Civic Media Initiative, Emerson College
Assistant Professors in Communication Studies, Visual & Media Arts, Journalism, and Liberal Arts
Emerson College is pleased to announce a major faculty hiring initiative in civic media. Building on the College’s strengths in communication and the arts and supporting the College’s strategic initiatives in civic and global engagement, we seek to develop a distinguished faculty that addresses connections among media innovation, technologies, social networks and global citizenship. There is a need to consider how the changes brought by digital media are shaping political and social life, along with definitions of governance and citizenship. How people make and use media (whether it’s a film or a tweet) to engage with the world, to make change, to be informed, or to connect across national borders, are topic areas that span the arts, sciences, humanities and social sciences.
The new faculty hires in Journalism, Visual and Media Arts, Communication Studies, and the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies will form a distinctive interdisciplinary faculty cohort that intersects with students from across the College. While faculty members will have their primary appointments within one of the four participating units, they will share teaching responsibilities with the new College-wide minor in Digital Media and Culture, and have a research affiliation with the Emerson Engagement Labs (EEL). All the new faculty hires will begin September 1, 2014.
The minor in Digital Media and Culture offers students the opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of how digital technologies are transforming society and culture. Participatory cultures are emerging through games and social media; whole new modes of interaction are being crafted online. From the disruption of established industrial models of production and consumption to the creation of new social norms, this minor asks students to create and analyze digital media that directly engages in this transforming and transformative culture.
The Emerson Engagement Labs (EEL) is a cluster of research labs focused on technologies and media innovation in global civic life. The Engagement Game Lab (http://engagementgamelab.org) is the currently existing unit that focuses on the design and research of games and play within civic and public processes. Incoming faculty can affiliate with the Engagement Game Lab or the new Global Engagement Lab, which will focus specifically on the analysis of global communication flows and the production of global media initiatives.
The four positions are as follows:
The Department of Journalism seeks a tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant Professor level with a focus on civic engagement, data-driven storytelling and the production of digital journalistic projects. The ideal candidate will have a terminal degree in a related field and expertise in accessing, gathering, analyzing and displaying datasets that help citizens understand complex issues and make wise choices. A background in user
interface design, object-oriented programming, or data science is preferred.
APPLY: https://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/6493
The Department of Communication Studies seeks a tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant Professor level with a focus on social media and strategic communication, political communication and web-based political campaigns, active audiences, online advocacy and civic engagement, and emerging media-based narrative and community forms. A background or working knowledge is desirable in such areas as social media analytics, analysis of user generated content, human computer interaction, user experience design, and social media campaign planning. A Ph. D. in communication or a related field is required.
APPLY: https://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/6498
The Department of Visual and Media Arts seeks a tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant Professor level with a focus on game design. Qualifications: A terminal degree (MFA or Ph.D.) in new media, art, game design, computer science or related field. The department is seeking candidates who have experience designing video games that engage with such issues as identity, intellectual property, or public art. Areas of focus might include gender, race, ethnicity, globalization, locality, experience, economics, politics, professionalism, and/or subjectivity. The successful candidate will be prepared to teach game design/production and interactive media courses at all levels of the curriculum, as well as mentor students and assist in developing new curriculum.
APPLY: http://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/6491
The Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies seeks a new tenure-track faculty member at the Assistant Professor level with a focus on digital media and culture. The ideal candidate will have expertise in digital technologies (such as mobile technologies and social software) and questions of digital citizenship, the networked public sphere, and/or online communities. He or she will anchor a new and exciting interdisciplinary Minor that offers students a critical lens on how digital technologies and practices inform and reinvent civic cultures and social processes. A PhD in media/cultural/technology studies or related social science field is required.
APPLY: https://emerson.peopleadmin.com/postings/6497
Ideal candidates will have a demonstrated capacity for research in their areas, teaching experience, a willingness to help build curriculum, and the ability to work effectively with faculty, students, and staff from diverse backgrounds. Faculty will be encouraged to receive grants to support their research in the EEL and work with its dynamic staff to develop innovative research programs and find ways to meaningfully engage undergraduates in active research.
All applicants should upload a cover letter, CV, and contact information for three references. Applicants must complete Emerson’s online application form and submit materials electronically at the links provided above.
Review of applications will begin November 1, 2013 and continue until the positions are filled.
Emerson College is committed to an active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity-in people, in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in the college’s intellectual, social, cultural, and geographical communities. Emerson endorses a framework of inclusive excellence, which recognizes that institutional excellence comes from fully engaging with diversity in all aspects of institutional activities.
Emerson College is the nation’s only four-year institution dedicated exclusively to majors in communication and the arts in a liberal arts context. It is located in the theater district in the dynamic multi-cultural city of Boston in close proximity to major media outlets, arts institutions, and research centers. The college enrolls 3,662 undergraduate students and 830 graduate students from 75 countries and all 50 states.
This institution offers benefits to same-sex and different sex domestic partners.
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