Open Rank - Assistant or Associate Professor

UNC-Chapel Hill • Chapel Hill, NC

7d • Onsite

About The Position

The Division of Information and Library Science (DILS) in UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Data and Information Sciences (SDIS) invites applications for an open rank 9-month tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor position. This role focuses on the application of automated methods in cultural heritage and memory institutions, broadly understood to include libraries, archives, museums, centers for data curation, research data management, or digital humanities. The ideal candidate will be a scholar-practitioner who can integrate the practical aspects of design with critical analysis. The successful candidate's research should advance the understanding and use of automated methods while being firmly rooted in the values and context of cultural heritage and memory institutions.

Requirements

• A Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree in a relevant field.
• A demonstrated record of scholarly research and publication appropriate for the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor.
• Experience in teaching or mentoring students at the undergraduate or graduate level.
• Ability to develop and maintain an active research agenda.
• Ability to teach courses related to automated methods and cultural heritage/memory institutions.
• Ability to mentor students.
• Ability to publish scholarly work or produce widely adopted tools.
• Ability to seek external funding.
• Ability to engage in service activities.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with interdisciplinary research and collaboration, particularly with librarians, archivists, curators, or critical scholars of the sociotechnical implications of automated systems.
• Expertise in one or more specific areas of automated system design and evaluation.
• A passion for libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage and memory institutions, and a vision for centering these institutions in the public discourse about automated systems.
• A strong interest in contributing to the division’s mission to train the next generation of leaders for cultural heritage and memory institutions.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain an active research agenda focused on the critical technical application of automated methods in cultural heritage and memory institutions, including topics such as designing benchmarks that reflect institutional missions and values, investigating the use of open and ethically trained generative models, modeling data for both human and automated use, or grounding agentic workflows in trusted metadata infrastructures.
• Teach courses on the ethical design and implementation of automated systems, contributing to both undergraduate and graduate degree programs at DILS. This includes technical courses and courses critically examining the relationship between automated methods and cultural heritage/memory institutions.
• Mentor and advise graduate and undergraduate students, guiding them in applied research and interdisciplinary projects.
• Publish scholarly publications in high-quality, peer-reviewed venues and/or produce tools that gain wide adoption.
• Seek external funding to support innovative research.
• Engage in service activities within the division, school, university, and the broader academic community.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree