"Assistant Professor of Communication/Media Studies"

The Department of Communication at Denison University is seeking a tenure-track assistant professor in Media Studies. Qualified candidates will have a PhD in Communication or Media Studies and demonstrated experience teaching media courses. A PhD must be in hand when the appointment begins in August, 2026.

Successful candidates will contribute to expanding and deepening our media studies curriculum with an emphasis on rigorously informed, humanistic approaches to the study of digital transformations in screen cultures, broadcast media and the broader televisual ecosystem. We are interested in a candidate whose teaching and research examines the increasingly diverse and changing nature of screen cultures, media consumption and culture industries in an era when proliferating networked devices, audience analytics, and streaming platforms are transforming patterns of cultural engagement and changing the meaning, form, and power of digital media. Candidates must also be able to teach at least one of the core courses in the department (COMM 280: Theorizing Communication and COMM 290: Research in Communication).

Our program’s commitment to the study of Communication in a liberal arts setting hinges on understanding the symbolic dynamics at play in the intersection of communication and power, culture, history, relationship(s), economics, politics, textual genres, and media. We equip students with critical thinking skills that prepare them to read and understand with nuance and attention to context, to problem solve with creativity, to research with rigor and passion for seeking truth, and to listen with an open mind and awareness of differences. We cultivate in students a love of knowledge, an understanding of how our collective meaning-making builds our worlds, and a curiosity for crafting yet-to-be-imagined realities.

The teaching load for tenure-track faculty is 3/2, making Denison a supportive environment for teacher-scholars who value classroom, research excellence, and service. Our new colleague will contribute to our Department's pluralistic approaches to the study of communication, pursue teaching excellence in a rigorous undergraduate liberal arts curriculum in Communication, develop a program of research leading to peer-reviewed publication, and reflect strong commitments to departmental citizenship and university governance.

Denison is a highly selective, fully residential liberal arts college enrolling approximately 2,400 students from diverse backgrounds across the nation and around the world. The college is located in the village of Granville and is part of the growing and thriving Columbus metropolitan region. Granville offers an excellent public school system and easy access to outdoor activities.

A supportive environment for teacher-scholars who value both classroom and research excellence, Denison offers extensive support for its faculty, including an annual professional development account, competitive professional development funding, and a one-semester research leave after a successful pre-tenure review. The college also offers opportunities for student-faculty research collaboration, stipends for supervising summer-research students, and a range of workshops and mentoring programs to develop our strengths as teacher-scholars. Denison offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package, including tuition benefits to attend Denison or other affiliated colleges and a generous retirement contribution.

Review of applications begins November 3, 2025. The position is open until filled. Questions about the position should be directed to Dr. Jeffrey Kurtz, Department Chair (kurtz@denison edu).