Assistant Professor, First-Year Composition and Digital Literacies

Assistant Professor, First-Year Composition and Digital Literacies
Department of English
College of Liberal Arts
CLA-3825

Position:

The Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track, 9-month Assistant Professor position with primary specialization in First-Year Composition and additional specialization in Digital Literacies beginning August 2025.

Qualifications:

Doctorate required. ABD applicants considered, but appointment will be at the Instructor rank and all degree requirements must be completed by February 1, 2026. The candidate should have a doctorate in Rhetoric and Composition, Writing Studies, or closely related field. We particularly welcome applications from candidates whose research and teaching address the following areas: critical digital writing pedagogies and theories, digital rhetorics and literacies, multimodal course design and pedagogy, assessment of digital composing and texts.

Responsibilities:

3/3 courseload including the regular teaching of first-year writing as well as upper-level ENGL courses that centralize digital literacies and multimodal composing. Designing of new ENGL courses in the candidate’s area(s) of expertise within new ENGL major curriculum. Teaching of graduate courses in the Professional Writing and Rhetoric (PRWR) program based on scheduling needs and candidate interest. Advising of 10-15 undergraduate majors. Applicants will need to demonstrate the potential for strong research, excellent teaching, and service aligned with the college’s expected outcomes of impact, innovation, and engagement toward R2 status and the university’s new strategic plan.

Department:

The department offers majors in writing, literature, and secondary education. The department is currently finalizing a new curriculum that expands opportunities for students to take writing classes, including classes aligned with the position advertised here. Recent hires in the department include faculty with specializations in technical communication, composition, and community writing partnerships, and additional searches this academic year aim to welcome colleagues in fiction writing and in technical communication.

Annually, departmental faculty, over 70% of whom are full-time, offer over 120 sections of first-year writing (ENGL 102) annually in the university’s Core curriculum. Departmental faculty also teach extensively across other offerings in the Core curriculum. At the graduate level, the department offers the Professional Writing and Rhetoric M.S. program with tracks in writing for public and private sectors, technical writing and information design, teaching writing, journalistic writing, scientific writing, and creative writing. English department faculty and students also publish Grub Street, TU’s award-winning literary and arts magazine.  

Towson University: Towson University (www.towson.edu), founded in 1866, is recognized by U.S. News and World Reports as one of the top public universities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, is the Baltimore area’s largest university, and is the largest public, comprehensive institution in the University of Maryland System. TU enrolls over 19,000 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students across six academic colleges (business, education, fine arts, health professions, liberal arts, science & mathematics), has 900 full-time faculty, and offers 65 bachelor’s, 42 master’s, and 4 doctoral programs. Our centrally located campus sits on 330 rolling green acres and is 10 miles north of Baltimore, 45 miles north of Washington D.C., and 95 miles south of Philadelphia.

Application Process:

Review of applications begins immediately and continues until the position is filled. Priority given to applications received by November 1st. To apply, send a cover letter and a curriculum vita through the university’s Taleo system (link provided below). Additional materials (writing sample, teaching philosophy, and three letters of recommendation) will be requested at a later date.

Address letters and materials to: Matt Dowell, Associate Professor of English

Click here to apply. Please note that the search number for which you are applying is CLA-3825

A Criminal Background Investigation is required for the hired candidate and the results may impact employment.

The safety of our students, faculty, staff, and neighbors has been our top priority and the focus of every one of our decisions since the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the University System of Maryland (USM) has strongly encouraged full COVID vaccination and up-to-date booster shots (when eligible) for all faculty, staff, and students at all schools in the USM as both a reasonable and necessary means of protecting our health and safety.

Please be sure to visit the Applicant Data Form to complete a voluntary on-line applicant data form. The information you provide will inform the university's affirmative action plan and is for statistical-related purposes only. The information will not be used for any other purpose.

Towson University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and has a strong institutional commitment to diversity, as detailed in A More Inclusive TU: Advancing Equity and Diversity (2020 – 25). TU is a national leader in inclusive excellence, the only institution in Maryland with zero achievement gap, and 68% growth in minority enrollment over the past 5 years.  We encourage application from a variety of (dis)abilities, cultural, ethnic, race, sex, gender identity/expression, national origin, age, veteran status, color, religious, socio-economic, sexual orientation and belief backgrounds.