Pathways to the Professoriate (Mancosh Fellowship)

Pathways to the Professoriate Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

As part of a continuing commitment to build a culturally diverse intellectual community the School of Communication at Northwestern is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 call for applications for the Pathways to the Professoriate Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, made possible by the Office of the Provost and SoC through the David Mancosh Pathways to the Professoriate Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund. The program aims to recruit and retain exceptional early-career scholars in the communication arts and sciences whose research demonstrates a sustained commitment to building an inclusive and diverse intellectual community and who come from historically underrepresented backgrounds. The program's overall goal is to transition fellows to tenure-track faculty members after two years.

Field(s):

The School of Communication at Northwestern seeks one Mancosh Fellow in the area of New Media. This fellow will either be appointed in the department of Radio/Television/Film or Communication Studies depending on their specific research interests. It is also expected that the fellow will have a courtesy appointment in the department that is not selected as the fellow's tenure home.

- Communication Studies: New Media

The highly interdisciplinary Department of Communication Studies is enthusiastic about early career scholars whose work focuses on new media and contributes to our strengths in the areas of health communication; technology and social behavior; strategic and organizational communication; rhetoric, media and publics; and media industries and culture. Our current faculty enable and create communication interventions and technologies with the potential for transformative outcomes on a broad range of issues. Our department offers three doctoral programs in Media, Technology & Society; Technology & Social Behavior; and Rhetoric, Media & Publics. We invite scholars whose work draws on a humanistic, social science, and/or computational perspective to apply. Applicants are encouraged to specify a preference for the Department of Communication Studies, and indicate the specific topic areas to which they will contribute.

- Radio, Television & Film: New Media

The Department of Radio/TV/Film seeks to recruit a scholar or practitioner doing innovative work in the field of new media. The candidate's research and/or areas of study should focus on one or more of the following: media arts, game design and game studies, sound design, digital humanities and videographic criticism, transmedia studies, artificial intelligence studies, expanded digital-media practices or similar areas. Our Department offers an MFA program in Documentary Media, an MFA in Writing for Screen and Stage, an MA in Sound Arts and Industries, a Ph.D program in Screen Cultures, as well as a wide variety of undergraduate classes focused on production, screenwriting and media studies. The candidate should anticipate supporting one or more of these programs and is expected to maintain an active scholarly or creative agenda. Applicants are encouraged to specify a preference for the Department of Radio/TV/Film.

Preferred Start Date: September 1, 2025

• Applicants must have completed their doctoral degree or terminal degree in their field within the past five (5) academic years [not before 2019] and no later than September 1, 2025. *
• The primary criterion for selection is applicants whose scholarship or creative work will contribute to a diverse and inclusive intellectual community while being competitive for a potential tenure track appointment in the School of Communication.
• An important secondary criterion is the support of the proposed department to host the fellow.
• Applicants will be expected to teach one (1) academic course in their area of expertise each year of the fellowship program.

*If a selected applicant has held a tenure-track appointment(s) at other institutions prior to joining this program, we will consider this service when determining the length of the applicant's probationary period ("tenure clock") upon transition to a tenure-eligible position at Northwestern, following the successful completion of this program.

• $75,000 per calendar year, plus health benefits
• $5,000 per year research funds for research expenses, including travel
• $5,000 in moving expenses
• Office space and computer
• Departmental mentoring and workshops
• Offer of a tenure-track position at the end of the fellowship, subject to satisfactory performance

Application:

For full consideration, please be sure to include the following materials in your application:

1. Cover letter addressed to Mancosh Pathways Postdoctoral Fellowship Committee
2. Curriculum vitae
3. A statement of research plans (1-3 pages)
4. A Contribution to Diversity Statement articulating how your scholarship or creative work will contribute to a diverse and inclusive intellectual community.
5. Writing samples (e.g., publications, dissertation chapters, no more than 25 pages)
6. Work samples (If it is relevant to the application please include URLs that link to your personal website or videos.)
7. Three (3) contacts for letters of recommendation, including the applicant's dissertation or thesis advisor

Email your questions regarding the program to soc-facultyaffairs@northwestern.edu.

Closing Date: December 1, 2024; For full consideration, applications should be submitted by the deadline, but review of applications will continue until the position is filled.

The School:

At Northwestern's School of Communication, we engage in serious play - in our collaborations, our research and our deep scholarship that creates real impact in the real world. Our approach is rooted in providing a playground for serious ideas, experimentation, and exploration. The School of Communication has five departments and offers a suite of interdisciplinary undergraduate, professional, and graduate programs. The departments span the communication arts and sciences including the Department of Radio-Television-Film, the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, the Department of Communication Studies, the Department of Performance Studies, and the Department of Theatre (which includes music theatre and dance). The faculty of over 180 includes 102 tenure-track faculty. The school offers instruction to roughly 1000 undergraduate majors and 650 graduate and professional students. Founded over 135 years ago, the School has been a leader in developing communication disciplines and professions and continues to be a center of excellence in the communication arts and sciences. Our current Dean is E. Patrick Johnson.

The University:

Northwestern University is one of the nation's largest private research universities. Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, the main campus is in Evanston and the medical and law campus is 12 miles south in downtown Chicago. There is continuing expansion of University facilities and programs, particularly in the sciences and medicine. Diverse cultural, social, and recreational activities abound on and near each campus.

The Northwestern campus sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. We acknowledge and honor the original people of the land upon which Northwestern University stands, and the Native people who remain on this land today.