Assistant Professor of Communication Studies

The Department of Communication Studies at Westmont College invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the assistant rank to begin in January or August 2023. We are looking for a candidate who enjoys teaching introductory courses in the discipline as well as some combination of upper-level courses in rhetoric, media, and their area of research. We welcome creative scholars who take a rhetorical or qualitative approach to media. The ideal candidate will be well-prepared to teach introduction to communication theory, rhetorical theory, and media and mass communication. We are looking for a colleague who is interested in developing mentoring relationships with students and desires conversation about teaching and scholarship, and appreciates good humor. The demographics of students attending college in California are shifting, and Westmont College is working to become a Hispanic-Serving Institution. We are looking for a colleague who wants to engage with and support the changing demographics – well equipped to support students of color and first-generation college students. 

Our new faculty member will join three other full-time colleagues who embrace a range of humanistic and social scientific perspectives. Our department mission is to help students improve in both “wisdom and eloquence,” a centuries-old but still contemporary ideal. Students develop facility in communication theory and skills, gain an understanding of rhetoric as part of the human experience, and bring Christian values to bear on communication as a moral act. 

Class sizes typically range from 12 (in writing intensive courses and seminars) to 35 (for some lecture courses). A full-time teaching load is 24 units (three four-unit courses per semester). All faculty have advising and committee responsibilities, and actively engage in scholarship. Applicants must have a PhD in Communication at the time of appointment.

Westmont is a national liberal arts college in the evangelical Protestant tradition. We seek faculty invested in undergraduate teaching, a program of scholarly activity, and the mission of liberal arts education, whose work grows out of a vital and informed commitment to the Christian faith. Westmont is an EEO employer, seeking to be diverse in people and programs consistent with its mission.  The college seeks to enrich its educational experience and its culture through the diversity of its faculty, administration, and staff. Candidates from historically underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. 

Use this link to access the application, which will ask for a cover letter, CV, and four brief statements (500-1500 words) related to working in the context of the Westmont Community. In the cover letter, applicants should indicate specific ways in which they can actively embrace the identity and mission of the college. Questions may be addressed to the chair of the search committee, Dr. Elizabeth Gardner, chair of the Department of Communication Studies, at egardner@westmont.edu. Review of applications will begin September 12, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled.