New faculty positions to address race-related social disparities through impactful research

The Ohio State University has identified the first faculty positions to be created under a new initiative designed to address race-related social disparities through impactful research.

This week, the Office of Academic Affairs announced that 15 faculty positions would be created to expand research into the impact of climate change, the physical design of communities, cardiovascular health and other topics. These 15 tenure-track positions are part of the university’s RAISE (Race, Inclusion and Social Equity) initiative, which will add at least 50 research faculty to the university within a decade.

The College of Engineering will receive funding to hire one tenure-track faculty member in two separate cohorts under this initiative. It will begin the process of recruiting faculty members who would start in autumn 2022 or later academic terms.

Through the hiring of the “Climate, Race, and Place” cohort, Ohio State will holistically investigate the racial disparities and social inequities of climate impacts and help shape responsive adaptations. Working in an interdisciplinary team between the College of Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences, and College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, this three-professor cohort will amplify scholarship in the areas of climate science, climate analytics, and climate adaptation across various geographic scales.

With the “Race and the Built Environment: The Just City” cohort, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Knowlton School of Architecture in the College of Engineering will advance research that focuses on racialized architecture from the perspectives of both theory and practice. This cross-college collaboration is innovative in its desire to hire a historian of architecture and race as well as an urban designer. The addition of two scholars will bolster already impressive national reputations, attract strong pools of graduate students, bring about curricular innovation, and broaden engagement projects in Ohio and beyond.

“Complex problems call for multidisciplinary approaches, which is an abundant Ohio State strength,” said College of Engineering Dean Ayanna Howard. “Injecting the problem-solving expertise of our faculty into initiatives that help address racial disparities and social inequities is imperative for ensuring positive change that lasts.”

The 15 new positions were identified after a competitive process in which academic leaders throughout the university proposed positions in three broad fields: health equity; resources and the environment; and the arts and creative expression. Several of the positions will be hired as a cluster to focus on aligned research. A second call for proposals will identify up to 10 additional RAISE faculty positions by the end of the academic year.

“RAISE is part of a larger initiative to expand the size and impact of Ohio State’s faculty over the coming decade,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Melissa L. Gilliam. “Adding researchers in focused areas will enhance our outstanding faculty and inform solutions to intractable issues.”

Other selected proposals are:

• Community Collaborative for Dental Care and Research (College of Dentistry)
• Global Black Arts (College of Arts and Sciences)
• Improving Cardiovascular Health (colleges of Education and Human Ecology and Nursing)
• Urban Health, Environment, and Race Outcomes Collaborative (College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences)

“We were impressed by how colleges collaborated on these proposals, bringing new approaches and various disciplines together to address urgent topics,” said Trevon D. Logan, special assistant to the provost for the RAISE initiative. “This is exactly what RAISE was designed to do.”

The spring 2022 call for proposals is focused on the three other RAISE research areas, involving the intersection of race and educational equity, with an emphasis on STEAM education; justice and public safety; and economic opportunity and leadership.

Information about RAISE, including the approved proposals and call for additional proposals, is available at go.osu.edu/raise.

RAISE is part of a larger university initiative to add 350 tenure-track faculty within a decade, while also enhancing academic and personal resources to support Ohio State scholars, educators and practitioners through all phases of their careers.

For example, to enhance recruiting of early-career scholars, the Office of Academic Affairs recently launched the Provost’s Tenure-Track Fellow to Faculty Program. For the 2022-23 academic year, the program aims to recruit 10 individuals who will enter as tenure-track fellows and then advance to become assistant professors.