Humanities Lecturer Pool - Comparative Religious Studies

Department Summary

The Humanities Department at SJSU is a prominent center for creative, critical, interdisciplinary study and research. We offer three undergraduate degree programs: the Liberal Studies Teacher Preparation B.A.; the Creative Arts B.A.; and the Humanities B.A., in which students pursue a concentration in American Studies, Liberal Arts, or Comparative Religious Studies. The Department is also home to the Humanities Honors Program, which has both lower and upper-division Humanities Honors GE course sequences.

San José State University is a teaching-centered institution that is a national leader in graduating historically underserved students. SJSU has achieved both HSI (Hispanic Serving Institution) and AANAPISI (Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution) status. Moreover, 40% of our student population are first-generation college students and 38% are Pell-qualified. As a result, we are ranked #1—as the most transformational university in the country.

A General Note about Our Curriculum: In all of our programs, we seek to understand the profound questions about what it means to be human, while contextualizing those questions in time, place, and culture, as well as within institutions of education. We explore questions about conflict, injustice, inequality, as well as questions of beauty and meaning and creative expression. We push the boundaries of humanistic studies into environmental humanities and digital humanities. Liberal Studies Teacher Preparation majors base their training to become teachers of K-8 grade students upon a foundation in critical humanistic study.

Learn more about our department at our website.

Brief Description of Duties

Teach a range of courses in the Comparative Religious Studies concentration of the Humanities BA, including courses that meet General Education requirements (e.g., RELS70 World Religions and RELS191 Religion in America), as well as upper division Religious Studies courses that fulfill requirements for students across all three Humanities Concentrations (e.g., RELS 145 Middle Eastern Traditions and RELS 114 Legacy of Asia). Depending on your experience and expertise, there may be opportunities to teach our Humanities Core courses for majors as well as other Humanities or American Studies courses.

• Demonstrate awareness of and address the needs of a student population of great diversity–including age, abilities, cultural background, ethnicity, religion, economic background, primary language, sexual orientation, gender identity, and academic preparation–through inclusive course materials, teaching strategies and advisement.
• Faculty shall organize all their classes within the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS).
• All classes must be offered and meet as scheduled throughout the entire semester or term, in the mode assigned and listed in the schedule of classes (i.e., asynchronous, synchronous, bichronous, in-person, or hybrid).

Required Qualifications

• ABD (All but dissertation) or Ph.D. in Religious Studies or with a specialization in Religion within an related field, e.g., American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Women’s/Gender Studies, Literature, History, Environmental Humanities, Sociology, Anthropology, etc.
• Demonstrated strong college level teaching skills and experience required.
• Applicants should demonstrate an awareness of and sensitivity to the educational goals of a multicultural population as might have been gained in cross-cultural study, training, teaching and other comparable experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Interest in and record of scholarly activity desirable.