Visiting Assistant Professor in Communication Design

Position: Two-year, full-time, 9-month, faculty position

Date of Expected Hire: August 16, 2025

Salary: $72,000 with a highly competitive benefits package

The School of Art + Art History in the College of the Art at the University of Florida invites applications for a two-year visiting position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Communications Design/Design & Visual Communications. This position will contribute to a vibrant, growing program with a forward-looking new curriculum at a top public research university. They will join the program at an exciting moment of expansion and development that parallels the university’s increased cultivation of research and the student experience.

This position will run MINT Design Studio, a faculty-supervised student-run design studio established in 2002 to provide advanced design students the opportunity to apply design in real-world contexts. Students experience MINT as a course that guides them through all aspects of professional experience, from finding and working with client-partners to co-designing solutions to client problems delivered at the end of the semester. In addition, this position will teach other undergraduate courses in the BFA or minor in Graphic Design.

The University of Florida College of the Arts intends to be a transformative community, responding to and generating paradigmatic shifts in the arts and beyond. As artists and scholars, we embrace the complexity of our evolving human experience and seek to empower our students and faculty to shape that experience fearlessly through critical study, creative practice, and provocation. We seek a colleague who identifies as a change-maker. We seek a colleague who will prepare students to access and unsettle centers of power of any ideology in a radically changing world. We seek a colleague who will position emerging artists and researchers as catalysts for justice on local and global levels.

The University of Florida is an equal opportunity institution dedicated to building a broadly diverse and inclusive faculty and staff. 

This position is covered by the United Faculty of Florida Contract.  You can view this employment union contract here https://hr.ufl.edu/manager-resources/employee-relations/union-contracts/united-faculty-of-florida-contract/.  

Responsibilities:

• Teach a 3-2 or 2-3 load in the Fall and Spring semesters
• We anticipate this will include two sections of MINT each semester.
• We anticipate that the fifth course each year will be a course in the Graphic Design minor, such as GRA 3816C, Design Thinking or GRA 3138C, Graphic Design Practice, a foundations course such as GRA 113C, Design Studies or Quest, Design and Identity in Everyday Life.
• Participate in our learning community actively, finding innovative ways to connect design to critical discourse in other disciplines.
• Participate in shared governance through service to the School, College, and University

SCHOOL OF ART + ART HISTORY: Organized within the College of the Arts, the School of Art + Art History nurtures a culture of critical inquiry in our scholarly and creative work. Our educational mission is to empower each student with knowledge, skills, and insight to engage thoughtfully with our changing world. The SA+AH believes that art, design, and scholarship are critical to our local, university, regional, national, and international communities. We pursue positive transformation and impact through socially engaged, local and global education, research, and creative works. Our community asks challenging questions, takes risks, and strives for excellence through an interdisciplinary, inclusive, and often collaborative practice. School of Art + Art History faculty publish, curate, and exhibit widely and internationally. They bring their scholarship and production into their teaching, offering innovative, engaged learning experiences to their students. We foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community through mutual respect and acceptance, assuming the best in others to enable a culture where everyone can flourish. Degree programs include the BA, BFA, MA, MFA, and PhD. Areas of study include art education, art history, design, museum studies, and studio art. The school has 360 undergraduate students enrolled in our majors and 170 graduate students in our residential programs and online art education MA. Also a part of the School of Art + Art History are the 4Most Gallery and the University Galleries, which provide exhibition space for contemporary art, including student work. The University of Florida is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. The art education program is accredited by NCATE. For more information, visit www.arts.ufl.edu/art.

THE COLLEGE OF THE ARTS: The mission of the College of the Arts is to be a transformative community, responding to and generating paradigmatic shifts in the arts and beyond.  We achieve the university’s mission by training professionals and educating students as artists and scholars, while developing their capacities for critical study, creative practice, and provocation.  The College offers baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral degrees. Approximately 1,700 students are pursuing majors in degrees offered by the College of the Arts under the direction of 135 faculty members in its three accredited schools— the School of Art + Art History, the School of Music, and the School of Theatre + Dance, and in the Center for Arts in Medicine, the Digital Worlds Institute, and the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship. In addition, the college comprises the University Galleries, and the University level of the New World School of the Arts in Miami. 

The University of Florida: The University of Florida is a comprehensive learning institution built on a land grant foundation, ranked one of the top five best public universities in the nation in U.S. News & World Report. We are The Gator Nation, a diverse community dedicated to excellence in education and research and shaping a better future for Florida, the nation and the world. Our mission is to enable our students to lead and influence the next generation and beyond for economic, cultural and societal benefit. UF is a graduate research institution with more than 50,000 students and membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities. Gainesville, which is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most livable cities, is located midway between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Together, the University and the community comprise the educational, medical and cultural center of North Central Florida, with outstanding resources such as the University of Florida Performing Arts (Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the Squitieri Studio Theatre, the Baughman Center, University Auditorium), the Harn Museum of Art, the Florida Museum of Natural History and in the community, the Hippodrome State Theatre and Dance Alive National Ballet.

$72,000 with a highly competitive benefits package

The successful candidate must meet all of the following:

• Terminal degree (e.g. MFA, PhD) in Graphic Design or closely related field.
• Experience as instructor of record in higher education beyond graduate student assistantship.
• Applied knowledge of contemporary design issues, design research, and/or design practice.
• Evidence of skill in designing and facilitating academic work that advances curiosity, inclusion, open intellectual discourse, and the well-being of all in an environment of complex diversities.
• Evidence of successful collaboration and collegiality with faculty, students, and staff.

The successful candidate will meet some of the following:

• Evidence of success as an undergraduate instructor, preferably in a BFA or other bachelor’s program that prepares students for professional practice
• Experience overseeing a student-run design studio or course organized as a student-run design studio that finds and serves clients
• Experience of community-based projects that connect academic research with public interest, for example co-design and/or participatory design projects.
• Evidence of a commitment to innovative and cross-disciplinary curricula.
• Demonstrated aptitude for working toward structural and strategic change, particularly in relationship to pluriversality.

Application Deadline: Review of applications will begin immediately.  For consideration, all application documents must be submitted by 11:55pm on Monday, April 14, 2025.

Application Process: Applications must be submitted via the University of Florida’s online application system.  Online applications must include the following: (1) a detailed cover letter that explains how you match the particular qualifications of this position and how your work and perspective will contribute to and enhance our transformative community; (2) a curriculum vitae; (3) A PDF portfolio (one file, 5 MB maximum) or a link to a website, which includes a) 10-15 examples of your creative research, scholarship, professional praxis, or related production and b) 10-15 examples of student work; and (4) names and contact information of three professional references, among which one must be a staff member with whom you have worked in the past.

The selected candidate will be required to provide an official transcript to the hiring department upon hire. A transcript will not be considered “official” if a designation of “Issued to Student” is visible. Degrees earned from an educational institution outside of the United States are required to be evaluated by a professional credentialing service provider approved by National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES).

If an accommodation due to a disability is needed to apply for this position, please call +1 (352) 392- 2477or the Florida Relay System at +1 (800) 955-8771 (TDD). Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the US. Searches are conducted in accordance with Florida's Sunshine Law.