"Visiting Assistant Professor - African American Studies"

Job Description

University of Puget Sound

Visiting Assistant Professor - African American Studies
Job ID: 8630
Location: African American Studies

Faculty Posting Details

Appointment:
A two semester Visiting Assistant Professor position housed in the African American Studies Program for the fall and spring semesters of the 2026-2027 academic year.

Context:
In this current moment when higher education and its fields that prioritize the critical examination of race and its differential intersections are under increased intellectual and financial attack, we seek a colleague with a degree in Black Studies/African American Studies who will help continue our work and provide ideas for stability and future growth. This colleague will practice the corrective and counter narrative stance of Black Studies to invest in this field even amidst broader socio-political conditions and institutional actions which pronounce its "lack of educational value" and enact its dismantling.
This colleague will help us grapple with the public ethical concerns of the past, present, and future, including responsibilities for repair, the (re)understanding of the implication of borders, and the imposition of gender norms. In our present, and looking towards our futures, African American Studies desires to continue embracing community in new ways, especially with a lens of public and digital spaces. We also desire to build on our unique interdisciplinary models of infusion and elevated attention to Public Scholarship as innovative pedagogical and scholarly practice.
The teacher-scholar who will be ready to take on the big public ethical questions would also be someone who teaches with critical race and decolonial frameworks, intersectional lenses, and critical futurisms. We seek teachers and scholars whose research engages Black social and political thought and who possesses the theoretical, practical, intercultural, and communal knowledge of social justice approaches and pedagogies.

Responsibilities:
Teach three courses in fall `26 and three in spring `27. Depending on expertise, these classes could be made up of the following courses: AFAM 401, Narratives of Race; AFAM 305, Black Fictions and Feminisms; AFAM 205, Survey of Race and Culture in Ethnic Literature; AFAM 380, Special Topics in Race and Ethnicity; AFAM 375, The Harlem Renaissance; and CCS 176, Imaging Blackness. The University of Puget Sound offers faculty the opportunity to teach in the summer for additional compensation.

Qualifications:
A doctoral degree (ABD considered) in African American/Black Studies or a relevant field in the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences, and a commitment to liberal arts education are required. We particularly seek a colleague with training in African American/Black Studies for this visiting position with approaches that are interdisciplinary, and even more so, transdisciplinary, and who deeply engages decolonial thought. Such a colleague's training would support the continued work of African American Studies, in collaboration with the Race & Pedagogy Institute, to bring the critical insights of the African American Studies discipline to course content across the university campus. With this kind of intellectual orientation, such a colleague will advance our relationship-making work and engagements with differential publics within our campus communities. In this time of intensified public calls to recognize and come to terms simultaneously with the differential histories of peoples and communities of color who are oppressed, we are looking for a colleague who is ready to do the intentional work of critical and reflexive inclusivity through a decolonial framework. We highly desire candidates with the theoretical foundations which allow them to teach about, and engage, beyond one racially ethnic people.

Application Deadline:
Review of applications will begin March 30, 2026, with a goal of hiring for fall 2026, but application reviews will continue until the position is filled.

Compensation and Benefits:
Rank: Visiting Assistant Professor
Salary is commensurate with education and experience.
Faculty salaries at the University of Puget Sound are based on a common salary scale based on experience. Assistant Professor salaries in 2025-2026 begin at $73,904 annualized for an assistant professor without a terminal degree in their field in their first year of full-time post-doctorate teaching through $83,262 annualized based on experience.
Puget Sound offers a generous benefits package. For more information, visit: Summary of 2026 Benefits for Faculty Members.pdf

Required Documents:
Applicants submitted without the required attachments will not be considered.

• Curriculum vitae
• Letter of Interest
• Teaching statement
• Writing sample
• Diversity Statement (see prompt below)
• Unofficial transcripts (an official transcript will be required by the successful candidate)
• Contact Information for 3 References. You will be prompted to enter the contact information for three (3) reference providers. The system will automatically email these reference providers to request a letter.

Note: In the online application system, please submit curriculum vitae when prompted to submit resume. Additional documents can be attached within the application.

Applicant's Diversity Statement:
As a department and university, we are strongly committed to creating an inclusive and effective teaching, learning, and working environment for all. In their diversity statement, applicants should reflect on how they will advance the values articulated in the University Diversity Statement in all aspects of their future work as faculty and members of the university community.

All offers of employment are contingent on successful completion of a background inquiry.
The University of Puget Sound is an equal opportunity employer.

How to Apply
For complete job description and application instructions, visit: www.pugetsound.edu/employment