Assistant Professor

The Department of French at the University of California, Berkeley invites applications for a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of French, with an expected start date of July 1, 2024.

We seek a specialist in Francophone African literature/film and/or culture whose primary research focus lies south of the Maghreb. Knowledge of another African language spoken in Francophone Africa (e.g., Wolof, Pulaar) is highly desirable, as is additional expertise in African Diaspora Studies, Caribbean Studies, or Translation Studies.

Ability to conduct courses in French is required.

The successful candidate will be a dynamic teacher of undergraduate courses as well as of graduate seminars for students with a range of disciplinary interests.

Evidence of the ability to conduct top-quality research is essential.

Evidence of excellence/distinction in research and teaching.

We encourage applications from individuals who will contribute to diversity in higher education and who show the potential to advance the department’s goal of a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive scholarly environment.

The department is committed to addressing the family needs of faculty, including dual career couples and single parents. We are also interested in candidates who have had non-traditional career paths or who have taken time off for family reasons, or who have achieved excellence in careers outside academia. For information about potential relocation to Berkeley, or career needs of accompanying partners and spouses, please visit: https://ofew.berkeley.edu/new-faculty.

About the Department:

In the Department of French at UC Berkeley, our dedicated and creative faculty shares a commitment to excellence in teaching, whether it is in an introductory French class, a specialized course for majors, a course on French literature in translation, or an advanced graduate seminar. We encourage independent and innovative thinking and research at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

For its undergraduate majors, minors, and graduate students, the department provides thorough coverage in all periods of both French and Francophone literatures and cultures. It combines this coverage with an array of related fields and topics – from literary history and theory to philosophy, to social and cultural theory, to historical and contemporary linguistics, to the study of gender and sexuality, critical race theory, colonial and post-colonial studies, historiography, visual arts and film, music, popular culture, and politics. We participate fully in the interdisciplinary emphasis that has traditionally distinguished study and research at Berkeley.

Many of our faculty members are affiliated with other programs in the University (with the Departments of Comparative Literature, Italian Studies, Film & Media, and Linguistics, with programs in Romance Languages and Literatures and in Medieval Studies, with Graduate Designated Emphases in Critical Theory; Digital Media; Women, Gender, and Sexuality; Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, and with the Berkeley Language Center, the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture and the Center for Race and Gender).