Resources for Faculty Support & Advancement

• Part-time faculty are paid semi-monthly during semesters of active employment.  Full-time faculty are paid monthly and may select to receive their annual salary over 10 or 12 months.

• v  To find the specific paydates, logon to my.pratt.edu, select “Intranet” from the left-hand column, select “Human Resources,” and then go to the “Forms Library” and scroll down.  Or go here:  https://www.pratt.edu/uploads/faculty-paydates-.pdf

• Paystubs are provided electronically via Paylocity. To access them, logon to my.pratt.edu, choose “Intranet” from the left-hand menu, then choose “Finance & Administration” from the left-hand menu, and finally choose “Paylocity” from the left-hand menu.  Or go here: https://www.pratt.edu/intranet/intranet-finance/intranet-paylocity/

Humanities and Media Studies is a department within the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  The other departments within the School include the Intensive English Program, History of Art and Design, Math and Science, Social Science and Cultural Studies, and Writing.  Collectively, we provide the General Education and specific History requirements to Art, Design, and Architecture BA or BFA students, among much else. Pratt offers 22 degree programs that range from Fine Art to Digital Arts to Photography to Communication Design, and enrolls about 3,300 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students. 

The Administrative office of Humanities and Media Studies is led by our Chair, Arlene Keizer, and includes Assistant Chair Emily Beall, and two Administrative Assistants: Nkechi Ebubedike, Assistant to the Chair, and the Assistant to the Graduate Programs.  

We are a department of about 75 faculty (about 16 full-time tenured or tenure track, about 20 part-time Adjunct faculty, and about 40 part-time Visiting faculty).  We are responsible for providing both the “Core” (first and second year) and the “Post-Core” (third and fourth year) general education for Pratt students. The “Core” programs include “Humanities Core” for Art and Design students, and “Architecture/Writing Program” for Architecture students.  “Post-Core” courses tend to fall within one of our four lively minors: Cinema Studies, Literature & Writing, Media Studies, and Performance + Performance Studies. We also offer courses of study in Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish. The “Writing Across the Curriculum” program, which serves specific departments’ needs by offering both workshops and credit-bearing courses, is also housed in HMS.

While we offer no undergraduate majors, we do offer two innovative graduate degrees:  the MA in Media Studies and the MFA in Performance + Performance Studies. 

Each of these Degrees, Programs and Minors has a faculty coordinator, who is responsible for working with faculty to maintain the curriculum and develop the program, minor, or degree; you’ll likely work pretty closely with that faculty coordinator. 

• Humanities Core co-coordinators:  Adjunct Associate Professor w/CCE Evan Rehill

• First-year Architecture/Writing coordinator:  Adjunct Instructor Elae Moss

• Fifth-year Architecture/Writing coordinator:  Adjunct Associate Professor w/CCE Saul Anton

• Writing Across the Curriculum coordinator:  

• Cinema Studies Minor:  Associate Professor Chris Vitale

• Literature and Writing Minor: Assistant Chair Emily Beall

• Media Studies Minor:  Associate Professor Minh-Ha Pham

• Performance and Performance Studies Minor:  Assistant Professor Karin Shankar and Adjunct Assistant Professor Julia Steinmetz

• MFA in Performance and Performance Studies:  Professor Jennifer Miller

• MA in Media Studies:  

The Humanities and Media Studies (HMS) Department offers innovative and cross-disciplinary training at the intersection of aesthetics, politics, and theory. Our curriculum explores how art, culture, literature, and media form and transform our densely interconnected world. HMS students acquire creative and critical tools with which to analyze global cultural and socio-political contexts. In our classrooms, we emphasize the histories and processes of social formation such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability. We are distinguished by our methodologies, which include multisensory and embodied learning, collaboration and play, textual and visual analysis, critical ethnography, and experimental archival research. In addition to the Core Humanities and Architecture Writing Programs, the department offers undergraduate minors in Performance and Performance Studies, Media Studies, Literature and Writing, and Cinema Studies. HMS also houses a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Program in Performance and Performance Studies and a Master of Arts (MA) Program in Media Studies. Our award-winning faculty includes writers, scholars, media artists, architects, and multi-disciplinary performers of national and international stature.

