Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance - VCUarts

Benefits

All full-time university staff are eligible for VCU’s robust benefits package that includes comprehensive health benefits, paid annual and holiday leave granted up front, generous tuition benefits, retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources, abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and more.

School Of The Arts MBU

Dean's Office Arts

Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts

August 2, 2026

10 months (August 2 through May 30). It is anticipated that the Chair will serve for a period of up to five years, with the option to serve as Chair for an additional period of up to three years. Upon completion of the leadership appointment, the Chair will be provided with a 9-month faculty position in their area of expertise. A semester-long research reassignment will be provided after the Chair appointment ends to facilitate a return to teaching.

Associate/full Professor

Expedited tenure review is available to streamline the university's tenure decisions for new faculty hires who were already tenured at their previous institution and is potentially available to a new Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance who has been a tenured Full or Associate Professor at their previous institution.

Commensurate with experience. Generous benefits available.

Richmond, Virginia

Applications materials are due November 24, 2025.

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts (VCUarts) is excited to announce an opportunity for an impactful, visionary, and collaboration-oriented academic leader to serve as the inaugural Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, pending approval of the department by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). A key position in the School of the Arts, the Department Chair reports to the Senior Director of the Performing Arts Group and the Dean and is supported by academic and administrative staff.

The Chair serves as a mentor to faculty colleagues, collaborates with administrative leaders and staff members, and advocates for the department from a perspective that considers the best overall interests of the School as well as the department. The Chair leads faculty in important processes that shape the curriculum that has an impact on student learning as well as the research activities of the faculty.

The Chair strives to effectively articulate both the department and the School’s missions to internal and external constituencies, and establishes a welcoming academic environment that encourages engagement, participation, collegiality, and respect.

Pending approval by SCHEV, the Department of Theatre and Dance currently occupies several buildings and performance spaces including the W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, VCU Dance Center, The Depot Annex, Grace Street Theatre, and the Shafer Street Playhouse. More information about performance spaces can be found.

The Department will move to the CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation (CCAI) in late 2027. The CCAI, currently under construction, will feature flexible classroom spaces, interdisciplinary performance venues and makerspaces for rapidly growing partnerships across arts, business, humanities and sciences, medicine and engineering.

Theatre and Dance have a collective enrollment of more than 300 students and are recognized leaders in performing arts education. It is expected that the Department of Theatre and Dance will receive the necessary approvals needed to function as a single department by the start of the  academic year. The Department of Theatre and Dance will continue to grant the program-specific degrees currently granted by the two programs and it will maintain the curricula unique to those programs.

Theatre grants an MFA in Theatre with a concentration in pedagogy/performance, a BA in Theatre, and a BFA in Theatre with concentrations in costume design,…