Collegiate Fellow / Visiting Assistant Professor

Position Summary

The University of Maryland’s University Honors program invites applications for four early-career Collegiate Fellows on 3-year appointments as Visiting Assistant Professors. Collegiate Fellows are members of the University Honors faculty whose primary responsibility is to teach a small, General Education seminar on a topic related to their research, as well as a first-semester experience and capstone course for the program. University Honors faculty participate fully in the life of a thriving, living-learning community. Candidates must demonstrate potential for innovation and inclusive practices in teaching, as well as co-curricular engagement with students. 

Collegiate Fellows participate in all aspects of University Honors, including:

1. teaching, including course instruction (approx. 13 credit hours per academic year) and student mentorship, both in and beyond the classroom;
2. curricular and program development, including course design and curriculum assessment; and
3. the life of the program (e.g., co-curricular initiatives, student-facing programming). 

    

The 9-month starting salary for Collegiate Fellows is $72,105 (with tiered increases in years 2 and 3). The position carries full benefits for the 3-year duration of the appointment.

Each Collegiate Fellow will join a group of 2-3 University of Maryland faculty drawn from different academic disciplines in a Thematic Cluster (https://universityhonors.umd.edu/clusters/). In their first year, Collegiate Fellows develop their small, thematic seminar based on their disciplinary expertise, and teach it in years 2 and 3. Additionally, Collegiate Fellows teach Gateway Seminar in their first semester and Vantage Point Seminar in each subsequent semester over the 3-year appointment.

For this search, we seek teacher-scholars who can contribute to one of the following themes:

Butterfly Effects

In the global economy, it is tempting to imagine our world as a cast of major players and minor actors subject to simple and evident causal interactions. The convenience of this paradigm belies the reality of local priorities, distant and unseen effects, and systemic unpredictability that order and destabilize life in an interconnected world. How should we respect this complexity in the way we understand migration, nationhood, environment, innovation, trade, etc. in a global context? 

Science & Fiction

The arts and sciences both purport to explain our nature, but they are typically construed as contrasting and complementary enterprises. To exaggerate this contrast is to position fact and fiction at odds with one another, thereby privileging tested hypotheses over creative insights. To respect the complementarity of the arts and sciences, by contrast, is to appreciate their mutual interdependence. How do these interconnected practices create ways of living and knowing, particularly those categories that define human experience? What are the past and present entanglements between the facts and fictions that order the world?

Surveillance

Because covert and overt tracking are hallmarks of 21st-century life, when reflecting on modern surveillance, we tend to picture advanced technology and Silicon Valley. However, from the crime scene to MI5, the local habitat to the telescope, close observation has helped to sustain human and animal society, knowledge, and values for centuries. By what means is intelligence gathered, and to what ends is it put? How do these practices, past and present, shape life as we know it? And what does the future of surveillance look like?

Artificial? Intelligence?

The specter of artificial intelligence – its ubiquity, its power, its potential – haunts contemporary life. It is like us and unlike us; born of our collective wisdom and poised to exceed it; a force to be celebrated and feared in equal measure. This cluster confronts the language of ‘artificial intelligence’ to ask, Is the human non-artificial? Might a machine be human? Is intelligence natural or non-natural? What forms of intelligence matter and why? Whose intelligence? 

Applicants from all disciplines are welcome to apply and strongly encouraged to consult the University Honors website (https://universityhonors.umd.edu/) for additional information about the program’s academic and co-curricular aims. 

University Honors is a living-learning program guided by the beliefs that depth of insight requires breadth of vision, that conscientious specialization requires multidisciplinary dexterity, and that meaningful impact requires collaborative engagement. And so, our community of students, faculty, and staff pursue these aims while cultivating an environment that is safe and inclusive as well as inspiring and creative.

Candidates who have experience working in diverse contexts and who can contribute to a climate of diversity and inclusion are most welcome and actively encouraged to identify their experiences and aspirations in these areas.

Minimum Qualifications

• PhD or other terminal degree from an accredited academic institution within the last 5 years. Degree must be in hand at the time of application.
• Experience in undergraduate teaching that demonstrates inclusive practices 
• Demonstrable potential to work independently as well as collaboratively
• Track record of scholarly activity in field of expertise

   

Preferences

• Record of innovative course design and/or pedagogy
• Demonstrably inclusive communication practices and interpersonal skills
• Familiarity and/or experience with undergraduate living-learning programs
• Experience in undergraduate co-curricular programming

   

Application Materials

1. Letter of application that explains how your teaching experience and scholarly activity relate to your chosen theme
2. Curriculum vitae
3. Proposal for theme-related seminar based on candidate’s scholarly expertise, including title, description (2-4 para), and suggested readings, assessments, and/or activities. Upload as Supplemental Doc 1 with document name “UH Seminar Proposal."
4. Teaching portfolio (max. 20 pgs) including 1-pg statement of teaching philosophy and practice, and sample or summary of teaching evaluations. May include other evidence of course design, e.g., inclusive practices, antiracist pedagogy.
5. List of 3 references (no emails sent from system)

    

How to apply: https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/103415