Updated November 9, 2023: Due to a recent change in bylaws to align the Conference Chair position with our biennial schedule, and a seat vacated by the winner of last year’s Public Engagement Officer election, our usual schedule of electing two EC members per year has been disrupted. Therefore, we are also adding two at-large seats to the candidate call, and extending the deadline for nominations to November 29. The election will run online from December 1 to December 23, 2023. Please see more details below.
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ASLE is a nonprofit professional association with a dynamic membership and one dedicated, part-time professional staff member. ASLE thrives because of the commitment of its members to carrying out our work; therefore we invite our members to sustain this vital work and to shape our future by considering serving in an elected or appointed position.
The next several years involve implementing our Strategic Plan, as well as continuing to support our core mission and programs. If you would like to nominate yourself or another ASLE member for one of these positions, please contact us at info@asle.org.
This fall, ASLE will hold elections for:
- President or Co-Presidents
- two designated Executive Council seats:
Public Engagement Officer (two-year term due to vacated seat in 2023)
Conference Chair (for 2025 conference) - two At-Large Executive Council seats
- Graduate Student Liaison (junior)
Members with interests and strengths in areas of work of strategic importance are particularly encouraged to run or apply. Online voting will be conducted during the month of December. Candidate statements for elected office (300-500 words) are due by extended deadline of November 29, 2023.
In addition, we seek applicants for these key appointed positions:
- ASLE Mentoring Co-Coordinator
- ASLE Grants Coordinator
- International Liaison
- MLA Liaison
Applications are due by extended deadline of November 29, 2023, and should include a letter of application stating reasons for interest and relevant experience and skills, and a CV or resume. Please send all candidate or application materials, via email as PDF or Word attachments, to info@asle.org. Feel free to inquire if you have any questions about the offices, duties or statements; job descriptions are below.
ELECTED POSITIONS
President or Co-Presidents (Term: 2024-2026)
The President(s) will serve for two years. The President(s) will also serve on the executive of the Association for a third year as Immediate Past President(s).
Responsibilities:
- Further the strategic work of the organization, including strategic planning on regular cycles as mandated by the bylaws.
- Cultivate and maintain relationships with funders, potential funders, and institutional co-applicants for major grants.
- Cultivate and maintain relationships with existing and emergent collaboratives and non-academic partners, for example, intergovernmental agencies and coalitions, culture sector entities and organizations. Pursue, with ASLE affiliates worldwide, opportunities for furthering environmental humanities participation in shaping conversations pertaining to the ecological and social crises of our times.
- With the MD and others, including legal counsel as appropriate, develop and regularly review policies and memos of agreement with project collaborators and/or partners to ensure fairness and transparency in use of ASLE’s name and endorsements for conferences, events, and affiliations.
- Collaborate with the Conference Chair and committee to infuse strategic priorities into the conference program.
- Appoint non-elected coordinators and officers to vacant positions, upon approval by majority vote of the Executive Council.
- Supervise the operations of ASLE in a judicious and diligent manner.
- Meet regularly with the Managing Director of the Association.
- Set agenda for Retreat with MD and VP, with VP leading on logistics
- Make recommendations for strategic allocation of funds to Treasurer and MD, ahead of preparation of budget, and present budget and rationale to EC.
- Preside at meetings of the ASLE officers, Executive Council, and the general membership
- Report to the general membership on the state of the Association
- Represent the Association and its purposes to other organizations and the general public.
In voting by the Executive Council, the President(s) will vote only to break a tie.
The Immediate Past President(s) will assist the President and Vice President in managing ASLE projects in support of the Association’s mission and to advance the Strategic Plan. The IPP may be called upon to initiate special projects and appoint ad-hoc committees. The IPP does have full voting privileges.
Executive Council: Public Engagement Officer Seat (two-year term due to vacated seat in 2023: 2024-2025)
The Executive Council (EC) is the primary policy-making body of the Association. The EC reviews programming, procedures, and policies of the Association regularly and revises them as needed to meet the Association’s mission most effectively. EC members are expected to participate in (recently held virtually) the EC retreat held in non-conference years, and attend the EC meeting during biennial conference years.
