UCLA Department of Design Media Arts: Tenured Associate/Full Professor of Art & Data
The Department of Design Media Arts (DMA) within the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture invites applications for an Associate or Full professor who uses media art, design, or games to interrogate data and its impact on our world.
Who should apply?
Candidates may be artists and/or artistic researchers who work from a data justice framework to explore questions such as: How do we investigate and understand the socio-political history of the algorithmic systems being built around us? How do we bring ethics and justice to bear on the development and use of these systems? How might artists and designers help to support data ethics and justice by providing a more inclusive, humanistic, and revelatory lens into contemporary data practices?
Ideal candidates will demonstrate international recognition or expertise in their art practice, critical making, and/or community engagement
Full consideration will be given to applications received byJanuary 3, 2025. Please address materials or questions to search committee Co-Chairs Professors Steve Anderson and Lauren Lee McCarthy. Application materials must be uploaded via the UC Recruit system: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/apply.
Qualifications
Terminal degree (MFA or PhD in a related field) or equivalent professional experience of 5 years or more.
Example areas of focus might include:
— Artistic applications of artificial intelligence
— Decolonial, feminist, and consensual data practices
— Community-based or socially-engaged tool making
— Design for data privacy, transparency, and accessibility
Ultimately, we are looking for candidates whose artistic practice and research related to data and its uses are socially motivated, and who would contribute to the diversity of the department, bringing cross-cultural perspectives to DMA’s creative and curricular activities.
Working in the Department of Design Media Arts (DMA)
The UCLA Department of Design Media Arts (DMA) strives to educate conscientious designers and media artists and to create socially and culturally relevant work. DMA's renowned faculty guide students to develop innovative practices in typography, graphic design, branding, digital fabrication/printing, photography/video, video games and 3D modeling, virtual/augmented reality, art+science, social and environmental practice, public arts, media archeology, critical theory, creative coding, interaction, electronics, and interface design. We make our work public in galleries and laboratories, as social media, on large screens, smart phones and game consoles, in media installations, performances and public spaces, as websites, posters, books and magazines. The Department of Design Media Arts is one of four academic departments in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.
DMA is looking for a colleague with a commitment to working in social, critical, and cultural spaces, who believes in building nourishing and supportive communities. We prioritize diversity, accessibility, and accountability. We expect that this position will attract applicants who value excellence in teaching, academic service and leadership, and collaboration, who have deep commitments to social issues, and who manifest their passions and craft within the areas of media arts and/or games.
Responsibilities
The position involves teaching three undergraduate studio courses and two graduate seminars each academic year, contributing service to the department and the University and developing research/creative activity appropriate for advancement within the University of California. Teaching at UCLA is on a quarterly schedule with a teaching load of 2,2,1. Annual service typically includes chairing or serving on two or three department-, school- or university-wide committees, involvement in departmental admissions, mentoring junior faculty, and advising graduate students.
About UCLA, The Department of Design Media Arts and DataX
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is located in the neighborhood of Westwood in Los Angeles. UCLA is an R1 research institution and part of the University of California (UC) system, and has been ranked as the No. 1 public university by the U.S. News & World Report for six consecutive years.
Situated in the School of Arts and Architecture, the department of Design Media Arts (DMA) has a population of 24 graduate students in its 3-year MFA program and approximately 200 undergraduate students in its 4-year BA program. DMA houses 12 full-time senate faculty, approximately 15 lecturers, and a range of faculty directed research centers and initiatives, which include the UCLA Game Lab, Counterforce Lab, UCLA Social Software, Media Arts Research Space (MARS), Art|Sci Center, FLAT Journal, and the UCLA Arts Conditional Studio. DMA offers a technologically innovative and intellectually rigorous curriculum anchored around media arts, design, and games, providing a multidisciplinary education to foster critical thinking and encourage experimentation, creative exploration, and research.
This search is sponsored by DataX, a campus-wide initiative that advances research, scholarship, artistic creation, and education to strengthen UCLA's robust, diverse, and cross-disciplinary community of data-centric scholars. DataX aims to empower, enhance, and integrate existing capabilities across campus. DataX prioritizes social and ethical concerns by foregrounding approaches and applications at the intersection of data, justice, and society. Faculty hired through this search are expected to be active participants in the DataX community and to contribute to building inclusive research and educational initiatives across the UCLA campus. More information about the Data Justice and Critical Data Studies scholars is available here: https://datax.ucla.edu/index.php/data-and-justice
Salary
The posted UC salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and/or step at appointment. See Table(s) [1]. The salary range for this position is $96,500-$205,400. “Off-scale salaries” and other components of pay, i.e., a salary that is higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions.
The level of appointment will be determined by the candidate’s qualifications and professional experience.
The University of California is committed to creating and maintaining a community dedicated to the advancement, application, and transmission of knowledge and creative endeavors through academic excellence, where all individuals who participate in University programs and activities can work and learn together in a safe and secure environment, free of violence, harassment, bullying and other demeaning behavior, discrimination, exploitation, or intimidation. With this commitment as well as a commitment to addressing all forms of academic misconduct, UCLA conducts targeted employment reference checks for finalists to whom departments or other hiring units would like to extend formal offers of appointment into Academic Senate faculty positions. The targeted employment reference checks involve contacting the finalists’ current and prior places of employment to ask whether there have been substantiated findings of misconduct that would violate the University’s Faculty Code of Conduct. To implement this process, UCLA requires all applicants for Academic Senate faculty positions to complete, sign, and upload the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” into RECRUIT as part of their application. If the applicant does not include the signed authorization to release information with the application materials, the application will be considered incomplete. As with any incomplete application, the application will not receive further consideration. Although all applicants for faculty recruitments must complete the entire application, only finalists (i.e., those to whom the department or other hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer) considered for Academic Senate faculty positions will be subject to targeted employment reference checks.