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Assistant Professor of Drama - Sound Design

Employer
University of Washington
Location
Indian, ME
Closing date
Dec 1, 2022

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Sector
Other
Organization Type
Corporate
The University of Washington School of Drama (SoD) is hiring one assistant professor, tenure-track position in Sound Design to begin September 2023. This is a full-time position with a 9-month service period and a salary range from $69,000 to $90,000. The teaching will be within both undergraduate and graduate programs.

The mission of the SoD is to develop innovative and courageous artists and scholars poised to be the creative leaders of tomorrow. We are committed to producing engaged citizens capable of contributing to a more creative, connected, and compassionate world. The School's graduates go on to careers in theatre, film, television, arts management, advertising, design, and creative media as well as other areas such as law, science and business where the artist's skills of critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, entrepreneurship and creativity are essential. The University of Washington serves a diverse population of 55,000 students including 31% first-generation college students, over 30% Pell Grant-eligible students, and faculty and staff from over 70 countries. As a Research I university (meaning the highest level of research activity), UW seeks to hire people with outstanding qualifications who are developing and/or maintaining an ongoing professional career at a national/international level. Seattle is a well-known center of innovation and culture, and the School of Drama enjoys a close relationship with the area's many performing arts groups. The SoD currently has a professional production staff with expertise in the areas of scenery, paint, properties, electrics, sound, and costumes.

The successful candidate will be expected to utilize the tools of sound, music, and aural composition to tell stories via performance in three-dimensional space. The successful candidate will be expected to teach the foundations of sound design and aural storytelling and mentor students in sound design. Positive factors for consideration include, but are not limited to
  • Candidates who are visionary artists and teachers working at the forefront of their design field(s).
  • Candidates who are actively engaged in multiple design disciplines, whose creative practice is interdisciplinary, who come with strong backgrounds in collaborative practice, whose work experience includes devising, trans-medial or mixed reality performance practices, and/or embraces non-traditional and traditional approaches to staging and design.
  • The ability to teach music composition, sound editing/mixing, and/or projection design.

We understand and acknowledge that people can come to the field of sound design from many different pathways. We are particularly enthusiastic about applicants whose background and/or experience has included, but is not limited to, the following positive factors for consideration:
  • A demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and access.
  • A demonstrated commitment to self-education, cultural awareness, and growth to solidify connections between faculty, students, and staff.
  • A rigorous approach to storytelling that focuses on live performance.
  • Experience designing in multiple types of environments, which may include non-traditional, experimental, immersive, interactive, virtual and site-based performance as well as commercial theater, regional/LORT or international theater, opera, and dance.
  • Experience designing for film, games, art installation and/or other interdisciplinary creative work.
  • Three or more years of experience of successful teaching and/or mentoring of learners is ideal either within a one's professional creative practice or a traditional academic setting with graduate and/or undergraduate students.
  • A commitment to an educational approach that stresses the value of collaboration between all members of a production team.
  • Eagerness to engage in the goals and values presented in the School of Drama's Mission, Vision, Values, and Commitments.
  • Experience teaching other kinds of design courses such as projection, scenery, costumes, or lighting.

The Design program at the UW School of Drama prides itself on a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to teaching, with many courses are rotated among the faculty. Using an integrative approach to design, faculty will educate future artists with a rigorous dramaturgical approach, grounded in the technical craft of the field. The successful candidate will teach both graduate and undergraduate students (sometimes integrating both within a given course) and encounter a wide range of experience levels. Faculty in this position will teach some generalized courses such as Visual Narrative in Performance or Tools of Composition; contribute to graduate level courses such as Design Studio, Visual Communication, or Drafting; as well as other Digital Media and design courses related to their unique skillset, including potentially Projection Design. The program encourages interdisciplinary pedagogy and currently includes courses that are team-taught with faculty of two or more disciplines.