• Please attend to emails from the Chair, Arlene Keizer, and the Assistant Chair, Emily Beall, who will send out announcements, meeting dates & times, and important reminders.  Sometimes, the Assistant to the Chair will distribute these on Arlene’s behalf, or share announcements from the Institute that will affect you, so look out for emails from the Assistant to the Chair’s address as well.  

• It’s also important to attend to emails from your faculty area coordinator, as they will often convene area meetings or facilitate important projects.

• You’ll get a spate of emails from “communicator-noreply@pratt.edu.”  These are Institute-level announcements that range from building closures to trainings to talks & events.  Many of these are important, and this is one of Pratt’s only means of reaching the whole campus community at once.  Please take the time to read them.

• Finally, it’s likely worth your time to read the bi-weekly “News from Pratt” emails to get a sense of big events on campus, how various departments/faculty are connecting with worlds off-campus, and for faculty exhibitions & news.

• The ALERT SYSTEM will send you texts & emails in the event of a snow day, other cancellations or closures, and any urgent emergency updates.  You’re automatically signed up for the Alert System with your Pratt email, alternative email, and cell phone number on file. Change that information on the MyPratt main page. 

Your profile is listed on the HMS website and in the campus directory, and colleagues and students use those to get to know more about you.  Fill it in, and keep it updated in the future, by: logging on to my.pratt.edu, and then choosing “Biography” in the left-hand menu.  Please do include a picture or an image of some kind that represents you.

Plan ahead!  Why it’s especially important to participate in peer teaching observations:  You’ll find that several peer teaching observations are required for applications to CART.  These take advance planning and time to complete. Furthermore, they’re a key way that we learn and support each other as instructors, and are a great opportunity to get to know other faculty and reflect on your teaching.  CART will arrange peer teaching observations each Spring, and you can arrange your own as well at any time, though they should be by someone with a higher academic rank than yours.

Our right to advance at our workplace is one of many rights and responsibilities enshrined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the Pratt Administration and the Faculty Union, United Federation of College Teachers Local 1460 (UFCT 1460).  All faculty at Pratt are covered by the CBA, and in the broadest terms, the CBA enumerates workload, health benefits, leave benefits, retirement benefits, annual raises, and job protections—including Academic Freedom. Every few years, the Union negotiates with the Administration for raises, benefits, and job protections.  Here’s a link to the current CBA, and you can learn more about the Union, and how to become a member, from reading their website: 

http://www.pratt-union.org/documents/contract/  

You can also reach out to Union VP Holly Wilson with questions, concerns, or to become a member. (hwilson5@pratt.edu)

Salary, Benifits, Right for Faculty

The Pratt Faculty Union

https://www.pratt-union.org/documents

The Academic Senate represents Faculty, Chairs, and Staff who teach at the Institute, and serves as an “advisory body to the Board of Trustees and the administration, making direct recommendations to the President and Provost without review by any intermediary.” (Senate Bylaw II).

• Our current senator is Assistant Professor Karin Shankar (kshankar@pratt.edu) 

• The Senate has a beautifully maintained and rich website, and you can sign up for their monthly newsletter here:  http://prattsenate.org/

• The Senate is also in the process of updating their Faculty Handbook; while the current Handbook can be found on their website here, you’re encouraged to reach out to your Senators directly with questions or concerns.  http://prattsenate.org/faculty-handbook/

Pratt has both a Human Rights Policy and an Employee Sexual Misconduct Policy.  Here’s the Human Rights policy:

https://www.pratt.edu/policies/view/human-rights-policy/

And here’s the Employee Sexual Misconduct Policy:

https://www.pratt.edu/policies/view/employee-sexual-misconduct/

You can always approach the Chair to discuss concerns about human rights and sexual misconduct.  Additionally, or instead, you can report violations of human rights to the Director of Human Resources, Steven Riccobono, sriccobo@pratt.edu, (718) 636-3787.  And, you can report instances of sexual misconduct to Esmilda Abreu, Title IX Coordinator,

Eabreu26@pratt.edu, (718) 636-3722

• Full-time faculty have designated research funds of at least $1000 annually.  If you’re connected to Media Studies or Performance and Performance Studies, provide your receipts to the Assistant to the Graduate Programs.  The Assistant to the Chair manages the research accounts of all other full-time faculty, as well as the Mellon funds for part-time faculty. 

