Honors - Teaching Assistant Professor – Renewable Contract

Candidates should be innovative teacher-scholars who work across disciplines and support the College's Honors Forward strategic plan. This initiative emphasizes small classes, individualized faculty interaction, first-year experiences, experiential and community-engaged learning, and research or creative projects.

Detailed Position Information

The University of Alabama Honors College, ranked as one of the top 10 honors colleges in the nation, invites applications for a faculty position at the level of teaching assistant professor of Honors in any STEM-related field. This is a full-time non-tenured, renewable contract appointment. The successful candidate will be expected to teach a variety of honors classes and will have opportunities to develop and teach seminar classes based on their area of expertise.

Guided by a newly implemented strategic plan, Honors Forward, the College seeks an innovative teacher-scholar with experience working across, between, and especially beyond disciplinary boundaries.

The initial contract is three years, with review in the third year; rank promotion is possible. The normal teaching load is 12 credits per semester, with expectations for scholarship, committee service, and contributions to the overall academic and co-curricular life of the college. Scholarship may be in the areas of engagement, teaching and learning, and/or the applicant's disciplinary area, including but not limited to public scholarship, innovative methodological/pedagogical approaches, peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters, creative work, and conference presentations. While lab space and start-up packages are unavailable, successful candidates will receive other forms of support for research, teaching, and professional development.

Minimum Qualifications

We seek candidates from all areas of STEM who are dedicated, innovative teachers and can offer courses in our transdisciplinary honors curriculum. Minimum qualifications include (1) an earned doctorate or other terminal degree in Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Technology, Engineering, Bio/Tech-ethics, or other STEM-related field and (2) teaching experience at the college/university level. The degree must be completed by the start of the appointment.

Preferred Qualifications

Honors faculty are expected to have the skills and techniques necessary to manage highly collaborative, student-centered learning, and facilitate rigorous dialogue across differing perspectives, both in and out of the classroom. The successful candidate should be able to build creative, transdisciplinary syllabi, foster dialogue among students, and help individual students hone their skills as critical and creative thinkers, citizens, and leaders.

We especially welcome applications from candidates with a background in any one or more of the following areas: first-year experience, experiential education, research/creative development, leadership studies, and transdisciplinary methods. In addition, we encourage candidates with experience mentoring students through extracurricular and/or co-curricular programming to apply.

Instructions and Required Materials for Application

Applicants should submit a cover letter expressing their interest in the position, teaching philosophy statement, CV, contact information for three academic references, and one to three recent teaching evaluations (if available). We will begin reviewing applications on October 23, 2026, and continue until the position is filled. Please direct questions to the search chair, Dr. Tara Mock, at tmock@ua.edu.

About the Division/College/School

The University of Alabama Honors College is committed to providing an unparalleled educational experience that prepares students to excel in an ever-changing global landscape. Guided by our Honors Forward strategic plan, we offer a wealth of resources and opportunities designed to empower students to reach their fullest potential.

Honors Forward encapsulates the College's mission to cultivate students who are exceptional thinkers, citizens, and leaders. With an emphasis on smaller classes and one-on-one interactions with faculty, a first-year experience, experiential and community-engaged learning, and research/creative activity that culminates in a signature project, Honors Forward is designed to help students chart their own path to academic excellence. This faculty search is one of several hiring initiatives for the College, designed to expand resources and enhance the Honors experience for the College's 7,000+ students.

About the University

The University of Alabama is located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, named one of Travel + Leisure's 25 Best College Towns and Cities in the U.S. As one of the nation's premier universities, UA offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in nearly 200 fields of study. With more than 1,400 acres of tree-lined academic core campus and over 300 state-of-the art facilities, UA has been ranked among the most beautiful and most impressive college campuses in the South, in the state of Alabama and in the nation.

In Fall 2023, the Capstone set a new enrollment record with more than 39,000 students, including more than 8,200 in the freshman class. The current enrollment includes students from every county in Alabama, every state in the nation and 92 countries around the world. More than 1,100 National Merit Scholars are currently enrolled, making UA one of the largest enrolling institutions of the scholars in the country.

UA was recently recognized as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. students for the seventh time in nine years, as well as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. Scholars for the first time. UA is one of only 12 universities in the nation to receive both honors.

For reasons like this, the University made Forbes list of America's Top Colleges for 2023 and Time magazine's list of Top 50 Best Colleges for Future Leaders. It also made Princeton Review's list of Top Value Colleges.

UA is also designated among the top doctoral research universities in the United States in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. One of the fastest growing major research institutions in the nation, UA saw a 21% increase in sponsored awards in the 2023 fiscal year.

Since 2015, UA has invested over $1.1 billion in the physical campus, adding more than 2.55 million gross square feet of space, over 150 new research-intensive faculty, signature research areas (e.g., "The Alabama Research Institutes"), and a growing number of partnerships with industry and with state and federal agencies.

The University employs nearly 2,100 faculty and over 4,500 staff, with 52 UA researchers included in the National Academy of Inventors. An additional 40 current faculty have received the NSF CAREER Award, the nation's most prestigious recognition of top performing young scientists in disciplines ranging from nanoscience and engineering to biological sciences.

Background Investigation and EEO Statement

Background Investigation Statement: Prior to hiring, the final candidate(s) must successfully pass a pre-employment background investigation and information obtained from social media and other internet sources. A prior conviction reported as a result of the background investigation DOES NOT automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration for this position. A candidate with a prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags will receive an individualized review of the prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags before a hiring decision is made.

Equal Employment Opportunity: The University of Alabama is an Equal Employment/Equal Educational Opportunity Institution. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment or volunteer status without regard to any legally protected basis and will not be discriminated against because of their protected status. Applicants and employees of this institution are protected under Federal law from discrimination on several bases. More information is available in the EEOC's Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal poster.

The University of Alabama affirms its longstanding commitment to institutional neutrality, free speech, and academic freedom.