Assistant Professor in Media Psychology

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor•Ann Arbor, MI

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) seeks to hire a full-time, tenure-track assistant professor to teach and conduct research in media psychology, to begin August 25, 2027. The preferred candidate will demonstrate an innovative research agenda that advances the understanding of media psychology (i.e., uses, processes and effects) at the individual, community, and/or societal level. We are particularly interested in applicants who use innovative methods and approaches in their research and teaching, including experiments, surveys, content analysis, meta-analysis, computational methods, psychophysiological methods, neuroimaging or other social scientific techniques. Scholars utilizing a range of methods, and/or who supplement quantitative methods with qualitative approaches, are welcome. The ideal candidate will provide graduate and undergraduate students with the theoretical and methodological foundations to explore how individuals and groups of people interact with, and are affected by, mediated communication. This may include the processes and effects of media use in relation to a person’s identity, attention, stage of development, or other contextual factors; choices for exposure; and how people’s emotions, cognition and perceptions interact with media—both as recipients and as active users. All areas of media psychology will be considered. This could include scholarship on media choice; psychological antecedents and consequences of media use; representations of gender and/or sexuality and their consequences; representations of race and ethnicity and their consequences; media uses and effects among members of understudied and/or marginalized groups; media uses and effects through the life course; media effects on health, risk, and environmental behavior; media effects on cognitive processing and learning; media and children; media and well-being; new and emerging media (e.g., social media, virtual reality, AI, etc.). In the letter of application, the applicant should elaborate on how they have and/or would support interdisciplinarity, appreciation for research traditions other than their own, and collegiality in a department with a great deal of intellectual diversity.

Requirements

PhD by the start of the appointment is required.
Demonstrate an innovative research agenda that advances the understanding of media psychology.
Ability to use innovative methods and approaches in research and teaching, including experiments, surveys, content analysis, meta-analysis, computational methods, psychophysiological methods, neuroimaging or other social scientific techniques.
Ability to provide theoretical and methodological foundations to students.
Elaborate on how they have and/or would support interdisciplinarity, appreciation for research traditions other than their own, and collegiality.

Nice To Haves

Scholars utilizing a range of methods, and/or who supplement quantitative methods with qualitative approaches, are welcome.
Scholars whose work may include scholarship on media choice; psychological antecedents and consequences of media use; representations of gender and/or sexuality and their consequences; representations of race and ethnicity and their consequences; media uses and effects among members of understudied and/or marginalized groups; media uses and effects through the life course; media effects on health, risk, and environmental behavior; media effects on cognitive processing and learning; media and children; media and well-being; new and emerging media (e.g., social media, virtual reality, AI, etc.).