Job Description

Journalism - Non-Tenure Track Faculty Vacancy Pool

Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western's greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive. In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

The College of Humanities and Social Science and the Journalism Department support Western's mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.

The Journalism Department offers strong, professionally-oriented undergraduate programs with majors in news-editorial, public relations and visual journalism and minors in news-editorial and public relations. We also offer a joint major in environmental journalism with the Environmental Studies department. Writing courses are at the heart of the department's curriculum including news writing, reporting, public relations, editing, advanced reporting and feature writing. These courses stress clarity, accuracy and depth of content in a sequence designed to develop professional skills, critical thinking, sensitivity to people and an understanding of society. Publications produced by journalism students have won numerous state, regional and national awards. The department currently has 10 tenured/tenure-track faculty, three full-time instructors and several part-time lecturers. We place a high premium on excellent teaching, small class sizes (most are capped at 18) and an intimate working environment for faculty and students. The department has about 250 majors and pre-majors and nearly 100 minors.

The Department of Journalism maintains a vacancy pool of qualified persons interested in temporary positions. In anticipation of possible openings throughout the year, applications are accepted continuously for temporary non-tenure-track teaching positions on a part-time basis, with occasional opportunities for temporary, full-time appointments. Positions may become available at any time and are typically filled on a quarterly basis. Our lecturers teach sections of existing courses in journalism, public relations or visual journalism. We expect lecturers to be exemplary teachers who are current in their discipline. Lecturers should engage students actively in their own learning through discussion, writing and analysis, and to maintain high standards regarding course content. We also expect lecturers to provide students with prompt feedback and to be available to students through regularly-scheduled office hours. Lecturers are expected to have their students evaluate their courses using the standard university evaluation forms and make those available to the department and faculty for review.

• Masters degree in relevant field or equivalent combination of education and professional experience
• Significant professional experience in journalism, public relations or visual journalism
• Demonstrated potential for successful teaching
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with diverse students and staff, including a demonstrated ability and commitment to cultivating learning environments that are equitable and inclusive of students with diverse social identities and backgrounds

• Previous teaching experience
• PhD or ABD in relevant field

All employees must comply with our Immunization policies, including Proof of Rubeola Measles Immunity within 60-days of hire. Please reach out to HR@wwu.edu if you need information regarding medical or religious exemption and applicable accommodations.

Commensurate with experience and qualifications

Benefits Information

United Faculty of Western Washington

A cover letter and curriculum vitae are required and should address your experience related to the position responsibilities and the required and preferred qualifications.

You will be asked to provide contact information of three references.

This vacancy pool is refreshed annually; please see applicable close date information below. Applicants who continue to remain interested in being considered for on-going opportunities should re-submit updated materials to the new pool, once posted.

Writing samples or other examples of professional work and a list of courses within the department you are prepared to teach

Applications are accepted continuously for potential NTT faculty openings; please apply at your earliest convenience. Vacancy pool closes no later than October 31, 2025.

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