In the Strategic Plan, ASLE officers decided to designate several EC positions to carry out particular core functions of the organization. One of these designations in our revised bylaws is the Public Engagement Officer. Because this position is relatively new and could encompass a wide range of possibilities, the PEO could hone in on one or more area of emphasis, examples are below. Please note, these are areas of possible focus for the PEO included in the Strategic Plan, and are not a list of job duties!
Emphasize public writing and equip members to do it; examples include:
- Develop new programming and digital spaces to help ASLE members and groups make their own work more visible
- Use existing tools (the website and social media) to more effectively promote members’ work and public projects
- Provide opportunities for members to learn to write effectively for the public
- Establish a network of ASLE members to provide training for other members.
Help ASLE to achieve the goal of increasing public humanities engagements between members and grassroots community groups, non-profits, agencies, NGOs, and funders; examples include:
- Organizing pre-conference workshop(s) on public engagement appropriate for new or aspiring practitioners.
- Organizing workshops / convenings for practitioners of different levels of experience to deepen and mutually support work in the academy.
- Promoting advocacy and activist panels at all conferences, remote, in-person, and regional
- Developing relationships with funders for higher education and also local and regional funders for public health, environmental justice, inclusive placemaking, responsive philanthropy.
- Looking at interdisciplinary projects like University of Idaho’s Confluence Lab, PPEH, LENS as examples, and put out a call for others who are doing work like this, working with regional leaders and collaboratories and featuring their work on the ASLE website
Helm efforts to develop or use existing tools to help ASLE members and groups make their own work more visible, providing opportunities to learn effective public writing, and establishing a network of training. Possible methods include:
- Provide support to members with guidelines about publicizing work by providing a PR document on the website and updating the press kit on the website
- Create a concrete list of experts to post on the website (E.g, experts in indigenous studies, environmental justice, ecomedia, climate change communication, food, vegan studies) for media and for collaborative work
- Send out regional press releases about the conference, off-year symposiums, and collaboratories
- Publicize specific public-facing panels at the conference, off-year symposiums, and collaboratories
- Pitch themed series to national publications
- Post guidelines on how to pitch and develop templates for different types of series or posts (e.g., interviews, book reviews)
- Make lists of publications and contacts
- Organize the ASLE website to foreground information for media
- Organize workshops at conferences about public communication
- Highlight public pedagogies and develop the teaching resources database on the site
- Research grants for public science, environmental writing
- Cultivate relationships with EH series editors and create opportunities for ASLE members to interact with them
Executive Council: Conference Chair Seat (Term: 2024-2025, plus one year as Immediate Past Conference Chair)
The Executive Council (EC) is the primary policy-making body of the Association. The EC reviews programming, procedures, and policies of the Association regularly and revises them as needed to meet the Association’s mission most effectively. EC members are expected to participate in (recently held virtually) the EC retreat held in non-conference years, and attend the EC meeting during biennial conference years.
At the 2023 EC meeting in July, officers voted to amend the term of this position to better align with our biennial conference structure. Instead of three years as Conference Chair, the person in the role will serve two years as chair (hence planning a single conference, for this election 2025), and one year as Immediate Past Conference Chair (mainly in an advisory role to the new Conference Chair).
Responsibilities
- Establish a timeline and process for formation of a Conference Committee for the biennial conference; workflow and communication with the EC, managing director, and co-presidents; and for managing contractual obligations (site, hotels, honoraria, etc.).
- Recruit, assemble, chair, and convene the biennial Conference Committee
- Work with the Conference Committee, Regional Collaboratories Officer, and Managing Director to plan and execute the Biennial Conference
- Conference priorities should include:
- Diversity: this is a top priority of the Strategic Plan, so the CC would advance this goal in all aspects of the conference, via the CFP language/theme, program stream topics, keynote speaker selection, site acknowledgements and relationships with/in host communities, etc.
