English Department - Visiting Assistant Professor (Three Year Appointment)

 

Position Title English Department - Visiting Assistant Professor (Three Year Appointment) About the University

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.

About the Department

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the English 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 English Department is currently teaching in-person classes and would require applicants to be available to teach in person.

About the Position

The Department of English at Western Washington University invites applications for a full-time, three-year Visiting Assistant Professorship in Early Modern Literature to begin September 16, 2025. This three-year position carries a 2-2-2 teaching load, including courses in English literature, literary theory, and writing about literature. The successful candidate should be prepared to teach at all levels of the curriculum. All full-time appointments include full benefits. Completion of the PhD in the relevant field is expected prior to or shortly after the date of hire.

We expect you to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents.  The Department, the College, and the University value teaching and we expect you to be an exemplary teacher; to be current in your discipline; to engage students actively in their own learning, including discussion, writing, and analysis; and to maintain high standards regarding course content.  We expect you to provide students with feedback on their course work and examinations, and to be available to students through regularly scheduled office hours.  You will be expected to have your students evaluate your courses using the standard University evaluation forms and to make those evaluations available to the department chair and faculty for annual review.

Required Qualifications

• PhD in English or other relevant field in the Humanities. If ABD, all degree requirements must be completed by June 15th of the first year of employment.
• Demonstrated successful experience teaching at the college or university level.
• Demonstrated commitment to cultivating learning environments that are equitable and inclusive of students with diverse social identities and backgrounds.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated expertise (through coursework and/or teaching) in Shakespeare studies
• Demonstrated expertise (through coursework and/or teaching) in critical race studies

Conditions of Employment 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.