ABOUT THE POSITION: The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) invites applications for Visiting Professor of Modern East Asian Studies with a preference for Modern Chinese History. Possible secondary interests in intelligence and security studies, public history, or digital humanities are also welcome. This is a 9-month appointment lasting from August 2027 to May 2028. The successful applicant will be appointed as Eminent Scholar Chair in the Humanities and be eligible for certain university benefits. The Eminent Scholar Chair in the Humanities enjoys the use of a private faculty office, access to library and other faculty resources, as well as access to funding for expenses directly related to their scholarly work. Appointments also are subject to approval by the Chancellor and Board of Trustees for the University of Alabama System.
Responsibilities: The successful applicant will be expected to offer one in-person course per semester (Fall and Spring) related to their specialization, give at least two public lectures on a topic relating to their research, lead at least one meeting with faculty regarding curriculum development or research, and be prepared to mentor junior faculty and graduate students in the humanities.
Required Qualifications:
- terminal degree in a humanities discipline
- current or past appointment as Full Professor at an accredited institution
- either national or international recognition of past and original contributions to a humanities discipline or national or international recognition as a public intellectual
Preferred Qualifications:
- demonstrated record of excellence in teaching
- experience mentoring junior faculty and graduate students
- successful track record of interdisciplinary collaboration
Candidates who are outside of the United States and do not have other nonimmigrant visa status will not be sponsored for an H-1B petition.
APPOINTMENT DATE: August 2027
ABOUT THE HUMANITIES CENTER: The Humanities Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville coordinates opportunities for members of the UAH campus and the Huntsville region to experience and benefit from the skills and knowledge that derive from the humanities. The Center supports faculty from a range of disciplines, including Art, Art History, and Design, Communication Arts, English, History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Theatre & Film, and World Languages & Cultures. The Center provides faculty with a wide range of funding opportunities. These include: research grants for humanities-related projects; travel grants to support attendance at professional conferences relating to the humanities; library enhancement grants for faculty-curated additions to the collections at the M. Louis Salmon Library; public programming grants to enrich the intellectual and professional lives of UAH faculty and students as well as the Huntsville community; and book manuscript workshop grants to help authors strengthen book proposals, connect with experts in their areas of specialization, and raise the profile of humanities and humanities faculty within the academic community. For more information about the Humanities Center, see https://www.uah.edu/humanitiescenter.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY: The University of Alabama in Huntsville offers academic and research programs in the Colleges of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering; Nursing; and Science. With its seventeen research centers and sprawling campus, the University of Alabama in Huntsville is adjacent to Cummings Research Park and Redstone Arsenal, which is home to more than 75 federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Materiel Command, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center, and the FBI's new $1B HQ2 campus. For more information about UAH, see http://www.uah.edu/about.
ABOUT HUNTSVILLE: The Huntsville area is a culturally diverse community and maintains one of the highest per capita incomes and standards of living in the Southeast. U.S. News recently ranked Huntsville as the best place to live in 2022-2023 among the 150 most populous metro areas in the country. Known as “Rocket City,” Huntsville has a major presence of technology, space, and defense industries, which allows the city to offer a variety of educational, recreational, and cultural opportunities. Huntsville is the most populous city in Alabama, with a metropolitan area population of more than 400,000 and growing. Huntsville’s Cummings Research Park is the country’s second largest research and technology park, housing nearly 300 companies and 29,000 employees involved in technology research and development. Huntsville has a high concentration of Ph.Ds., engineers, and STEM workers, and is recognized as a leading technology city with a rapidly expanding and diverse corporate ecosystem rich in innovation. Huntsville boasts a number of museums, historic sites, parks, and professional sports venues, including Huntsville Museum of Art, Burritt Museum and Park, EarlyWorks Children’s Museum, Alabama Constitution Village, Huntsville Botanical Garden, Monte Sano State Park, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Minor League Baseball’s Toyota Field, MLS Next Pro’s Huntsville City Football Club, and Probst Arena for professional hockey. Active downtown and mid-city arts and entertainment districts, including Broadway and symphony performances and a new outdoor amphitheater music venue, contribute to Huntsville’s vibrant cultural life. For more information about Huntsville and its convenient location with easy access to Nashville, Birmingham, and Atlanta, please visit http://www.huntsville.org.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE AND DEADLINE: Applicants should submit the following materials via email to the Center’s staff assistant, Ms. Tina Stallings, at trs0040@uah.edu:
- letter of application addressing position qualifications and responsibilities (no longer than three pages);
- curriculum vitae;
- writing sample;
- academic transcripts
- three letters of recommendation
Application materials should be received by January 4, 2027. The receipt of applications does not guarantee that this position will be filled, and The University of Alabama in Huntsville reserves the right to withdraw this invitation for applications at any time and for any reason.
