Adjunct, School of Communication, Communication Studies in Digital Media and Culture

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Department:

School of Communication

Time Type:

Part time

Job Description:

The School of Communication at American University invites applications for adjunct faculty positions for spring 2025 and possibly for summer 2025. The position is within the Communication Studies division. The division has a particular need for instructors of COMM-365: Digital Media and Culture, an upper-level undergraduate course to build critical thinking skills tied to the communication studies field; a description of the course is below. Other lecture courses may become available, depending on the course schedule and the experience and stature of the candidate. Rank will depend on an applicant’s highest degree earned in Communication or a closely related field. The applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please submit a CV or resume, brief cover letter, evaluations of teaching (or equivalent portfolios to indicate teaching quality and student feedback), and any other supporting materials.

Digital Media and Culture (COMM-365) is often taught as a reading seminar and lab course, with a blend of reading responses, labs, and a final project. The course examines the role that digital media technologies play in culture and society. It presents historical and contemporary theories about how digital media enable practices through which individual identity is formed, social relations manifest, political discourse occurs, and economic power flows. It draws attention to the significance of digital media in reinforcing legacies of oppression and structures of marginalization, as well as their potential for social activism and change. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity (e.g., to examine how legacies or experiences of oppression and responses to them shape contemporary realities or conditions). By the end of this course, students will be able to: understand how digital media and culture (including individuals, communities, companies, and societies) mutually shape one another; analyze the power structures and assumptions that undergraduate everyday life online; explain how complex digital media systems such as platforms and algorithms function, through technological, economic, political, ethical, and social lenses; deconstruct and critique the interplay between digital media and culture; evaluate contemporary digital media issues.

American University is a private institution within easy reach of the many centers of government, business, research, and the arts located within the nation’s capital. For more information about American University, visit www.american.edu.

Established in 1993, the School of Communication offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs www.american.edu/soc/. Learn more about the Communication Studies division at https://www.american.edu/soc/communication-studies/. Our division has a focus on public purpose and the intersections of digital media, technology and democracy.

Please contact Dagi Kebede, Academic Program Assistant, at dkebede@american.edu if you have any questions.

The School of Communication has the following adjunct salary ranges:

Candidates Without a Terminal Degree In Course Subject Area

1-2 Credit Course: $2,865

3-4 Credit Course: $4,725

5-6 Credit Course: $4,938

Candidates With a Terminal Degree In Course Subject Area

1-2 Credit Course: $3,414

3-4 Credit Course: $5,400

5-6 Credit Course: $5,548

Benefits

AU offers a competitive benefits package including a 200% matching retireme