Student designers are prioritized in the production season and faculty members act as advisors to student designers during school productions. On occasion faculty may also design within the season as needed, however, this is not a dominant aspect of the position. Faculty actively participate in the recruitment of prospective graduate students and often make use of their professional networks to assist students in finding productive internships or other kinds of professional connections. Participation in academic administrative work, including curricular development and committees, is expected along with other forms of service typical of a tenure-track faculty position. In addition to teaching and service, research and/or creative practice outside of ongoing university duties will be significant criteria in the assessment for promotion and tenure for the position.

Mission/EDIA Commitment

The School of Drama is committed to building and supporting a multicultural community that fosters equity, diversity, inclusion, and access. We aim for all members of our community to think critically about and engage actively with the world around them. To this end, we aim to embed engagement for our faculty, staff, and students with the ways that race, gender identity, sexuality, ability, class, and ethnicity intersect with and shape the human experience, both inside the educational experience and outside of it. The successful candidate will be expected to fulfill our commitment to equity and inclusion and have the confidence to effectively engage with students, staff, and community from a wide spectrum of backgrounds. The School of Drama has created and is committed to an Anti-Racist Action Plan, with which we encourage candidates to familiarize themselves. Our faculty and staff are expected to understand and embrace our commitment to respecting and representing diverse ideas, races, genders, sexualities, abilities, cultures, religions, and traditions, and to interrupt behaviors that hinder our work towards anti-racism and our diversity and inclusion efforts. Black, Indigenous, People of Color and members of other under-represented groups are encouraged to apply for this position.

Qualifications
  • An MFA in Design (or other related fields) or foreign equivalent, or a bachelor's degree coupled with five years of progressive work experience in sound design
  • A minimum of one year of prior teaching experience (part-time acceptable) at the college or university level.
  • Continuing expertise as a professional sound designer for theatre, dance, or other live performance, transmedia/digital performance, virtual and/or augmented reality, digital game design, or film/television.

Application Instructions

The University of Washington is using Interfolio's Faculty Search to conduct this search. Applicants to this position receive a free dossier account and can send all application materials, including confidential letters of recommendation, free of charge.

Applications should include:
  • A letter of application describing your expertise and experience, highlighting your approach to creative research and teaching, your vision for the field and your capacities as a collaborative artist. Candidates are encouraged to share proposed visions for sound-focused curricula, laboratories and/or research that could be a future part of the program.
  • A curriculum vitae
  • One or two meaningful short samples that demonstrate your work along with a short paragraph explaining their relevance to this position's desired skills. Please note that reviewers will only spend up to 15 minutes reviewing these materials.
  • Contact information for three references
  • A diversity statement (one page or less)
  • A teaching statement (one page or less)

The diversity statement should describe how your teaching, research and/or service demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion through scholarship or by improving access to higher education for underrepresented individuals or groups. We are interested in knowing how the work you hope to do at the UW will enhance the University's and our department's commitment to EDIA. How does your positionality inform your approach to EDIA? What efforts have you made or been involved with to foster cultural competence and understanding? What have you done to further your knowledge about equity, diversity, inclusion, and access (EDIA)? How have you demonstrated what you have learned to your colleagues?

The letter of application is an invitation to share what about this position motivates you and how it might connect to your larger professional trajectory, i.e. What opportunities do you see the role of design and technology offering the fields of theater and other live performance? What is your vision of the field in the coming decades and what motivates you as a teacher of future artists? What are you curious about in your personal creative practice? What drives you as a designer or sets you apart from others and how will that help push our program forward? How do you integrate this into a vision of yourself a teacher and researcher at UW and what might the university setting offer to you as a future home?

The position will remain open until filled, with priority given to applications received by November 30th.

Questions regarding this posting may be addressed to the head of the search committee, Adrienne Mackey, at amakckey1@uw.edu
PandoLogic. Keywords: Design - Assistant Professor, Location: Washington, DC - 20037 , PL: 552398963

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