Assistant Professor: Communication and Rhetorical Studies

Job #: 077937
Location Syracuse, NY
Pay Range: $65,000 – $75,000
Hours: Determined by Department Chair
Job Type: Full-time

Job Description:
The Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track assistant professor to begin in August 2025. The Department is in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, located on the ancestral lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, particularly the Onondaga Nation. This is a research position (R1).

Candidates must have expertise in emerging media technologies, digital media, and/or artificial intelligence (for instance: machine learning, algorithms, platform studies, creator studies, user experience, data centers, game studies, digital storytelling, extended reality) with a focus on race and/or ethnicity. We seek candidates with experience pertaining to historically excluded or marginalized racial or ethnic communities.

The ideal candidate integrates a critical/cultural and intersectional approach to research, teaching, and service, anchored in a humanities tradition of scholarship. Research and teaching interests should complement the department’s existing strengths in critical/cultural studies, rhetoric, performance studies, language and social interaction, and media studies.

The department is committed to removing barriers that have been traditionally encountered by individuals from underrepresented groups; strives to recruit and retain faculty who will further enhance our diversity; and makes every attempt to support their academic, professional, and personal success while they are here.

About the Department of Communication and Rhetorical StudiesThe Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies (CRS) creates skilled and versatile communicators prepared for the diverse professional and personal contexts they will come to understand, pursue, and influence. Launched in 1910 as the Department of Oratory, CRS is one of the nation’s first academic programs devoted to the study of communication and rhetoric. Throughout our evolution, our department has been housed in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, where our programs have benefited from close association with the disciplines of art, design, film and media arts, drama, creative arts therapy, and music.

About The College of Visual and Performing ArtsThe College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University is committed to the education of cultural leaders who will engage and inspire audiences through performance, visual art, design, scholarship, and commentary. We provide the tools for self-discovery and risk-taking in an environment that thrives on critical thought and action. To learn more about the college, our distinguished faculty, and our program, please visit our websites at www.syr.edu, www.vpa.syr.edu.

Qualifications:
Required

• Doctoral degree in Communication or closely related field at time of appointment
• A PhD in Communication or closely related field must be completed by August 2025, with excellent promise for long-term outstanding research, teaching, and service

Preferred

• Record of achievement in academic research that demonstrates the ability to earn tenure at a R1 institution

Job Specific Qualifications:
We are looking for candidates who use qualitative or textual methodologies, including close textual analysis, rhetorical analysis, ethnographic methods, discourse analysis, or community-based participatory methods. We are also open to candidates who use mixed methods or combine quantitative methods with critical perspectives.

Preference will be given to candidates with strong potential for securing external grant funding.

Applicants should share the department’s central commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, exemplified by its partnerships with the Lender Center for Social Justice, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, the LGBTQ Studies minor, La Casita Cultural Center, and more.

Responsibilities:

• Current teaching load is 2/2, subject to change, in courses commensurate with the curriculum in Communication and Rhetorical Studies
• Serve on committees in the Department, College, and University
• Advise graduate and undergraduate students

Applicants will be expected to teach undergraduate classes (including large lectures) and graduate courses in communication and emerging technologies, digital media, and/or artificial intelligence with a focus on race and/or ethnicity. Candidates will also be expected to teach courses that meet the department’s curricular needs and mentor Masters’ students.

About Syracuse University:
Syracuse University is a private, international research university with distinctive academics, diversely unique offerings, and an undeniable spirit. Located in the geographic heart of New York State, with a global footprint, and over 150 years of history, Syracuse University offers a quintessential college experience.

The scope of Syracuse University is a testament to its strengths: a pioneering history dating back to 1870; a choice of more than 200 majors, 100 minors, and 200 advanced degree programs offered across the University’s 13 schools and colleges; over 15,000 undergraduates and over 6,000 graduate students; more than a quarter of a million alumni in 160 countries; and a student population from all 50 U.S. states and 123 countries. For more information, please visit http://www.syracuse.edu.

About the Syracuse area:
Syracuse is a medium-sized city situated in the geographic center of New York State approximately 250 miles northwest of New York City. The metro-area population totals approximately 500,000. The area offers a low cost of living and provides many social, cultural, and recreational options, including parks, museums, festivals, professional regional theater, and premier shopping venues. Syracuse and Central New York present a wide range of seasonal recreation and attractions ranging from water skiing and snow skiing, hiking in the Adirondacks, touring the historic sites, visiting wineries along the Finger Lakes, and biking on trails along the Erie Canal.

Application Deadline:
Full Consideration By:
Open Until Filled: Yes
Priority Consideration:

To apply, visit https://www.sujobopps.com/postings/106455

Syracuse University is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution. The University prohibits discrimination and harassment based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender, national origin, citizenship, ethnicity, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law to the extent prohibited by law. This nondiscrimination policy covers admissions, employment, and access to and treatment in University programs, services, and activities.

Syracuse University has a long history of engaging veterans and the military-connected community through its educational programs, community outreach, and employment programs. After World War II, Syracuse University welcomed more than 10,000 returning veterans to our campus, and those veterans literally transformed Syracuse University into the national research institution it is today. The University’s contemporary commitment to veterans builds on this historical legacy, and extends to both class-leading initiatives focused on making an SU degree accessible and affordable to the post-9/11 generation of veterans, and also programs designed to position Syracuse University as the employer of choice for military veterans, members of the Guard and Reserve, and military family members.

Syracuse University maintains an inclusive learning environment in which students, faculty, administrators, staff, curriculum, social activities, governance, and all other aspects of campus life reflect a diverse, multi-cultural, and international worldview. The University community recognizes and values the many similarities and differences among individuals and groups. At Syracuse, we are committed to preparing students to understand, live among, appreciate, and work in an inherently diverse country and world made up of people with different ethnic and racial backgrounds, military backgrounds, religious beliefs, socio-economic status, cultural traditions, abilities, sexual orientations and gender identities. To do so, we commit ourselves to promoting a community that celebrates and models the principles of diversity and inclusivity.