Physical Geography Visiting Assistant Professor

New Jersey Department of Children and Families; Harrisonburg (VA); On-site; USD 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a vibrant academic community at a leading university as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Physical Geography. This role focuses on undergraduate education and includes teaching core courses and engaging in interdisciplinary collaboration and community service. Ideal candidates will have a strong commitment to effective teaching and the ability to incorporate innovative approaches to geography education.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. preferred; ABD candidates considered.
• Experience in teaching geography at undergraduate level.
• Ability to incorporate geospatial technology.

Responsibilities

• Teach core Physical Geography and upper-level courses.
• Develop regional and international field experiences.
• Contribute to service activities within the academic community.

Skills

Interdisciplinary teamwork

Use of geospatial technology

Teaching excellence

Education

Ph.D. in Geography or related field

Job description

General Information

We invite applications for a one-year Visiting Assistant Professor position in Physical Geography within the School of Integrated Sciences (SIS) and its thriving Geography program. SIS supports innovative and dynamic academic careers for 40 faculty rooted in our constituent undergraduate programs--Geography, Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT), and Intelligence Analysis--along with growing graduate programs. SIS is a vibrant, inclusive, and supportive culture embracing innovation, collaboration, humility, and student engagement. We prioritize balance and positive impact through integration – of teaching and research, of disciplines, of difference. For more information about SIS, please visit: https://www.jmu.edu/cise/sis/

This position focuses on the curricular needs of the Geography undergraduate program within SIS, particularly in physical and environmental geography, and supports an ongoing enhancement of our academic capacities in sustainability. This is a compelling area for leadership for Geography: we are an academic community that prioritizes imaginative, boundary-crossing scholarship, often with a problem-centric focus. We integrate science, technology, and the human dimension into engagement with environmental challenges.

Recently recognized with the national AAG Award for Program Excellence, our Geography program serves around 200 majors and 90 minors. Students value our core strengths across the discipline in physical, human, nature-society geographies, and geospatial technologies. Well-resourced labs support faculty research and students expertise in physical geography techniques and computing technology. Geography faculty are committed to bringing their diverse and externally supported work to the classroom and beyond. Current faculty focus on areas such as urban climatology, land cover change, remote sensing, infrastructure geopolitics, humanitarian applications of geospatial technologies and more, with both global and local applications.

***For a full description of the position, including the documents required for application and a link to the application submission, please go to the following job link.***

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About James Madison University

Mission
We are a community committed to preparing students to be educated and enlightened citizens who lead productive and meaningful lives.

Vision
To be the national model for the engaged university: engaged with ideas and the world.

Who We Are
Located in the heart of Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley, the city of Harrisonburg is approximately 120 miles from Washington, D.C. and Richmond, VA. With a population of just over 53,000, Harrisonburg is one of the most diverse communities in the Commonwealth of Virginia.JMUis a selective, public institution with a growing national reputation for offering experiences that lead to an outstanding education and inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff. The student body includes approximately 20,000 undergraduate and 1,900 graduate students, with over 1,000 full-time instructional faculty.
JMUoffers thriving programs in the liberal arts, science and technology, and professional disciplines at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. The university is committed to expanding diversity, fostering equity and inclusion, and supporting superlative teaching and scholarship.JMUhas achieved national recognition for the high quality of its academic programs, focus on maintaining strong student/faculty interaction, and innovative faculty research.

Duties and Responsibilities

For this visiting position, our new faculty will be able to teach our core Physical Geography course as well as offer upper-level courses in areas of expertise (especially those listed below), and potentially our General Education course. A typical teaching load is three courses per semester, and there are numerous opportunities for creativity in curricular development. We value a global perspective with local connections and support the development of regional and international field experiences.

We are open to a range of physical geographical subfields, but are particularly interested in scholarly expertise in one or more of the following areas: biogeography, wildlife/biodiversity studies, landscape ecology, agriculture/food systems, climate science, applied/critical physical geography, and/or water resources/hydrology.

As well as contributing to their primary programmatic home in Geography, our faculty participate in service activities to support the school, college, and university, and their professional community. We strongly support engaged learning, community engagement, and civic engagement.

Qualifications

A Ph.D. in hand is preferred, but those with ABD status will also be considered. The completed or pursued Ph.D. must be in Geography or a closely related field with a background physical geography.

While research interests may focus on a wide variety of geographical sub-fields (see “Duties and Responsibilities”), ideal candidates should demonstrate experience connecting their work with others to collaboratively address complex multi-scale environmental problems.

We are particularly interested in individuals who:

• have a commitment to excellence in undergraduate geography teaching and research
• demonstrate an ability to work as part of an interdisciplinary team
• have the interest in or ability to incorporate geospatial technology in teaching and student research.