Job Description

Visiting Assistant Professor - Cultural Anthropology

Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western's greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive. In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Anthropology Department support Western's mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.

The Department of Anthropology is actively engaged, in cooperation with our students and community members, in decolonizing our curriculum. We include a wide variety of courses that specifically incorporate accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) topics and active research. As a community of scholars, we have an extensive history of collaborative, graduate, and undergraduate papers, posters, and publications in national and regional forums directly addressing ADEI issues and research. We have worked, over several decades, to create collaborative ties with local Coastal indigenous communities and create a welcoming and supportive learning environment at the University. The Department has a growing interest in advancing digital humanities initiatives on campus. 

For more information about the Anthropology Department, please visit the department website. 

The Department of Anthropology welcomes qualified applicants for a one-year Visiting Assistant Professor position focused on Cultural Anthropology. The successful candidate will be responsible for a range of topical courses appropriate to their qualifications and complementing the Department’s four-field approach. The expected teaching load is 7 courses a year on a 10-week quarter system (i.e., teaching 2 courses in two quarters and 3 in one quarter). Additional face-to-face and/or online courses are possible during the Summer 2025 term. 

Courses taught may include Intro to Cultural Anthropology, Qualitative Research Methods, Anthropological Theory, Sex and Gender in Culture, and other Cultural Anthropology courses to meet curricular needs. 

• MA in Anthropology or related field.
• Record of undergraduate teaching experience as instructor of record in relevant courses.
• Experience, ability, and demonstrated commitment to cultivating learning environments that are equitable and inclusive of students from diverse backgrounds and social identities. 
• Specialty or subspecialty in Cultural Anthropology

• Specialty or subspecialty in Cultural Anthropology. 
• Ph.D. or ABD status in Anthropology or related field
• Research and/or teaching that engages critical scholarship and addresses critiques of anthropological practice, including considerations of colonialism and empire, systemic racism, and other systems of power. 
• Demonstrated ability to teach one or more classes such as: Intro to Cultural Anthropology, Qualitative Research Methods, Sex and Gender in Culture, American Indian Perspectives, Latin American Perspectives, Anth Perspectives on Asia, Intercultural Education, Anthropology of Childhood, Participatory Action Research and other Cultural Anthropology courses to meet curricular needs 

All employees must comply with our Immunization policies, including Proof of Rubeola Measles Immunity within 60-days of hire. Please reach out to HR@wwu.edu if you need information regarding medical or religious exemption and applicable accommodations.

$1,178-1,324 per credit, commensurate with experience and qualifications. The expected teaching load is up to 2 or 3 courses a quarter (5 credits each). Additional summer courses are also possible.

Benefits Information

United Faculty of Western Washington

A cover letter and curriculum vitae and one syllabus for a class for which you have been primary instructor are required. Your letter should address your experience related to the position responsibilities and the required and preferred qualifications. 

You will be asked to provide contact information of three references. 

Application review begins September 3, 2024; the position is open until filled.

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