Download OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY THEATRE & DANCE DEPARTMENT STATEMENT ON SCHOLARSHIP I

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OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY
THEATRE & DANCE DEPARTMENT
STATEMENT ON SCHOLARSHIP
Approved by the College Personnel Committee June 2009
I.
Definition of Scholarship
The Department of Theatre and Dance defines "scholarship" as knowledge gained by study and/or
creative experience within one's field which culminates in an outcome to be shared with an audience,
which may include an audience of peers and/or a lay audience. The department recognizes traditional
forms of scholarship, such as publication of articles or books, and presentations at professional
conferences, as outcomes shared with peers. But the department also recognizes participation in the
creation of works of theatre art, where the knowledge is shared with a "lay" audience, as scholarship. In
our field, it is the essential form.
II.
Standards for Decisions Affecting Tenure and Promotion
A.
Acceptable Activities that Qualify for Scholarship:
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B.
Directing
Producing
Production & Stage Management
Acting
Designing scenery, costumes, lights, or sound
Choreography
Technical direction or production
Playwriting
Vocal, speech, dialect, and movement coaching
Written reviews of productions at other institutions
Dramaturgy
Publishing (books, articles, Instructional CD’s, original design work, technical research
and application to problem-solving, craft solutions for the theatre)
Requirements:
1. Interim Tenure Review:
Two submitted examples from activities listed above, at least one of which ne example
must be externally peer reviewed.
Creative work done at a comparable institution or a professional theatre or a corporate
business theatre event constitutes external peer review. Otherwise a qualified evaluator
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from one of these institutions will be brought in by the college to review “in house”
creative work done as part of the public theatre season here at Otterbein College
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2. Tenure Decision and/or Promotion to Associate Professor:
At least three additional submitted examples from activities listed above after the
interim tenure review, at least one of which must be externally peer reviewed as
defined under Interim Tenure Review
3. Promotion to Full Professor:
At least four additional submitted examples from the activities listed above,
completed since tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, at least two of which
must be externally peer reviewed. Of these two, one or both examples must be an
external production credit where the candidate has been invited by another respected
institution, professional theatre, or corporation to employ a creative production skill
from the list of acceptable activities above
4. Post Tenure Expectations:
One example every five years of an external peer-reviewed scholarship/creative
activity. This could include creative production work or various forms of publication
work in respected journals, etc. as listed above
C.
Documentation
Documentation of scholarship activity in theatre productions can include:
• Scenery, costume, light, or sound plots
• Renderings
• Prompt scripts
• Production photographs
• Programs
• Newspaper reviews
• Letters from other participants
It should be noted that Theatre is an ephemeral art form. Unlike other fields, where the documentation
is the scholarship--an article, a book, a painting--in our field, the artwork exists at a moment in spacetime, and then is gone. It is not replicable. The documentation above is, therefore, either a small piece
of the creative process, or someone's reaction to the production.
For off-campus work at a professional theatre or another university, the act of being hired shall be
considered prima facie evidence of peer review. That is, a positive professional judgement of the
quality of the faculty member’s prior work has been made. The only documentation required is a letter
from the artistic director, managing director or department chair, as appropriate, confirming that the
faculty member was contracted for a specific theatre assignment and carried out his or her duties
successfully and professionally. No additional outside peer evaluator is required.
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