- Accessibility: ensure ASLE meets the highest standards for accessibility in conference spaces, and in delivery of presentations. Methods will include vetting facilities, accommodating A/V needs, considering virtual presentations, providing clear guidance to participants, nametags with preferred pronouns, etc.
- Sustainability: work with the newly appointed Sustainability Officer to mitigate travel impacts and on-site impacts, such as reducing single-use plastic, using composting, catering foods that are local and vegan/vegetarian, etc.
- Participate in the EC retreat held in the spring of non-conference years
- Attend and participate in the EC meeting held just before the biennial conference
- Review the ASLE Strategic Plan, and work with officers to prioritize and implement the goals and action items of the Association
- Participate actively and thoughtfully in ongoing ASLE policy deliberation and decision-making, including all votes called.
The Conference Chair on the Executive Council should have excellent organizational skills, lots of energy and enthusiasm, and experience:
- Working on academic events and programs
- Chairing committees and delegating tasks
- Working with diverse groups of people and skill sets
Executive Council: Two At-Large Seats (Term: 2024-2026)
The Executive Council (EC) is the primary policy-making body of the Association. The EC will review programming, procedures, and policies of the Association regularly and revise them as needed to meet the Association’s purposes most effectively. The EC will meet at least once every calendar year, at the call of the President. Between formal meetings, EC members will be consulted virtually, as necessary. Executive Councilors are charged with representing the interests, issues, and concerns of the multiple constituencies that comprise our member community.
Responsibilities:
- Attend the EC retreat held in the spring of non-conference years, and the EC meeting during the biennial conference
- Review the ASLE Strategic Plan and work with officers to prioritize and implement the goals and action items of the Association
- Participate actively and thoughtfully in ongoing ASLE policy deliberation and decision-making, and participate in EC votes
- Serve on the Conference Committee for the biennial conference
- Serve on at least one other program or administrative committee, such as financial management (budget); personnel evaluation; grants, awards or Spotlight proposal reviews; activism; public engagement projects; social media design and evaluation, etc.
- Help recruit candidates for officer positions, and encourage and facilitate greater involvement in the organization by its members
- Assist with mentoring graduate students and junior faculty as appropriate
Junior Graduate Student Liaison (Term: 2024-2025)
- Work with the Mentoring Coordinators, ASLE officers and coordinators, and ASLE members to organize panels, workshops, and other professionalization/ mentoring/social events for graduate students and junior academics at the ASLE Biennial Conference
- Develop material pertinent to graduate students and graduate study for the ASLE website
- Work on initiatives for undergraduate students as appropriate
- Manage the ASLE Graduate Student Facebook page and other student-related social media outlets
- Provide virtual and physical forums for discussion between GSLs and ASLE graduate student members, including the Graduate Student Interest Group Meeting at the ASLE Biennial Conference
- Stay up-to-date on professionalization, graduate studies, and graduate student trends, challenges, and opportunities beyond ASLE to better serve our member community
- Answer inquiries from ASLE student members or other interested parties
APPOINTED POSITIONS
Mentoring Program Co-Coordinator (Term: Three years)
Note: Megan Kaminski (University of Kansas) was recently appointed as a Mentoring Co-Coordinator, and we are seeking a person with scholarly/critical writing expertise to balance her expertise in creative writing.
The Mentoring Coordinator(s) will serve for three years, at which time they will be reviewed for possible reappointment by the current president. The primary purpose of the ASLE Mentoring Program is to offer graduate students and early career scholars career guidance and other forms of professional support.
Responsibilities:
- Match graduate students and junior scholars who apply to the program with experienced mentors best suited to help them succeed in their goals.
- Actively recruit mentors to assist mentees. In recent years, there has been an increase in international applicants, so finding appropriate mentors for them is a priority.
