Film and Digital Media Assistant Professor of Social Documentation and Critical Practice (UPDAT[...]

Company: University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)
Location: Santa Cruz
Posted on: January 26, 2023

Job Description:

The Department of Film and Digital Media () at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) invites applications for an Assistant Professor of Social Documentation and Critical Practice.
We seek an active filmmaker/practitioner whose work engages with the boundless expressive, connective, and disruptive potential of socially engaged documentary production, and whose methods of research, mediamaking, and critical practice are grounded in and accountable to communities that are under/misrepresented in mass media and/or systematically excluded from dominant systems of representation. We seek a colleague whose critical practice and teaching employs an intersectional approach to exploring areas of focus such as social, economic and ecological equity and justice; race and racialization; migration and globalization; gender and sexuality; disability rights; collective expression, imaginaries and resilience; and the ethics and aesthetics of representation. Drawing on their ongoing research and practice, the selected candidate will be able to teach camera-based technique courses in production and post-production of documentary film and media.
Documentary studies and practice constitute a focal point for DEI-informed work in our department, and this position will serve a deeply diverse community of students at all levels in the MFA, PhD and undergraduate programs while drawing on interdisciplinary collaborations with diverse programs such as: Critical Race and Ethnic Studies; Latin American and Latino Studies; Feminist Studies; Sociology; History of Consciousness; Politics; Psychology; Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise and Participatory Governance; Research Center for the Americas; Center for South Asian Studies; Environmental Art and Social Practice MFA and Digital Arts and New Media MFA programs.
Candidates should have a PhD and/or MFA/MA or equivalent production and demonstrated evidence of outstanding, nationally and/or internationally recognized achievement in community engaged mediamaking practices and national/international exhibition. Strong consideration will be given, as appropriate, to creative work, research, teaching record and the willingness to participate in the ongoing curricular development, diversification and decolonization of our department's program. Competency in languages additional to English is desirable as it could facilitate more diverse research perspectives, collaborations, or outreach. We expect the successful candidates to prioritize their own creative and/or scholarly work; to pursue a program of research or creative production; contribute to our general curriculum; and engage in service to the Department, Division, and Campus as well as to the field and engaged external communities. We also expect the successful candidate to contribute significantly to graduate education and the mentoring of graduate students.
The campus operates on a schedule of three 11-week quarters per academic year. In accordance with the department's workload policy, faculty members are required to offer the equivalent of 4 five-unit courses per year. Additional duties include advising and mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students, participating in faculty governance at the departmental and campus level, and actively undertaking administrative service for the department, affiliated college, and University.
The Film & Digital Media Department at UC Santa Cruz offers an undergraduate major, the two-year MFA program in Social Documentation, and a PhD program. Our curriculum reflects an understanding that intellectual and creative work are interconnected forms of production and inquiry and intervention/social impact, and challenges the traditionally conceived borders between creative and critical practice. The Arts Division, of which Film & Digital Media is a part, 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.
In addition to encouraging participation in robust departmental, divisional, and campus mentoring programs, 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-in-family undergraduate students. The Faculty Community Networking Program provides structures for faculty community, development, and support through seven groups supporting Academic Mothers; African-American/Black/Caribbean faculty; Asian American/Pacific Islander faculty; Faculty with Disabilities & Chronic Illness; Indigenous faculty; Latinx/Chicanx faculty; and Women in STEM.
Our first round of review will be solely based on (1) the statement of creative practice and research and (2) the statement of contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion. We welcome candidates who understand the barriers facing historically oppressed groups in higher education, and who have demonstrated experience in advancing equity and diversity with respect to teaching, mentoring, research, life experiences, or service towards building an equitable and diverse scholarly environment. We are looking for candidates who demonstrate effective strategies that support the recruitment and success of underrepresented scholars and students, which may take a variety of forms. 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 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.)

Keywords: University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), Santa Cruz , Film and Digital Media Assistant Professor of Social Documentation and Critical Practice (UPDAT[...], Education / Teaching , Santa Cruz, California