Dear Colleagues,
The University of Central Florida is accepting applications for Associate Professor and Director of the University Writing Center.
The University Writing Center has a significant impact in shaping and advancing writing knowledge. UCF is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, and student enrollment is ~69,000.
I’m the search committee chair, so please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Shane Wood
The Department of Writing and Rhetoric (DWR) seeks an established, active scholar for a 12-month tenured position as an associate professor to serve as an administrative scholar to lead the University Writing Center (UWC). DWR is committed to innovative research and teaching that addresses challenges related to composition, rhetoric, and literacy in academic, workplace, civic, and community settings. Beyond active research production, job responsibilities include teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in writing and rhetoric studies, mentoring students, and engaging in appropriate academic service on department and college committees along with disciplinary service at the national level.
Our UWC is guided by six valued principles (respect, compassion, inclusion, adaptability, collaboration, and learning) with the purpose of providing the members of the university community with individual, peer consultations at any stage of the research and writing process. The UWC offers online and face-to-face appointments and serves as a campus resource for the on-going, cross disciplinary learning about writing through events and workshops. We encourage and promote the growth of peer tutors in a rich teaching and learning environment.
We seek a transformational leader who will encourage, motivate, and support colleagues, as we pursue the ongoing success and evolution of the center. The UWC program director will collaboratively advance writing and critical thinking across the university. The successful candidate will be responsible for day-to-day operations and oversight of the UWC. The position carries a teaching load of 1/1/1, which includes reassigned time for administrative duties. Teaching responsibilities will include first-year composition, upper-division rhetoric and writing courses, and graduate courses in writing center pedagogy.
Administrative duties include:
· Providing vision and direction for University Writing Center;
· Conducting and reporting programmatic assessment;
· Collaborating with colleagues, consultants, and other internal and external stakeholders;
· Supervising, guiding, and mentoring undergraduate and graduate tutors;
· Supporting curricular implementation and innovation;
· Representing the UWC in internal and external partnerships.
The program director is supported by a team that includes a staff member and a faculty member, at a reduced workload, who serves as the assistant program director. The UWC program director works closely with the department chair and programmatic directors within the department to support and enhance student experiences and successes. All faculty in the department report to the department chair. The anticipated start date is August 8, 2025.
The Department of Writing and Rhetoric (DWR) is one of seven academic units in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida (UCF). As an independent writing department, DWR is the academic home to 12 tenure-earning faculty members, 35 full-time non-tenure earning instructors and lecturers, and approximately 15 graduate teaching assistants. The department supports comprehensive writing instruction that includes a first-year composition program, an undergraduate major (B.A.) and minor, and a graduate program with both an M.A. and certificate in professional writing. The department offers an undergraduate certificate in Medical Writing and Rhetoric alongside the existing Public and Professional Writing certificate. The department is the home of the college’s new interdisciplinary certificate in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Human Impacts, which signals DWR’s commitment to being a leader in shaping conversations around emergent technologies and their consequences, both locally and nationally. Graduate faculty may request to teach in the interdisciplinary doctoral Texts and Technology program, which includes an area of specialization in Rhetoric and Composition. The department houses the Center for Writing Excellence encompassing the University Writing Center and the Writing Across the Curriculum program. DWR boasts a nationally recognized faculty with expertise in cultural and feminist rhetorics; disability studies; medical rhetorics; composition theory and pedagogy; digital writing; community/public rhetorics; multimodal rhetorics; writing program.