Assistant Professor, Video, Motion Graphics, Visual Effects

Competition No. 24.11.339

About Us

Opportunity

The Department of Design in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications invites applications for a full-time tenure-track appointment, in one or more of Video, Motion Graphics, or Visual Effects at the rank of Assistant Professor, commencing July 1, 2025, subject to final budgetary approval.

The MacEwan Design Department has been graduating well-respected designers for 50 years. We are the largest Bachelor of Design program in Alberta, with more than 350 students, 40 faculty, and 55 unique design courses and the only user experience design major between Vancouver and Toronto. This degree is unique in Canada, envisioning design as not just an applied art but also an applied social science. This human-centered approach will allow students to better understand the audience/users they are designing for, and to more effectively evaluate their design outcomes. The degree currently has four main pathways – Visual Communication Design, Digital Experience Design, Photo, Video and Motion Graphics, and Illustration.

The Design Department at MacEwan University prepares students to become the creative design leaders of tomorrow. Students are immersed in the knowledge, processes, methods and skills of the discipline, learning the ability to research and identify problems and provide communication solutions within a given commercial, social and environmental context, using tools of the field to give form to their concepts while recognizing the cultural significance and meaning of them, communicating and defending solutions to team members and stakeholders, and organizing and managing design projects and client relations. You can learn more about Design at MacEwan on our website.

In this role, you will:

• Instruct students in one or more studio courses focused on video, motion graphics, and visual effects;
• Provide learning activities that stimulate student involvement and encourage critical thinking and discussion;
• Provide concrete, constructive, respectful and actionable feedback and mentorship to students;
• Provide students with ways to connect video, motion, visual effects skills and concepts to the wider visual communication design practice;
• Maintain competencies in the subject area and currency in instructional methodologies through professional associations and professional development;
• Maintain an active research and/or creative practice;
• Participate in curriculum development and implementation and provide pedagogical leadership in your area of expertise;
• In consultation with the Design Department, create and maintain a pedagogical vision for one or more of video, motion graphics, and visual effects courses;
• Serve on university-wide, faculty and departmental committees;
• Recommend sessional faculty to teach in one or more of video, motion graphics, and visual effects courses; and
• Foster interdisciplinary approaches and establish ties with other departments including but not limited to Studio Arts, Communications Studies, Arts and Cultural Management, Theatre, and Music.

Qualifications

You will:

• Hold a minimum of a MDes, MFA, or master’s degree in a related field.
• Have teaching experience at the post-secondary level and extensive industry experience.
• Have the ability to teach a variety of video, motion graphics, and/or visual effects subjects at multiple levels in the curriculum, from introductory to senior studio courses.
• Have knowledge of the foundational skills in communicating information through time-based media, including storyboarding, image capture and visual composition, and core ideas regarding temporality and causality in visual narrative.
• Demonstrate excellence or a clear promise of excellence in research which includes one or a combination of creative practice; publishing or other disciplinary modes of knowledge mobilization, and institutional, cross-institutional, and/or community collaborations.

You will submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, teaching dossier (including recent teaching evaluations), a statement of teaching philosophy and approaches (including sample course outlines, projects, and student work), a statement of research interests and experience (including examples of your work, communications and publications), and a portfolio of professional work.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted by the Department Chair to provide three (3) letters of reference sent directly from referees.