"RESIDENT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MEDIA PRODUCTION"

Job Details

About Occidental College

Founded in 1887, Occidental is a nationally recognized, private college of the liberal arts and sciences, dedicated to providing a gifted and diverse group of students with a total educational experience of the highest quality -- one that prepares them for leadership in an increasingly complex, interdependent and pluralistic world.

What makes Occidental special? An intellectually rigorous academic environment. Small classroom settings where students collaborate with professors and their peers while pursuing or discovering their passion. A beautiful residential campus that offers students hands-on engagement with the cultural and intellectual resources of Los Angeles. A community open to stimulating conversation and divergent points of view. Some 2,100 students from 46 states and 28 countries choose from 41 majors and minors and participate in one the country’s top undergraduate research programs. Oxy students routinely win top awards and fellowships; its first Rhodes Scholar was named in 1907. Dedicated to excellence and equity, Occidental also is one of the country’s most economically diverse campuses, according to the New York Times. Some 71 percent of Oxy students receive some form of financial aid; 20 percent are Pell Grant recipients; and 19 percent are the first in their family to attend college

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RESIDENT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
OF MEDIA PRODUCTION

Media Arts and Culture

POSITION SUMMARY

Occidental College’s Media Arts & Culture Department (MAC) invites applications for a Resident Assistant
Professor Faculty position in Media Production. The position start date is August 16, 2026.

Media Arts & Culture seeks to prepare students for postgraduate success in a time of rapid change for the
creative industries and for society more broadly. We have a distinctive opportunity and obligation, via our
department’s history-theory-practice approach and the College’s commitments to interdisciplinarity,
undergraduate research, local/global perspectives, and social justice, not simply to train students for the
creative industries of today but to question and reimagine such industries and to help students navigate the
everchanging possibilities and perils of media and technology more broadly.

We are therefore seeking a film/video/media practitioner with a compelling body of creative work and
professional experience who also demonstrates a commitment to teaching such practices within core liberal
arts frameworks of criticality, historicity, and cultural questioning. The candidate should be able to teach
hands-on artistic and technical skills in lens-based media production practices that can be applied to a range of
approaches and forms across fictional, documentary, and experimental work. The ability to provide new or
more specialized offerings to the curriculum (e.g., in cinematography, sound design, virtual production, visual
effects, directing actors, production design, game design, immersive media, or installation/site-specific work)
is a plus. The new hire will teach 6 courses total (3 in Fall, 3 in Spring) including introductory, advanced, and
capstone media production courses.

Candidates should evidence a commitment to high-impact teaching and to fostering an inclusive learning
environment. As our production courses incorporate artistic and technical subjects, the successful candidate
must be able to scaffold and provide hands-on instruction in production ideation, preproduction, production
practices including the technical instruction of related equipment (whether camera, sound, or lighting), as well
as introductory and advanced post-production software/skills including advanced picture and sound editing
and color grading.

Our ideal candidate will help us continue developing and supporting our signature approach to Media Arts &
Culture--which combines media history, theory, and practice; leverages Occidental’s location in Los Angeles;
and manifests the College mission's cornerstones of Excellence, Equity, Community, and Service. Occidental is
strongly committed to a pluralistic campus community and the curriculum, and to fostering an inclusive,
equitable, and just environment within which students, staff, administrators, and faculty thrive. Candidates

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who can contribute to these aims, who can advance the College’s strategic equity and justice goals, and those
from groups that are underrepresented in the field are particularly encouraged to apply.

