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Assistant Professor position in VFX, Animation and Game Design

Employer
Northern Kentucky University
Location
Kentucky, United States
Salary
Salary Not Specified
Date posted
Nov 13, 2020


Posting Details

Working Title Assistant Professor position in VFX, Animation and Game Design Department Communication Full Time or Part Time? Full Time Position Number TBD Commitment to Inclusive Excellence

Northern Kentucky University is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access/Affirmative Action institution. We embrace inclusiveness, equity, and global awareness in all dimensions of our work and seek excellence through diversity among our students, administrators, faculty, and staff. Application by members of diverse groups is encouraged.

Purpose of Position

The Communication Department at Northern Kentucky University seeks outstanding candidates with expertise in designing engaging interactive media and immersive virtual content for a tenure track Assistant Professor position. NKU awarded $75,000 from its 2020 NKU Innovation Challenge to build “The Sandbox,” which is intended to serve as an innovative lab and home for its Esports team. Esports started at NKU as a club in 2016 sponsored by the Communication Department, and it was just recently announced that they will now compete as a varsity program. This recent development was led by the Honors College dean, who declared, “We are looking to develop classes and other academic programs that are focused on the booming industry of esports.” Our Media Informatics program should be well-positioned to support this effort.

The candidates are expected to excel in the classroom, be forward thinking in their creative and/or research agenda, and enthusiastically engage with the public and university. They will embrace the opportunity to augment our faculty’s strengths in 3D content creation, game design and traditional media while shaping the evolution of our forays into interactive media, digital imaging, visual effects, and/or augmented and virtual reality storytelling. This position is key to bridging creative and conceptual alliances with other departmental traditional media and university-wide arts and computer programming programs.

Primary Responsibilities

Successful candidates are expected to teach undergraduate courses in our Media Informatics program (see Program Description and Full Catalog of Courses), conduct an active research and/or creative program, and engage deeply with our students and region. As such, each candidate should be able to demonstrate teaching effectiveness, scholarship, and service related to the fast-changing world of media.

A strong portfolio in peer-reviewed academic/commercial outlets and/or creative work that demonstrates expertise in applying theory to practice in media creation is required. Applicable skill sets and academic focus will vary, but it is expected that applicants will be experienced in and passionate about visual effects, computer generated graphics, 3D modeling and animation, and/or creation of augmented or virtual reality, and how these techniques effect visual storytelling and how we communicate. A strong knowledge and understanding of design and gameplay mechanics for user-experience, development and Esports is ideal. A Master’s degree
in the emerging/immersive/digital media, informatics or other field directly related to media creation is required; an MFA or Ph.D. in such a field is preferred.

Program Description

Full Catalog of Courses

Qualifications

A complete application will require: a letter of application, select examples of creative or scholarly work, CV, copies of recent teaching evaluations (qualitative and quantitative), three letters of reference, and a diversity statement. The diversity statement should provide the candidate’s unique perspective on their past and present contributions to and future aspirations for promoting diversity, inclusion, and social justice in their professional career. (In line with the University’s Affirmative Action Policy, candidates are not expected to disclose their identity or membership either in the diversity statement or in other application documents submitted to the search committee. Demographic information is solicited through the application process; however, those data are confidential and are not provided to members of the search committee.)

Any candidate who is offered a position at NKU will be required to go through a pre-employment criminal background check as mandated by state law. Questions regarding the use of the website should be directed to the Human Resources Department at jobs@nku.edu.
Questions regarding the nature of the position should be directed to the search committee chair, Professor Sunil Ketty at kettys1@nku.edu . Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position has been filled.

Minimum Education Master's Degree Preferred Education MFA or PhD
Requisition Number 2020F505 Job Open Date 11/13/2020 Job Close Date Open Until Filled Yes Quick Link https://jobs.nku.edu/postings/9754 Supplemental Questions

Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Applicant Documents
Required Documents
  1. Cover Letter/Letter of Application
  2. Curriculum Vitae
  3. Summaries of the quantitative and qualitative teaching evaluations
  4. Letter of Recommendation 1
  5. Letter of Recommendation 2
  6. Letter of Recommendation 3
  7. Diversity Statement
  8. Scholarly Work
Optional Documents
  1. References


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