Resident Assistant Professor of Media Production

POSITION SUMMARY

Occidental College’s Media Arts & Culture Department (MAC) invites applications for a Resident Assistant Professor Faculty position in Media Production. The position start date is August 16, 2026.

Media Arts & Culture seeks to prepare students for postgraduate success in a time of rapid change for the creative industries and for society more broadly. We have a distinctive opportunity and obligation, via our department’s history-theory-practice approach and the College’s commitments to interdisciplinarity, undergraduate research, local / global perspectives, and social justice, not simply to train students for the creative industries of today but to question and reimagine such industries and to help students navigate the everchanging possibilities and perils of media and technology more broadly.

We are therefore seeking a film / video / media practitioner with a compelling body of creative work and professional experience who also demonstrates a commitment to teaching such practices within core liberal arts frameworks of criticality, historicity, and cultural questioning. The candidate should be able to teach hands-on artistic and technical skills in lens-based media production practices that can be applied to a range of approaches and forms across fictional, documentary, and experimental work. The ability to provide new or more specialized offerings to the curriculum (e.g., in cinematography, sound design, virtual production, visual effects, directing actors, production design, game design, immersive media, or installation / site-specific work) is a plus. The new hire will teach 6 courses total (3 in Fall, 3 in Spring) including introductory, advanced, and capstone media production courses.

Candidates should evidence a commitment to high-impact teaching and to fostering an inclusive learning environment. As our production courses incorporate artistic and technical subjects, the successful candidate must be able to scaffold and provide hands-on instruction in production ideation, preproduction, production practices including the technical instruction of related equipment (whether camera, sound, or lighting), as well as introductory and advanced post-production software / skills including advanced picture and sound editing and color grading.

Our ideal candidate will help us continue developing and supporting our signature approach to Media Arts & Culture which combines media history, theory, and practice; leverages Occidental’s location in Los Angeles; and manifests the College mission's cornerstones of Excellence, Equity, Community, and Service. Occidental is strongly committed to a pluralistic campus community and the curriculum, and to fostering an inclusive,

equitable, and just environment within which students, staff, administrators, and faculty thrive. Candidates who can contribute to these aims, who can advance the College’s strategic equity and justice goals, and those from groups that are underrepresented in the field are particularly encouraged to apply.

“Resident” is a faculty category bargained between the College and the non-tenure track faculty union. Resident faculty are teaching faculty hired to meet long standing curricular needs at the College. They teach foundational and required courses within a department, provide student mentoring, and serve as advisors for students in the major or minor and pre-major / minor students (e.g., transfer, first-years). They are expected to participate in department-level service, including but not limited to contributing to department level assessment, student recruiting, program review, and community building. Resident faculty may engage in scholarly activities, but scholarship is not a responsibility of the position. Resident faculty members are appointed for an initial 1-year term, renewable in multi-year contracts, pending positive performance evaluation and curricular need.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications :

• An MFA or Ph.D. in film / media production at time of appointment, or equivalent professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience with, excellence in, and commitment to teaching undergraduate media courses.
• Ability to teach essential courses in the curriculum including MAC 240, MAC 355, MAC 491, MAC 493, two new course offerings - MAC 345 (new Fictional Media Production course designation) and MAC 392 (new Advanced Postproduction course designation), and to mentor Senior Comprehensives projects.
• Ability to contribute 200-level electives under the frameworks of MAC 245, MAC 247, MAC 255, or MAC 270.
• Commitment to high-impact teaching and to fostering an inclusive learning environment.
• Ability to contribute to the life of the department, including department service and organizing co-curricular events for students.
• Demonstrated commitment to the principles of the department and College missions.

Preferred Qualifications :

SALARY RANGE

EXPECTED SALARY RANGE (Nine-month appointment) : $67,000 - $76,500

Resident faculty with a relevant terminal degree (M.F.A. or Ph.D.) will be appointed with the title Resident Assistant Professor and those without a terminal degree, Resident Instructor. If you are offered this position at Occidental College, your salary compensation will be determined based on the collective bargaining of the non- tenure track union, while also taking into account factors such as skills, education, experience, and / or geographic location. In addition to those factors, Occidental complies with applicable pay equity laws and considers internal equity among current employees when developing the final offer. Please keep in mind that the salary mentioned above is the base salary for the role at the Assistant Professor / Instructor level. Hiring at the maximum of the range would not be typical in order to allow for future and continued salary growth.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

The deadline for receiving application materials is Monday January 5, 2026 at 5pm PST.

Please submit the following via Interfolio : https : / / apply.interfolio.com / 176373

If you have any questions about the position, the application materials, or the application instructions, please contact the search committee Chair Prof. Aleem Hossain at ahossain@oxy.edu. If you have questions about Interfolio or the application process, please contact the Academic Support Administrator, Beatrice Gonzales, at facultysearch@oxy.edu.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This position is included in the NonTenure Track Bargaining Unit, and the successful applicant employee, subject to the terms of the College’s Collective Bargaining will be a bargaining unit Agreement with SEIU Local 721.

Occidental is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate against employees or applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, breastfeeding or related medical condition, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic characteristic or information, military

and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by state or federal law.

Salary, rank, and title are commensurate with experience and qualifications. A comprehensive benefits package is available that includes : excellent health, dental, life, and retirement benefits; tuition benefits for the employee, spouse, domestic partner, and dependents; additional extras including use of gym facilities and the College Library. For a detailed description of benefits, please visit https : / / www.oxy.edu / offices-services / humanresources / benefits-information

All qualified applicants will be considered for employment, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. Occidental College is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with qualifying disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the application or employment process, please contact Human Resources (hr@oxy.edu).

As a condition of hire for a staff position and for appointment to a faculty position, Occidental College requires that all candidates who have received a conditional offer of employment complete an application form (if they have not already done so) and consent to a background check. Satisfactory completion of a background check, along with pre-employment verifications and references are required as a condition of employment, but only as permitted by federal, state, and local law, including the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.