“Resident” is a faculty category bargained between the College and the non-tenure track faculty union.
Resident faculty are teaching faculty hired to meet long standing curricular needs at the College. They teach
foundational and required courses within a department, provide student mentoring, and serve as advisors for
students in the major or minor and pre-major/minor students (e.g., transfer, first-years). They are expected to
participate in department-level service, including but not limited to contributing to department level
assessment, student recruiting, program review, and community building. Resident faculty may engage in
scholarly activities, but scholarship is not a responsibility of the position. Resident faculty members are
appointed for an initial 1-year term, renewable in multi-year contracts, pending positive performance
evaluation and curricular need.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications:

• An MFA or Ph.D. in film/media production at time of appointment, or equivalent professional
  experience.
• Demonstrated experience with, excellence in, and commitment to teaching undergraduate media
  courses.
• Ability to teach essential courses in the curriculum including MAC 240, MAC 355, MAC 491, MAC 493,
  two new course offerings - MAC 345 (new Fictional Media Production course designation) and MAC
  392 (new Advanced Postproduction course designation), and to mentor Senior Comprehensives
  projects.
• Ability to contribute 200-level electives under the frameworks of MAC 245, MAC 247, MAC 255, or
  MAC 270.
• Commitment to high-impact teaching and to fostering an inclusive learning environment.
• Ability to contribute to the life of the department, including department service and organizing co-
• Demonstrated commitment to the principles of the department and College missions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• The ability to provide new or more specialized expertise and offerings to the curriculum (see sample
  areas in position summary).
• Experience in, or vision for, translating professional and industry experience into classroom learning.
• Ability to connect students with the creative institutions, industries, artists, and practitioners of Los

SALARY RANGE

EXPECTED SALARY RANGE (Nine-month appointment): $67,000 - $76,500

Resident faculty with a relevant terminal degree (M.F.A. or Ph.D.) will be appointed with the title Resident
Assistant Professor and those without a terminal degree, Resident Instructor. If you are offered this position at
Occidental College, your salary compensation will be determined based on the collective bargaining of the
non- tenure track union, while also taking into account factors such as skills, education, experience, and/or
geographic location. In addition to those factors, Occidental complies with applicable pay equity laws and

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considers internal equity among current employees when developing the final offer. Please keep in mind that
the salary mentioned above is the base salary for the role at the Assistant Professor/Instructor level. Hiring at
the maximum of the range would not be typical in order to allow for future and continued salary growth.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

The deadline for receiving application materials is Monday January 5, 2026 at 5pm PST.

Please submit the following via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/176373

1. a cover letter (3 pages max) detailing your interest in teaching in a liberal arts environment, describing your
   professional activity and pedagogical experience, and explaining how your past experience resonates with the
   required and preferred qualifications described above.
2. a current CV
3. a link to a professional work sample
4. a sample course syllabus from a class you have taught, or imagine teaching
5. names and contact information of three professional references, at least two of which can attest to

your teaching experience (at this point, please do not submit letters of reference)

If you have any questions about the position, the application materials, or the application instructions, please
contact the search committee Chair Prof. Aleem Hossain at ahossain@oxy.edu. If you have questions about
Interfolio or the application process, please contact the Academic Support Administrator, Beatrice Gonzales,
at facultysearch@oxy.edu.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This position is included in the NonTenure Track Bargaining Unit, and the successful applicant employee,
subject to the terms of the College’s Collective Bargaining will be a bargaining unit Agreement with SEIU Local
721.

Occidental is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate against employees or
applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression,
pregnancy, breastfeeding or related medical condition, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital
status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic characteristic or information, military
and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by state or federal law.

Salary, rank, and title are commensurate with experience and qualifications. A comprehensive benefits
package is available that includes: excellent health, dental, life, and retirement benefits; tuition benefits for
the employee, spouse, domestic partner, and dependents; additional extras including use of gym facilities and
the College Library. For a detailed description of benefits, please visit https://www.oxy.edu/offices-services/humanresources/benefits-information

All qualified applicants will be considered for employment, including those with criminal histories, in a manner
consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair
Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.

Occidental College is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with
qualifying disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the
application or employment process, please contact Human Resources (hr@oxy.edu).

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As a condition of hire for a staff position and for appointment to a faculty position, Occidental College requires
that all candidates who have received a conditional offer of employment complete an application form (if they
have not already done so) and consent to a background check. Satisfactory completion of a background check,
along with pre-employment verifications and references are required as a condition of employment, but only
as permitted by federal, state, and local law, including the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring
Ordinance.