- Sponsor individual meetups at the biennial ASLE conference
- Organize programming designed for graduate students and junior scholars on relevant topics (e.g. dissertation committees, the job market, surviving and thriving in early career tenure-track and precarious academic positions, and careers outside of the academy). This can include co-sponsored sessions at the biennial conference, and/or online workshops and virtual events.
ASLE Grants Coordinator (Term: Three years)
The ASLE Grants Coordinator will serve for at least three years, and can extend the term upon review and mutual agreement with the EC. ASLE currently offers two types of grants: translation grants and subvention grants, which share a combined pool of $5000 in funding and are offered in non-conference years. The Grants Coordinator will administer the various aspects of both programs, and work with the Managing Director to disburse funding.
Responsibilities:
- Constitute a review committee of 3-7 people that jointly evaluates all the submissions for translation and subvention grants. Because of the centrality of languages for the translation grants, half of committee members should be fluent in another language in addition to English.
- Set a timetable for release of call for submissions, deadline for submissions, and deadline for committee decisions, and make sure all involved adhere to it.
- Revise and release, in coordination with the Managing Director, the call for submissions in ASLE networks.
- Distribute all proposals to review committee, and gather their rankings and feedback. Arrange a meeting or discussion to resolve final decisions if there is not consensus on which proposals should be funded.
- Communicate final decisions on grants to the committee, grantees, and submitters who were not funded. Work with Managing Director to distribute grant processing and reporting paperwork.
- Follow up at the end of the grant period with successful grantees to collect their final grant reports.
International Liaison (Term: Three years)
The International Liaison is a non-voting appointed position. The ASLE International Liaison will serve for three years, at which time they will be reviewed for possible reappointment by the current president. The role of the International Liaison is to serve as a contact for and provide assistance to international groups and individuals who are affiliated with or wish to collaborate with ASLE. Duties for this position include the following:
- Organize and head the International Membership Grants Committee, which reviews applications for ASLE’s International Membership Grants (funding for two-year membership grants).
- Work with the ASLE Mentoring Co-Coordinators to solicit and identify international members willing to mentor graduate students. The Mentoring Program has seen a large uptick in international students seeking mentorship.
- Serve on the Travel Grants Committee to review applications for financial assistance to attend ASLE conferences.
- Keep a current list of officers and contact people for each of ASLE’s international Affiliates. Invite officers of each affiliate to keep in touch about activities, attend the biennial conference, submit reports to the newsletter, etc.
- Assist any groups interested in becoming an International Affiliate of ASLE with the planning and application process.
- Field queries from scholars or students from various countries who wish to teach or study in a different country.
- Attend meetings, if possible, of ASLE’s Executive Council at the biennial conference and off-year retreats as a non-voting member.
MLA Liaison (Term: Three years)
The MLA Liaison will serve for at least three years, and can extend the term upon review and mutual agreement with the EC. The MLA Liaison reports directly to the Professional Liaison Coordinator, should be a current member of both organizations, and be familiar with organizing panels for the annual MLA Convention.
Responsibilities:
- The MLA reviews all professional affiliate groups every seven years. If the ASLE liaison’s term falls during a review year, that person is responsible for preparing, in collaboration/consultation with the ASLE Managing Director, the application for renewal of affiliation. The last review/approval process was in 2019.
- Compose and distribute a call for proposals (CFP), in alignment with the calendar and deadlines put forth by the MLA, for the one guaranteed ASLE panel at each convention.
- Cultivate and maintain relationships with other associations who may want to co-sponsor a panel. Seek out and work with these associations on a joint proposal to secure a panel slot on the MLA program.
- Review all proposals submitted for guaranteed and co-sponsored panels, choose accepted presentations, and correspond with all submitters on the decisions.
- Chair the guaranteed session or, if unable to attend in person, designate an alternate panel chair.
- Follow all processes and procedures of the MLA to make sure the panels are placed on the annual program.
- Optional: organize a social event at the MLA annual convention, in collaboration with the Ecocriticism and Environmental Humanities Forum.
