Syracuse University is hiring: Assistant Professor: Communication and Rhetorical

Assistant Professor: Communication and Rhetorical Studies

Job Title: Assistant Professor: Communication and Rhetorical Studies

Location: Syracuse University

Pay Range: $65,000 - $75,000

Salary offers at Syracuse University will be based on education, experience, and relevant skills, as well as the academic or professional discipline of the position in the context of the home department, school, or college. Faculty pay ranges are for 8.5 months’ salary unless otherwise specified.

FLSA Status: Exempt

Hours: Determined by Department Chair

Job Type: Full-time

Rank: Assistant

Campus: Syracuse University

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.

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. 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.

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.

Application Instructions:

In addition to completing an online application, please attach the following:

• Cover letter (no longer than 3 pages)
• Diversity and inclusion statement (no longer than 1 page)
• Name and contact information for a minimum of four (4) references

Additional materials may be requested after initial screening, such as:

• Research statement (no longer than 2 pages)
• One article/chapter-length publication or draft
• Teaching portfolio

Applications will be reviewed beginning October 1, and the position will remain open until filled.

EEO Statement: Syracuse University is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution.