Tenure-Stream Faculty Position

As the University of Pittsburgh’s newest school, the School of Computing and Information (SCI) is a growing interdisciplinary community of faculty, staff, and students who are accustomed to progressing through change, thinking beyond boundaries, and innovating new approaches to lead our institution and nation to positive change. Since 2017, SCI has hired more than twenty-five new faculty members, and we are continuing our growth with multiple openings in the tenure stream this year. At SCI, we particularly seek candidates that support our mission in creating, nurturing, and sustaining an equitable environment that values our differences and promotes these values within and beyond our school.

The University of Pittsburgh is building a culturally diverse faculty and strongly encourages applications from women and minority candidates. SCI is fostering an equitable and inclusive community with our scholarship, education, and faculty development initiatives, including policies to promote a healthy work-life balance; programs to meet the needs of two-career couples; and a commitment to recruit, retain and develop a diverse faculty. Candidates whose research, teaching, and service contribute to the academic diversity of our campus and who have demonstrated commitment to working with students from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. 

SCI’s interdisciplinary research and education include computer science, information science, and library and information science with rich connections to partners in health sciences, medicine, engineering, social sciences, humanities, business, and other areas.

About the Position

Digital archives, large-scale data, and computing (Assistant Professor, Department of Information Culture and Data Stewardship) Position #02191

Building on our 100+ year legacy of engagement with information and its relationship to human needs and communities, the Department of Information Culture and Data Stewardship (ICDS) (www.icds.pitt.edu) is rooted in the disciplinary foundations of information systems, critical data studies, digital ethics, archival studies, and librarianship within the context of the computational and information sciences in the School of Computing and Information. Our mission is to educate information professionals in a professional master’s-level program accredited by a national body, as well as researchers, academics, and future deans and directors in a discipline-related Ph.D. program.

Our faculty are focused on the roles and impact that data and information have on individuals and communities. We recognize that many structures of inequality, social injustice and systemic oppression are often enforced and propagated by information and technological systems. Our scholarship examines these contemporary, complex and interdisciplinary challenges through rigorous inquiry into information behaviors, the creation of new technologies and approaches designed for inclusion and equity, and the critical exploration of technology’s positive and negative impact on society and culture.

The ICDS faculty seeks a tenure-stream colleague at the Assistant Professor level who can strengthen and expand the department’s scholarship, raise its research profile, and support interdisciplinary scholarship by building cross-discipline collaborations within the school and across the university. We seek a scholar working at the intersections of people, communities, information/data systems and technology who uses qualitative or quantitative methods, or a mix of the two, related to a disciplinary area. The candidate must demonstrate a strong interest in impactful interdisciplinary research and scholarship at the intersection of the following or other closely related areas:

• Digital Archives
• Computational archival studies/ Computational approaches to managing and analyzing digital collections
• Cultural heritage informatics
• Open government and civic data
• Data curation/research data curation/data archives
• Curation and management of scientific and research data
• Digital preservation at scale; Internet/Web Archiving & Preservation; Preservation of ICTs
• Computational engagement with large-scale image collections
• Critical Data Studies and the social implications of data-driven systems particularly in ways archival tools and records can have oppressive as well as liberating functions.
• Engagement with archives-focused, large-scale data models and standards such as ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF), CIDOC-CRM, EAC, EAC-CPF, EAD, IIIF, METS, MODS, PREMIS, JSON-LD, RDA

Minimum qualifications

• Candidates should hold or will have earned a Ph.D. or equivalent by September 1, 2022, in an area relevant to the position.
• The candidate should have a demonstrated ability to publish in peer-reviewed academic venues.
• Candidates should demonstrate proficiency within the methodologies of their related disciplinary area; whether qualitative, quantitative, or mixed

Preferred qualifications

• Candidates should have evidence of and commitment to quality teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels
• A record of engagement with communities and/or constituencies through the deployment of systems, technologies, methods, and/or practices demonstrates an impact on those constituencies.
• Experience with grant-funded research

We have other openings in the tenure stream for computer science, information science, and library science. Please see https://sci.pitt.edu/recruiting for more details.

Application Process

Individuals interested in these openings may apply at https://sci.pitt.edu/recruiting. A completed application includes a cover letter, curriculum vitae, research statement, teaching statement, statement of commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive community, and the names and contact information for at least three recommenders.

Application review will begin immediately. We anticipate that individuals will be invited to interview on campus starting in February 2022. For best consideration, please apply by January 31, 2022. The anticipated start date is September 1, 2022. Questions about this position and/or application status should be emailed to sci-recruit@pitt.edu.