Hiring

The School of Communication is hiring in 2014. There are two positions that may be of interest to faculty doing work in communication technology.

1. Tenure-track assistant professor whose research and teaching focuses on the implications of social media for strategic and/or organizational communication. Candidates should employ an empirical, social scientific research approach, and may ground their research interests in any of a variety of areas of communication, such as health, political, interpersonal, or mass communication. Candidates may also be interested in the university’s emerging programs in Data Analytics and other university initiatives, including the new undergraduate major in Data Analytics (https://data-analytics.osu.edu/) within the College of Arts and Sciences, OSU Discovery Themes (http://discovery.osu.edu/), and the Behavioral Decision-Making Initiative (https://bdm.osu.edu/) See https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/4402 for more information.


2. Tenure-track assistant professor or tenured associate professor in the area of Communication Technology. Candidates may focus on computer-mediated communication (CMC), human-computer interaction (HCI), or specific subareas of communication technology, such as psychological aspects of user experiences, the effects of digital representations, or research specific to certain contexts of digital communication. See https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/4401 for more information.

Jodi Whitaker accepts position at U Arizona

Congratulations to Jodi Whitaker, who has just accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the U of Arizona.  Jodi will be continuing her fascinating work on video games there starting in August 2014.

Post-doc opportunity

This post-doc will be housed in ASU's Sociology program, but applicants from other disciplines are welcome to apply.  If you're interested in youth political engagement, online protest, flash activism, etc., read on. Personally, I think this is a terrific opportunity for someone. I've known Jenn, the project director, for several years; she's great.  

Youth Activism Postdoctoral Fellowship

Job ID: 9300
Institution: University of Arizona
Department: School of Sociology
Title: Youth Activism Postdoctoral Fellowship
Position/Rank: Fellowships/Post-docs - Post-doctoral

The Youth Activism Project, housed in the School of Sociology at the University of Arizona, invites applications for a one-year, renewable postdoctoral fellowship on youth and participatory politics to begin in Fall 2013. The Youth Activism Project, directed by Dr. Jennifer Earl, is part of the MacArthur Network on Youth and Participatory Politics. It is focused on youth engagement in protest, particularly online protest and flash activism.

The postdoctoral fellow will be responsible for working with the PI to design and implement research studies related to overall project themes, including quantitative content coding of protest websites and analysis of this coding as well as interviews and focus groups with youth about online protest. Strong candidates will have research experience in both quantitative and qualitative methods, notable experience working in Stata or R, and be productive working in teams and independently. All candidates must have a Ph.D. in hand by the commencement of the fellowship and would preferably have received their Ph.D. within the past three years.

The School of Sociology at the University of Arizona is one of the best sociology programs in the country, consistently ranked among the top 20 Sociology programs in the United States for the past thirty years. It boasts a lively intellectual community and has played a pivotal role in the careers of many leading sociologists. Situated in the beautiful southwest in Tucson, the University of Arizona offers excellent benefits and Tucson offers a wonderful living experience. Competitive salary will be based on experience.

To apply, visit www.uacareertrack.com and apply for Job Number 52359. In addition to online forms, candidates must upload a letter of interest, c.v., (including the names of three references) and a research statement (see job ad for details).

The University of Arizona is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and strongly encourages applications from women and minority candidates. Review of applications will continue until the position is filled. Only complete applications will be considered.  

Tech openings at WSU

OSU CATS alumnus Michael Beam, who is on the faculty at Washington State University, tells me that WSU has a couple openings in digital media/social media this year. They're looking for candidates with evidence of a productive research agenda and the ability to teach digital courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The college has undergraduate focus areas in advertising, PR, journalism, broadcast, and communication & society. It also has MA and PhD graduate programs in communication.

More information about the positions is available here:

http://www.wsujobs.com/applicants/Central?quickFind=56709

Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at the UM School of Information

Postdoctoral Associate

University of Michigan School of Information

Salary: $50,500 per year, plus a complete and highly competitive benefits package

Term: One year renewable pending funding

Frequent travel: Up to 4-5 weeks per year in total will be required

Position Description

The postdoctoral associate will assist a 3.5-year research project entitled "Scaling Up: Introducing Commodity Governance into Community Earth Science Models." The goal of the project is to understand and promote well-functioning sociotechnical infrastructure for governance of community Earth system models (climate models). The project team includes a mix of social scientists, software developers, and Earth system scientists from the University of Michigan, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (Princeton), and the University of Colorado at Boulder. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Working with School of Information professors Paul Edwards and Mark Ackerman as well as independently, the postdoctoral associate will first conduct a sociotechnical analysis of existing governance practices within the target modeling projects. This includes (but is not limited to) interviews with and surveys of project members regarding governance structures; observation of project activities, including on-site visits; review of historical documents and events; and analysis of modeling work in theoretical context. Methods and theories will be drawn, as appropriate, from computer-supported cooperative work; human-computer interaction; organizational studies; science and technology studies; the history of infrastructure; and ethnography. In the second and third years of the project, as the software developers and climate modelers begin to build and implement prototype governance software, the postdoctoral associate will assist with implementation and evaluation.

The postdoc will be an equal member of the research team. S/he will be expected not only to assist with the research but to lead in recruiting participants, conducting interviews, coding interviews and field notes, and communicating with the rest of the project team. The postdoc will be expected to contribute substantially to publications resulting from the project, including acting as first author on some and as a secondary author on others.

The position will start June 1, 2010, or as soon thereafter as feasible by mutual agreement.

Requirements

A Ph.D. degree in a relevant field, completed before the agreed start date.

The ideal candidate will be trained in some combination of ethnographic methods, science & technology studies, computer-supported collaborative work, and/or human-computer interaction. Some background in an Earth system science (climatology, oceanography, meteorology, etc.) or another physical science would be helpful, but is not required. Likewise, experience with NVivo or other qualitative data analysis software would be helpful, but is not required.

Professors Edwards and Ackerman will facilitate the postdoc's acquisition of any missing skills through coursework, independent reading, workshops, or individual tutorials.

How to apply

Candidates should submit the following materials electronically to Prof. Paul N. Edwards.

1) A statement of interest describing your relevant background and skills

2) A current curriculum vitae

3) Two publications or other writing samples

Email Prof. Edwards (pne@umich.edu) a single PDF file containing these documents.

In addition, please request that two reference letters be emailed to Professor Edwards. One of these letters should be from your doctoral advisor. These can also be submitted with the application materials.

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.