.\n Strong understanding of intercultural theory and research.\n Excellent strategic, interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.\n\nPreferred Qualifications\n\n Academic record appropriate for appointment at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor.\n Five or more years of progressively responsible academic leadership experience.\n Previous service as Dean, Associate Dean, Department Chair, Program Director, or equivalent.\n Significant international living, teaching, ministry, professional, or research experience.\n Record of peer-reviewed publication.\n Experience supervising graduate or doctoral research.\n Expertise in qualitative, ethnographic, intercultural, or missiological research.\n Experience developing international academic partnerships.\n Proficiency in a language other than English.\n Experience with online graduate and doctoral education.\n Experience with accreditation and institutional effectiveness.\nCore Leadership Competencies\n\n Intercultural Intelligence - Demonstrates sophisticated understanding of culture and the ability to lead across cultural differences.\n Missiological Discernment - Integrates theological conviction, scholarship, cultural insight, and faithful participation in God's mission.\n Global Academic Leadership - Builds scholarly communities and partnerships across national and cultural boundaries.\n Contextualization - Understands the dynamic relationship among Scripture, theology, culture, language, and context.\n Scholarly Excellence - Promotes rigorous research, publication, graduate scholarship, and intellectual contribution.\n Cultural Humility - Demonstrates listening, curiosity, self-awareness, and respect in intercultural relationships.\n Faculty Development - Recruits and develops outstanding scholars and emerging academic leaders.\n Christian Servant Leadership - Leads with humility, integrity, courage, theological wisdom, and commitment to service.\n\nWorking Conditions and Physical Requirements \n\n Work at a desk in an office or home-office setting; Sit at an office desk for extended periods of time.\n Work for extended periods of time at a computer, requiring the ability to send and