"Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Foundations"

Job Details

The Department of Art & Design at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in Foundations at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin September 1, 2026. The Foundations curriculum in Art & Design introduces creative literacy, experimentation, and critical thinking to undergraduate students in Fine Arts, Design, and Digital Filmmaking.

The Art & Design Department seeks to recruit a faculty member who will bring experience and vision to our Foundations program. The successful candidate will possess leadership capability with an expansive, progressive vision for foundations education, including the ability to mentor and support lecturers in the foundations area, develop curricula, construct syllabi, and assess learning. They will bring experience with and a deep commitment to supporting the needs of a demographically diverse student body. Our program integrates both physical and digital methods and materials; accordingly, we seek a candidate whose pedagogy reflects digital literacy and fluency as a maker. The curriculum connects technical skills with conceptual and critical thinking, so we value candidates who can guide students toward both practical proficiency and intellectual depth. We encourage applications from those whose research—regardless of medium—fosters collaboration, cross-pollination, and interdisciplinary engagement within and beyond our large public research university.

Candidates should be active in their field, with a significant record of professional achievement and at least three years of college-level or equivalent teaching experience. Primary teaching responsibilities include undergraduate courses in foundations as well as one annual graduate seminar in our interdisciplinary graduate program. All faculty are expected to assist in student recruitment, curriculum development, mentoring, overseeing graduate assistants, and serving on departmental and university committees.

Art & Design is committed to nurturing inclusivity, difference, equity, and excellence in a vibrant pedagogical and artistic community situated in one of the country’s most diverse research universities. Art & Design encourages applications from historically underrepresented groups in academia and the arts, including but not limited to artists of color, individuals of diverse gender identities and expressions, first-generation college and higher education students, artists with disabilities, and those with nontraditional and exceptional pathways to teaching and the arts. Like the state of New Jersey, students in Art & Design and across the University vibrantly reflect this diversity of backgrounds and identities. The successful candidate will demonstrate the cultural and critical competencies to support and engage this rich multiplicity of artistic research and student life and will have interests that align with a commitment to public education and the arts.

The Department of Art & Design at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, provides focused study in design, drawing, media, painting, photography, print, and sculpture; an environment for interdisciplinary exploration; and access to the rich intellectual resources of a major research institution. This breadth enables students to graduate with the skills and thinking necessary for careers in today’s diverse and changing world. Proximity to New York and Philadelphia gives students access to a faculty of renowned professional artists and designers, museums and galleries, and visiting artists and critics. Home to approximately 400 students, Art & Design offers BFA undergraduate concentrations in Sculpture, Printmaking, Painting, Drawing, Media, Design, Photography, and Interdisciplinary Practice. The department’s historical grounding in innovation, interdisciplinary inquiry, and critical reflection was shaped by its key involvement in the Fluxus movement; later, Rutgers, New Brunswick initiated the first non-disciplinary MFA program in the country.

Mason Gross School of the Arts is a vibrant community of artists and scholars committed to pursuing excellence, innovation, and inclusivity. Its mission is to create socially relevant art, foster diverse programming and curricula, cultivate community partnerships, and advance the arts through teaching, creative activity, advocacy, and research that contributes to the public good. Comprising 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students across programs in music, theater, dance, filmmaking, and art & design, Mason Gross is housed within Rutgers–New Brunswick, a premier Big Ten research university that serves some 50,000 students and is the flagship campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The nation’s eighth-oldest institution of higher learning, Rutgers is less than an hour by train or car to New York City and the beautiful beaches of the Jersey Shore, and just over an hour to Philadelphia.

Additional information is available at the school website: https://www.masongross.rutgers.edu

Mason Gross School of the Arts is deeply committed to the pursuit of equity, diversity, inclusion, and access, and especially encourages applications from women, underrepresented minorities, and other individuals who belong to groups that have been historically underrepresented or marginalized within higher education and the arts. Also see the Rutgers Non-Discrimination Statement at the following web address: http://uhr.rutgers.edu/non-discrimination-statement.

All offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of all pre-employment screenings.

This position is a full-time, ten-month academic appointment with an anticipated start date of September 1, 2026. Review of applications will begin on January 1, 2026 and will continue until the position is filled. For full consideration, applicants should submit materials by that date.

For questions, email foundations.search@mgsa.rutgers.edu

Applicants must submit the following:

• Cover letter
• Statement of artistic and creative research
• Statement of teaching philosophy that outlines your strategies for supporting students from backgrounds underrepresented in your academic field—including racial, ethnic, gender, socio-economic, and disability identities—and your approaches to creating inclusive and accessible learning environments
• Curriculum vitae
•  PDF with 20 images of artwork (links to time-based media may be presented in the PDF)
•  PDF with 20 images of examples of student work (links to time-based media may be presented in the PDF)
• Three course syllabi, including at least one syllabus for a Foundations-level course
• Contact information for 3 references

Candidates who progress to the first round of interviews will be asked to submit a 1-2 page statement describing their vision for Foundations education before the interview