• Part-time faculty can apply for Mellon Research grants.  The full guidelines for Mellon grants are in the appendix of this document.  These grants can be used for book purchases, travel to archives/for research, presenting at a conference, etc.  The funds are divided equally between applicants, so how much you can get depends on how many people are receiving grants that year.  Last year, grants were about $500/person. Read the full guidelines on how and when to apply. 

• The Senate administers the “Faculty Development Fund” (FDF), which distributed about $100,000 annually for Faculty projects.  Their deadline is usually early January. Go to the Provost office’s funding page for more information: https://www.pratt.edu/the-institute/administration-resources/office-of-the-provost/other-funding/

• The Senate also administers the “Academic Initiatives Fund,” which supports performances, symposia, events and similar open to the Pratt community.  Go to the Senate’s page for more information: http://prattsenate.org/academic-initiatives-fund/

• The Associate Provost for Research and Strategic Partnership, Allison Druin, works to support faculty research projects; if you’d like to pursue a research project, opportunity, or challenge by submitting a grant proposal or partnering with an outside organization, you can read more here and get in touch with Allison.  https://www.pratt.edu/the-institute/administration-resources/office-of-the-provost/centers-and-academic-partnerships/

adruin@pratt.edu, 718-687-5543 

School of Liberal Arts and Sciences:  Mellon Research Grant Guidelines

Beginning in the AY 16-17, the Mellon Research Grant will only be available to part-time faculty members—both visiting and adjunct. Rather than make an application for these grants, every part-time faculty member has access to these funds for reimbursable expenses that support research and/or creative practices. 

Each year, we will determine how many faculty intend on using the Mellon Fund, and then divide the total monies available in the fund by the number of faculty. Thus, each year the amount of reimbursable expenses will fluctuate depending on the fund balance and the number of faculty requesting reimbursement.  

In order to administer this fund, the following guidelines will be in effect. 

1. Funds can only be used for reimbursable expenses that are tied directly to a faculty’s research/creative activity agenda, which includes: 

   1. • Travel, hotel, meals for presenting papers and/or participating in panels at conferences. (Attending conferences only is not an acceptable reimbursed expense.)

      • Travel, hotel, meals to engage in research/creative activity.

      • Purchasing books. 

      • Expenses related to book tours. 

      • Production costs for mounting a show, creating a chapbook, or staging a performance. 

      • The cost of classes for faculty development. 

      • Supplies and equipment.

2. No later than December 1st of each academic year, part-time faculty members must declare in writing to the chair of the department (with a copy to the assistant to the chair) their intent to use these funds. 

3. No later than April 15th of each academic year, part-time faculty members who have not used up their allotted funds must declare in writing to their chairs (copying the assistant to the chair) their intent to do so. If they do not, any unused funds may be redistributed. 

4. The disbursement of reimbursable funds will be administered out of the department, which each department keeping track of the amount spent for each eligible faculty member. 

5. A part-time faculty member on sabbatical is not eligible to receive these funds. 

• The following museums are free to students, faculty & staff with your Pratt ID: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, The Cooper-Hewitt, The Frick Collection, The Guggenheim Museum, The New Museum, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) and The Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA & MoMA PS 1

• The ARC (Athletics and Recreation Center, or the gym) is free to you with your Pratt ID, as are the classes they offer.  It’s the building with the many-peaked roof. They open early and close late on weekdays. 

• Additional fringe benefits include pre-tax childcare and commuter accounts (which do cover MetroCards).  For more information about fringe benefits, as well as information about benefits eligibility more generally, visit HR’s website.  Logon to my.pratt.edu, choose “Intranet” from the left-hand margin, then choose “Human Resources” and go to “Other Benefits.”