Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric

Classification:  Academic Year Faculty
Priority Screening Date:  January 7, 2025
Recruitment Status:  Open Until Filled
Appointment Date:  Fall 2025 

California State University, Monterey Bay is a mid-sized university in California’s Central Coast that grants undergraduate and graduate degrees. Powered by an inspiring Founding Vision Statement, CSUMB is part of the nation’s largest four-year public university system, California State University, which educates nearly 460,000 students every year. 

With a vibrant, diverse student body of over 7,000 students, CSU Monterey Bay is both a Minority Serving Institution and a Hispanic Serving Institution. Our staff and faculty transform students’ lives with a focus on student success and engagement through experiential learning, service learning, and a strong emphasis on multicultural and global perspectives. CSUMB’s sustainability goal is to be carbon neutral by 2030. 

The university’s Strategic Plan prioritizes inclusive excellence through recruiting and investing in developing a diverse body of faculty, staff and administrators. Many appreciate living and working close to the shores of beautiful Monterey Bay, with easy access to recreational areas from Big Sur to Santa Cruz. Nearby opportunities for collaborative research include working in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Silicon Valley, and with colleagues at local research universities, including UC Santa Cruz and Stanford University.

As one of the 23 campuses in the CSU system, CSUMB offers excellent benefits, including access to below-market-rate rental housing on East Campus, and competitive salaries for faculty and staff. With proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area and San Jose, opportunities for faculty, staff and students are as endless as the shores of the nearby Pacific Ocean.

The Department of Humanities and Communication (HCOM), seeks an Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric qualified to prepare a diverse group of students, many from historically underserved communities, for leadership in a multicultural society. HCOM is committed to inclusive excellence, innovation in interdisciplinary teaching and learning, quality scholarship, and collaborative and imaginative program development. HCOM fosters an educational environment of cultural and linguistic diversity and gender equity, ethical reflection and practice, and a commitment to working across disciplinary boundaries. The curriculum prepares students to be ethical, creative, and critical thinkers and doers in a multicultural and increasingly interconnected global society. Toward that end, through its degree programs, HCOM offers students a comprehensive, interdisciplinary humanities and liberal arts education for the 21st century.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Teach lower- division General Education courses in Oral and Written Communication and Critical Thinking
• Teach upper- division courses in Argumentation, Composition Studies, and/or Rhetorical Theory
• Strong commitment to innovative curriculum development
• Mentoring students, including those from non-traditional, first generation, working class, and ethnically diverse backgrounds
• Contributing to the service and community-building needs at the Department, College and University levels
• Typical teaching load is 12 credits per semester

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Ph.D. in English Composition, Rhetoric, Communication Studies or related discipline by the time of appointment
• Demonstrated experience and commitment to working with colleagues and students across a range of disciplinary areas
• Demonstrated teaching experience and ability to work with an ethnically and linguistically diverse student population, including non-native speakers of English
• Ability to engage with an integrated approach to reading, writing, and oral communication
• Experience with, and knowledge of, inclusive pedagogies
• Research and teaching interests in composition studies, literacy studies, and/or the scholarship of teaching and learning in composition and communication
• Experience working effectively in an ethnically and culturally diverse campus community

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Skill in cross-cultural, experiential, and assets-based pedagogies
• Expertise in an area of ethnic and/or transnational rhetoric(s)