First-Year Composition Director

Job description

The Department of English at the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) is seeking a tenure-track Assistant Professor to join the faculty and serve as First-Year Composition (FYC) Director, beginning August 2024.  The successful candidate will collaborate with current faculty to enhance well-established curricular and institutional programs. 

Our FYC Director will be an experienced leader who has administrative experience in a writing program or writing center that is ready to support and collaborate with our diverse students, faculty, and staff.   The search committee is especially interested to hear from candidates who approach first-year composition from multiple perspectives and who are prepared to guide instructors in the promotion of critical thinking in their classrooms.  To this end, our FYC Director will draw from current composition praxis to provide curricular, administrative, and pedagogical leadership for teachers in our FYC program via effective communication and professional development opportunities.

Publications in the candidate’s field of expertise and university service are required for tenure. The teaching load is 4/3 but the FYC Director position comes with two course releases each long semester resulting in a 2/1 teaching load.  Additional adjustments are made for graduate teaching. 

Please submit a CV and cover letter describing your experience with writing program administration, research agenda, and teaching experience by Monday, January 8, 2024. 

Required qualifications

• PhD in Rhetoric & Composition by initial appointment
• Administrative experience in a writing program or writing center
• Teaching experience in First-Year Composition

Preferred qualifications

• Expertise with first-generation and non-traditional student populations
• Trans-lingual theories and pedagogies of writing
• Experience and / or research in multi-modal composition and language variation
• Additional experience teaching advanced composition courses and graduate courses in composition and rhetoric

Notes to applicants

Candidates selected for additional consideration may be contacted to send additional materials such as letters of recommendation, writing samples, teaching philosophy, etc.  First-level interviews will be conducted via Zoom and then selected candidates will be invited to campus.    

Direct inquiries about the position can be sent to the search committee chair, Dr. Sara Farris at farriss@uhd.edu.