Academic-Creative Generalist (Part-time, 50%)

University of Minnesota; Saint Paul (MN); On-site; USD 45,000 - 65,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive wages

Paid holidays

Generous time off

Professional training opportunities

Low-cost medical, dental, and pharmacy

Flexible spending accounts

University HSA contributions

Disability and employer-paid life保险

Employee wellbeing program

Excellent retirement plans

Job summary

The University of Minnesota is seeking a part-time Academic-Creative Generalist to transform MISQ research into engaging multimedia content. You will read papers, identify key contributions, and craft narratives, scripts, and visuals that appeal to academics and practitioners.

Responsibilities include developing storytelling frameworks, dialogue, and AI-assisted production pipelines while ensuring fidelity to underlying evidence and research findings.

Qualifications

• Understand, analyze, and synthesize scholarly research into accessible content.
• Turn abstract theories and data into visual metaphors and storyboards.
• Hands-on experience with AI tools for storytelling and multimedia production.

Responsibilities

• Translate peer-reviewed research into multimedia narratives (summaries, podcasts, animations).
• Develop characters, scenarios, and dialogue to explain complex concepts.
• Create scripts, storyboards, prompts, and scalable AI-assisted workflows.
• Collaborate with faculty to keep outputs faithful to the research.

Skills

Research synthesis

Visual storytelling

Narrative development

Python/AI storytelling workflows

Animation/storyboarding basics

Education

Bachelor's degree

Advanced degree

Tools

Generative AI tools

Multimodal AI tools

Job description

About the Job

The Management Information Systems Research Center & the academic journal, Management Information Systems Quarterly, are seeking a part-time (0.5 FTE) Academic-Creative Generalist to help transform cutting-edge academic research published in the Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ) journal into compelling, accessible multimedia content. The ideal candidate combines strong intellectual and animation skills with creative storytelling and hands‑on experience using AI tools to develop narratives, scripts, visual storyboards, animations, podcasts, and other digital artifacts based on content from academic research articles. This role will involve reading and evaluating academic papers, identifying, and synthesizing their key contributions, and translating complex research into engaging stories, characters, and animated visual/audio experiences for academic and practitioner audiences.

Duration: The initial appointment term is one year and may be renewed annually.

Role Expectations

Translate peer-reviewed academic research into compelling, accessible multimedia narratives (e.g., executive summaries, podcasts, narrated presentations, animation, and other digital artifacts) using AI tools without sacrificing intellectual accuracy or nuance.

• Read and critically evaluate academic papers: identify key research questions, theoretical contributions, methods, findings, limitations, and practical implications (25%)


• Develop creative characters, scenarios, metaphors, narrative arcs, and dialogue that make abstract academic concepts understandable and engaging (20%)


• Create and iterate scripts, storyboards, visual concepts, prompts, and scalable, repeatable AI-assisted production workflows that translate complex academic research into compelling multimedia artifacts (35%)


• Collaborate closely with academic subject‑matter experts/faculty to ensure that creative outputs remain faithful to the underlying research and evidence (20%)

Qualifications

Required:

• BA/BS degree plus at least four years of relevant experience, or an advanced degree plus at least two years of relevant experience, or a combination of education and relevant work experience to equal at least eight years.


• Demonstrated ability to understand, analyze, and synthesize scholarly/academic research, ideally including empirical or quantitative research. Strong visual and conceptual thinking: ability to turn abstract theories, models, data, and research findings into visual metaphors and storyboards.


• Hands‑on experience with generative AI and multimodal AI tools for storytelling, visual creation, animation, podcasts, or other multimedia artifacts, with demonstrated ability to move from research findings narrative concept script visual/audio artifact, and the ability to construct repeatable creative pipelines.

Preferred:

• background spanning two or more of academia/research, journalism, science communication, creative writing, filmmaking/animation, design, data visualization, or AI-assisted media production.

Interview Process

Candidates will be evaluated through both intellectual and creative work:

• Portfolio: Applicants should provide a portfolio demonstrating relevant intellectual output - e.g., research synthesis, analytical writing, storytelling, scripts, visual narratives, animation, podcasts, presentations, or other work that demonstrates the ability to translate complex ideas for an audience.


• Research Interpretation Exercise: Candidates will be given a week or two to read an academic paper and identify its central contribution, synthesize the findings, and propose a compelling narrative treatment.


• AI-Assisted Creative Exercise: During the interview process, candidates will be given an allocated duration (e.g., a week) and asked to develop selected visual artifacts, narrative/storyline concepts, scripts, and AI-assisted production pipelines for turning the research into an animation and/or podcast.


• Process & Judgment Discussion: Candidates should be able to explain how they use AI tools, how they iterate on prompts and outputs, and how they ensure that the resulting narrative remains grounded in and faithful to the source research.


• We are particularly interested in candidates who can demonstrate the complete chain of capabilities: understand the paper identify the insight synthesize the contribution invent the narrative write the script design the visual/audio treatment construct the AI production workflow.

Pay and Benefits

Pay Range: $40.00/hour

Time Appointment: 50% Appointment

Position Type: Civil-Service & Non-Faculty Labor Represented Staff

Please visit the Office of Human Resources website for more information regarding benefit eligibility.

The University offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Competitive wages, paid holidays, and generous time off


• Continuous learning opportunities through professional training


• Low-cost medical, dental, and pharmacy plans


• Healthcare and dependent care flexible spending accounts


• University HSA contributions


• Disability and employer-paid life insurance


• Employee wellbeing program


• Excellent retirement plans with employer contribution


• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) opportunity


• Financial counseling services


• Employee Assistance Program with eight sessions of counseling at no cost

Diversity

The University recognizes and values the importance of diversity and inclusion in enriching the employment experience of its employees and in supporting the academic mission. The University is committed to attracting and retaining employees with varying identities and backgrounds.

The University of Minnesota provides equal access to and opportunity in its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. To learn more about diversity at the U: http://diversity.umn.edu

About University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMTC)

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMTC), is among the largest public research universities in the country, offering undergraduate, graduate, and professional students a multitude of opportunities for study and research. Located at the heart of one of the nation's most vibrant, diverse metropolitan communities, students on the campuses in Minneapolis and St. Paul benefit from extensive partnerships with world-renowned health centers, international corporations, government agencies, and arts, nonprofit, and public service organizations.

At the University of Minnesota, we are proud to be recognized by Forbes as a Best Employer for Company Culture (2026), Best Employer for Women (2023, 2025, 2026), and Best Employer by State (2022-2026). In 2026, we also received Culture Excellence & Industry Awards recognition for employee appreciation and work-life flexibility.