Washington State University seeks a visionary leader for the position of Chair of the Department of Digital Technology and Culture (DTC) in the College of Arts and Sciences. Applications are invited for a permanent full-time 9-month, tenure eligible position at the rank of full professor with a summer appointment connected to duties as Chair. The Chair will lead the statewide department from the Pullman campus. DTC is a multi-campus department that values a collaborative culture and environment across all campuses and encourages creative research, scholarship, and production that invites critical perspectives, integrates diverse knowledge systems, and encompasses progressive and innovative uses of technology. Together with the department’s current faculty and staff, the Chair is expected to serve the faculty and staff on all campuses where the department is hosted and support the multiple disciplines that comprise it, sustaining core academic areas while also developing linkages and collaborations between the department’s different components. The successful candidate is expected to have an exceptional record of collaborative leadership in research, teaching, and service in one or more of the following areas: digital cinema, animation, web development, game design, game studies, data visualization, curation, socialmedia, multimedia design, or related fields. Successful candidates will be expected to begin the four (4) year renewable appointment as Chair on August 16, 2024, with the potential for a negotiated earlier start date.
Founded in 1997 to address the growing need for a population educated in the social and cultural impacts of digital technologies, DTC has rapidly grown into one of the most popular majors in the WSU System. It is now located on the Pullman, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver campuses, each with its own unique student body and community it serves. Faculty in the department across the WSU system work together to ensure the continued excellence of its curricula while at the same time attend to the specificities of their constituencies. The Chair supports these efforts and assists faculty on all three campuses to meet their goals.
The Opportunity:
The appointment distribution for the position is 80% administrative leadership, 10% teaching, and 10% research. The Chair will be expected to maintain a strong research agenda in their area of expertise. The position carries a 1/0 teaching load with the expectation to teach courses within the undergraduate and potentially graduate curriculum, the latter of which consists currently of a graduate certificate.
As Chair, the successful candidate will: • Foster a collaborative culture and environment in the Department through leadership across all campuses. • Collaboratively develop and implement strategies for the Department to strengthen its teaching, research, and student support and commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion. • Administer and lead the delivery of the academic programs and the regular refresh and renewal of the unit’s curricula, delivery methods, and teaching activities. • Champion the Department to the university administration, other university units, and external stakeholders. • Oversee recruitment and retention of faculty, staff, and students, and support their continued professional growth and development. • Oversee the management of the Department, with budgetary responsibilities for strategic, academic, and operational development. • Serve as a member of the College of Arts and Sciences broader academic leadership team and work collaboratively to position the Department within both college and university priorities.
A general outline of duties and responsibilities for school directors/department chairs can be found at https://provost.wsu.edu/procedures/chairs-directors/duties-and-responsibilities/.
Required Qualifications: • Earned terminal degree (e.g., M.F. A., Ph.D., Art.D., D.Litt.) in digital media, media arts, interactive media, immersive technologies, digital humanities, social media, or other related areas by hire date. • Must have a record of accomplishments in research, teaching, and service commensurate with Department, college, and university standards for tenure at the level of full professor. o Department T&P Guidelines: https://provost.wsu.edu/documents/2023/03/dtc-promotion-and-tenure-guidelines.docx o CAS T&P Guidelines: https://cas.wsu.edu/faculty-staff/documents/2020/12/cas-tenureand-promotion-policy.pdf/ o WSU Faculty Manual: https://facsen.wsu.edu/documents/2018/08/faculty-manual.pdf/ • Evidence of administrative leadership experience (e.g., Chair of an academic unit or other academic program, Associate Chair, Director of Undergraduate or Graduate Studies, or chairing a high-ranking university committee, or equivalent leadership experience) • Proven effective teaching and instruction. • Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice efforts in campus and/or community, including but not limited to BIPOC and queer efforts, gender, race, and class.
Salary/Benefits: $113,194-130,000 per nine-month academic yearIn accordance with RCW 49.58.110, the above salary reflects the full salary range for this position. Individual placement within the range is based on the candidate’s current experience, education, skills, and abilities related to the position or as mandated by a U.S. Department of Labor prevailing wage determination. WSU offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes paid sick and vacation leave; paid holidays; medical, dental, life and disability insurance package for employees and dependents; retirement; deferred compensation and optional supplemental retirement accounts. Foradditional information, please review the detailed Summary of Benefits offered by WSU for Faculty and Total Compensation.
To Apply: Visit wsu.edu/jobs, select your appropriate employment status, and search for R-10457.Applicants must upload the following required documents to their online application. Applicants must upload the following required documents to their online application. External candidates, please upload all documents in the “Resume/CV” section of your application. Internal candidates, please upload all documents in the “Resume/Cover Letter” section of your application.
