Assistant Teaching Professor of Art, Technology

Assistant Teaching Professor of Art, Technology & Play

POSITION DESCRIPTION
The Department of Performance, Play & Design, which includes the Art & Design: Games & Playable Media BA Program (AGPM)[] at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) invites candidates working in games, performance, and new media with a strong focus on the social impact of games on discourses of diversity, equity, and justice to apply for an Assistant Teaching Professor of Art, Technology & Play. This hire will play a major role in expanding the AGPM Bachelor of Arts curriculum and helping to guide a diverse community of creative practitioners and scholars.

This distinctive interdisciplinary department blends faculty in Theater, Performance Studies, Dance, Game Design, Digital Art, Music, and Interactive Media to create a shared environment for creative research at the forefront of performance, play, and design in the fields of games, art, performance and interactive media in the digital and analog realms, with a focus on social justice, impact, and equity. Within this context, faculty continue to grow the Art & Design: Games and Playable Media program to develop innovative approaches to game design and game creation, to encourage artistic and experimental approaches to play, and to engage with contemporary issues of justice and critical approaches to play and interactivity in order to push the bounds of interactive media.

The ideal candidate is an artist and educator with a creative practice that transgresses or re-appropriates programming, interfaces, electronics, physical machines, or other algorithmic technologies to author expressive works, performances, or actions that expand the boundaries of interactive art. Candidates should have a practice that translates well into learning spaces, or experience with teaching, presenting or otherwise sharing concepts, processes, and the programmatic foundations utilized in their work. Teaching and/or creative practices focusing on abolitionist algorithms, disruptive or tactical media, or poetic coding are highly sought. In addition, we seek a candidate with evidence of inclusive teaching practices who can work with undergraduate and graduate students from diverse academic and sociocultural backgrounds. We seek candidates to support our multidisciplinary orientation in a curriculum that includes areas such as: Black aesthetics and anti-racist games; games as art and activism; queer and trans games; feminist games; visual, audio, interface and narrative design; games as social practice; performance games; and the physical and embodied connection to play.

In addition to teaching and advising, the successful candidate will engage in service at the program, department and campus wide levels, with particular focus on advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, including in the recruitment of future faculty. Applicants from historically underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. We welcome candidates who understand the barriers facing women and minoritized communities who are underrepresented in higher education careers (as evidenced by life experiences and educational background), and who have experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion with respect to teaching, mentoring, research, life experiences, or service towards building an equitable and diverse scholarly environment. We are interested in candidates who incorporate anti-racist, feminist, and LGBTQ+ affirming values into their work.

In addition, AGPM faculty collaborate across the university, with ties to Art, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Feminist Studies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Film and Digital Media, Music, and Digital Art and New Media (DANM). Faculty in this position will be teaching analog and digital game design, digital art, and critical design practices to students from both the Arts Division and other programs who share our interest in games.

UC Santa Cruz values diversity, equity, and inclusion (please see and ) and is committed to hiring faculty who will work to further these values through their teaching, service, and scholarly activity. See the AGPM program community values statement here. UC Santa Cruz is a Hispanic-Serving Institution and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution with a high proportion of first generation students. To be considered, candidates must understand the barriers facing historically oppressed groups in higher education, and, through teaching, research, professional activity and/or creative practice, demonstrate effective strategies which support the recruitment and success of underrepresented and marginalized groups in creative, professional, and/or scholarly fields. In addition to encouraging participation in robust departmental, divisional, and campus mentoring, the campus offers a Faculty Community Networking Program. Activities promoting equity and inclusion at UC Santa Cruz will be recognized as important university service during the faculty promotion process. The rubric that we will use to evaluate the statement of contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion is available here:

This recruitment is supported by the UC Office of the President's Advancing Faculty Diversity program and includes enhanced funding for faculty projects that contribute to diversity and to creating an inclusive climate. The Arts Division supports faculty research through the Arts Research Institute ); the campus supports research and teaching with grants awarded by the Committee on Research, the Committee on Teaching, and other groups.

The campus currently operates on a schedule of three 11-week quarters per academic year. Assistant Teaching Professors (also known as Lecturers with the Potential of Security of Employment) carry an instructional workload of eight five-unit workload equivalencies per year, reduced by two in recognition of advising and other related service to the department and division.

Responsibilities:
● Teach 6 courses across all levels of the curriculum over each 3-quarter academic year.
● Develop new curriculum in concert with programmatic needs.
● Contribute service to the program, department, Arts Division, the university at large, and to the profession and larger community, with a particular emphasis on building an equitable and diverse scholarly environment.

Scholarly/Professional Activity

• Due to the heavier emphasis on teaching and higher instructional workload, the expectations for professional/scholarly productivity are lower for teaching professors than for ladder rank faculty. Professional/scholarly activity can be demonstrated through impactful pedagogical work or through traditional research/creative activity in the discipline, or a combination of these types of work.

Given our department's focus on decolonial approaches to teaching, research, and service, our first round of review will be solely based on (1) the statement of teaching and (2) the statement of contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are looking for candidates who demonstrate effective strategies that support the recruitment and success of underrepresented scholars and students. The rubric that we will use to evaluate the statement of contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion is available here: You may also Please review the Contributions to Diversity Statements Guidelines.

The chosen candidate will be expected to sign a statement representing that they are not the subject of any ongoing investigation or disciplinary proceeding at their current academic institution or place of employment, nor have they in the past ten years been formally disciplined at any academic institution/place of employment. In the event the candidate cannot make this representation, they will be expected to disclose in writing to the hiring Dean the circumstances surrounding any formal discipline that they have received, as well as any current or ongoing investigation or disciplinary process of which they are the subject. (Note that discipline includes a negotiated settlement agreement to resolve a matter related to substantiated misconduct.)

Art & Design: Games & Playable Media BA Program (AGPM):

QUALIFICATIONS
Basic qualifications (required at time of application)
Applicants must have a terminal degree (MFA or PhD) in an area of expertise related to Art, Technology, and Play (or equivalent foreign degree) or a demonstrated record of teaching accomplishment and a related creative practice in performance, play and design of a duration of at least six years. It is expected the degree requirements will be completed by June 30, 2024.