art.positions

The Film and Media Studies Program and the Media Arts area of the Department of Art at the University of South Carolina are pleased to announce two tenure-track positions in media studies to begin August 2009. Both lines are approved at the rank of Assistant Professor, and we are authorized to hire one of them at the rank of Associate Professor. The positions are in the areas of: (1) Popular Contemporary Media Studies and (2) Global Media Histories/Practices.

For the position in popular, contemporary (post-1970s) media studies possible areas of expertise could include a range of approaches to global Hollywood: e.g., popular genres in film and/or television and how they travel; industrial practices of globalized entertainment; transnational circuits of influence to and from US media and other international sites. They might also include a wide range of international and diasporic media phenomenon that complicate oversimplified conceptions of Hollywood/US dominance through diverse practices of reception, production, engagement, and resistance. In either case, we seek someone who can place contemporary, mainstream English-language media in a global frame.

For the position in global media histories/practices we seek a media historian whose work engages issues concerning international (non US), comparative, and/or transnational media production and/or consumption. Potential areas of specialization might include: the history of animation to the present, political economies of global film/media, the emergence of post-colonial film/media, the transnational development of film/media, and the historiography of global media studies. We welcome specializations within and across a wide range of cultural, national, regional, technological, and linguistic territories.

USC, Columbia is the flagship campus of a public, state university system, and is designated by the Carnegie Foundation with its highest classification for research activity. These joint positions will help develop the critical media studies components of both an ambitious, rapidly growing film and media studies program and a thriving media production program. Teaching for both units will include courses in media criticism, history, and/or theory.

Successful candidates should have a Ph.D. in hand at time of appointment and demonstrated excellence in research and teaching. Scholars engaged in media practice as well as critical media history and theory would be of particular interest, although this is not required.

For full consideration, applications should be postmarked by October 3, 2008. Applicants should send a cover letter, CV, three letters of recommendation, and a writing sample of no more than 30 pp. to:

Popular Contemporary Media Search
Film and Media Studies Program
406 Welsh Humanities Office Building
University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208

or

Global Media Search Film and Media Studies Program
406 Welsh Humanities Office Building
University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208

Questions can be sent to: courtney@sc.edu