• Cover letter addressing qualifications for this position both as department chair and as a tenureeligible full professor in the department. • Curriculum vitae • Portfolio of creative production and/or research • Future Chair’s Statement: In a separate statement, please provide your assessment of the opportunities and challenges that might face a department at a public Research 1 university. You are welcome to review the current structure and units of WSU’s Department of Digital Technology & Culture, but we do not expect from this distance a detailed assessment of theunit. Rather we are most interested in your vision of scholarship, teaching, and engagement in such a unit, as well as how you understand your role in meeting the specifics opportunities and challenges that might accompany that vision. • Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as an Administrative Leader Statement • Names, addresses, and contact information of at least three references who can address your history of and potential for excellence in research, teaching, and service (letters will be requested later)
Inquiries should be directed to Dr. Katie Cooper ([email protected]), Associate Dean for Faculty and search committee chair.
Posting Close Date: Applicants must submit their completed application by November 12, 2023, at 11:59p.m.
About WSU, Pullman, CAS, and DTC: Washington State University, a land grant, multiple-campus Research 1 institution. This position will serve on the Pullman campus, which has an enrollment of around 20,000 students and is located in Southeastern Washington on the homelands of the Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) Tribe and Palus people. Located 80 miles south of metropolitan Spokane, Pullman is also a quick drive away from the scenic Idaho panhandle and Moscow Mountain. The rolling hills of the Palouse offer a wide range of activities and a true four-season climate. The area provides ample opportunity to enjoy the cultural and academic hub of both Washington State University and the University of Idaho, in the neighboring town of Moscow, Idaho. For more information about the region, please see https://pullmanchamber.com.
Encompassing more than 30 departments, schools, and research institutes on five campuses statewide, the College of Arts & Sciences is the heart of WSU. Together our 730+ faculty and staff deliver more than 50% of WSU’s total undergraduate and graduate instruction, including the vast majority of WSU’s core curriculum. We also drive annual research expenditures of more than $26 million, with wide interdisciplinary strengths in public and community health, environmental change, equity and social justice, and data and technology at the boundaries. As Arts & Sciences begins its 10th anniversary as a unified college, we seek to lead a reimagining of WSU’s land-grant mission for the 21st century, expanding the boundaries of creativity and discovery while simultaneously recognizing more completely our obligations to Native and Indigenous peoples. For more about the College of Arts & Sciences at WSU, please see https://cas.wsu.edu.
Digital Technology and Culture (DTC) is an interdisciplinary unit within the College of Arts and Sciences emphasizing humanistic understandings of technology, publicly engaged research, and creative production with a focus on social justice. The program values creative, collaborative, and publicly engaged scholarship that places an emphasis on explicitly anti-racist pedagogies, practices, and production in teaching, research, service, and scholarship that work to advance racial justice, reconciliation, and repair. The DTC program is a growing unit with several undergraduate tracks and a graduate certificate. Students in any track in the program receive instruction through engaged practice and critical approaches to a wide breath of theory, technology, and media. Digital Technology and Culture (DTC) emphasizes creative production and critical exploration of digital technology across multiple contexts. The program encourages creative research, scholarship, and production that invites critical perspectives, integrates diverse knowledge systems, and encompasses progressive and innovative uses of technology. Faculty in DTC value collaboration, commitment to interdisciplinartity, and engagement with diverse communities inside and outside the classroom. Students in DTC develop skills in web design, animation, graphic design, video production, augmented and virtual reality, and other emerging technology while integrating cultural, social, and historical perspectives, diverse methodologies, and inclusive frameworks. For more information about DTC, please see https://dtc.wsu.edu/ and https://dtc.wsu.edu/mission-vision/.
WSU acknowledges that its locations statewide are on the homelands of Native American peoples, who have lived in this region and have been caretakers of the land from time immemorial. The Morrill Act of 1862 established our land-grant institution by providing public and federal lands that are traced back to the disposition of Indigenous lands, often taken by coercive and violent acts, and the disregard of treaties. For that, we extend our deepest apologies. We owe our deepest gratitude to the Native peoples of this region and maintain our commitment towards reconciliation. And as a land-grant institution, WSU is deeply committed to the land-grant mission, its Memorandums of Understanding with Native tribes in the region, and a tradition of service to society. To read the full WSU land acknowledgement, please see https://wsu.edu/about/wsu-land-acknowledgement/.
The faculty in the Department of Digital Technology and Culture strongly encourage BIPOC (Black/Brown, Indigenous, and other People of Color) to apply.
Washington State University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Educator and Employer. Members of ethnic minorities, women, protected veterans, persons of disability and/or persons age 40 and over are encouraged to apply. WSU has faculty friendly policies including a partner accommodation program, & a NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant (see https://advance.wsu.edu) WSU employs only U.S. citizens and lawfully authorized non-U.S. citizens. All new employees must show employment eligibility verification as required by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. WSU is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities, education and employment for individuals with disabilities. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact Human Resource Services: 509-335-4521 (v), Washington State TDD Relay Service: Voice Callers: 1-800-833-6384; TDD Callers: 1-800-833-6388, 509-335-1259(f), or [email protected].