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Contemporary Histories of Art and Cultural Theory Lecturer Pool 2025-26

Position overview

Position title: Lecturer
Salary range: See table #15 at https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/2024-25/july-2024-scales/t15.pdf.
Annual Salary Range $68,247-$192,040. Rank and salary commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Application Window

Open date: April 22, 2025

Most recent review date: Tuesday, Apr 22, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Applications received after this date will be reviewed by the search committee if the position has not yet been filled.

Final date: Tuesday, Mar 31, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Position description

The Department of Art at UCLA is creating a pool of applicants for a lecturer position teaching a course on varied topics in the history of contemporary art. The course examines key developments in art from 1960 to the present in their historical, political, and intellectual contexts. Applicants will need to submit course proposal. Specific topics may vary.

Sample Class Topic: Critiques of Modernism
This course will focus on the impact, legacy, and transformation of art in latter part of the 20th century and early 21st century, starting with critiques of modernism and the shift from modernist to postmodernist practices starting in the late 1960s. Artistic challenges to narrow modernist narratives and the institutional exclusions they justified will be examined, including critiques drawing from emancipatory movements and from poststructuralist, feminist, queer, performance, postcolonial, and critical race theory. The course will explore how artists and cultural thinkers challenged the forms, values, and institutions associated with modernism and paved the way for the emergence of a more global and inclusive field of contemporary art. Through class lectures, discussions, and assigned readings and research, students will gain an understanding of the local, national, and global conditions under which artworks are made and interpreted, and how the social dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomics, religion, sexual orientation, age, ability, nationality, and citizenship impact the production and reception of contemporary art.

Sample learning objectives:
-To understand of how race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomics, religion, sexual orientation, ability, nationality, and citizenship impact contemporary art.
-To learn about the relationship between contemporary art and emancipatory movements from the 1960s to the present.
-To deepen students’ understanding of contemporary perspectives in art history.
-To gain historical understanding of the development of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present.

-To closely analyze and evaluate specific works of art.

Salary: Rank and salary commensurate with qualifications and experience.

This position is represented by the University Council – American Federation of Teachers: https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/labor/bargaining-units/ix/contract.html.

Internal applicants will be considered for reappointment prior to the consideration of external applicants.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications

BA or BFA required. MFA preferred.

Application Requirements

Document requirements
  • Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.

  • Cover Letter

  • Statement of Research (Optional)

  • Statement of Teaching

  • Link to Online Portfolio - Please list the web address of your online portfolio or personal website.
    (Optional)

Reference requirements
  • 1-3 required (contact information only)

1 required; 2 optional

Apply link: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10245

Help contact: elsehenry@arts.ucla.edu

About UCLA

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.

As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct, are currently being investigated for misconduct, left a position during an investigation for alleged misconduct, or have filed an appeal with a previous employer.

Job location

Los Angeles, CA