Visiting Assistant Professor: Communication Design

University of North Texas System • Denton, TX

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas invites applications for a full-time, nine-month, Visiting Assistant Professor in Communication Design. The successful candidate will bring well-established professional expertise in their field, along with a strong record of teaching experience informed by innovative ideas that reflect the future of communication design. They will teach undergraduate and graduate students in the User Experience Design/Interaction Design Concentration, fostering forward-thinking, practice-based learning. The candidate will also demonstrate a well-developed industry network, supporting connections between academic inquiry and professional practice. In addition to teaching, they will develop a focused service/community outreach agenda and will interface with and assist in initiatives related to CVAD’s newly established Curiosity Lab. The Curiosity Lab is an interdisciplinary innovation engine within the College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) that integrates human-centered design, experiential learning, and advanced technologies—especially in AI, immersive media, and material fabrication—to prepare students and faculty for emerging creative economies. The mission of the Lab is to cultivate experimental mindsets, unleash human capacity, and foster user-experienced innovation by integrating human-centered design, experiential learning, creative technologies, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The Curiosity Lab prepares students and partners to navigate and shape a rapidly evolving world. To cultivate a culture of exploration and purposeful experimentation where visual arts, design, humanities, and technology converge to develop human-centered solutions, creative inquiry, and new knowledge. The college’s standard teaching workload for the Visiting Assistant Professor position is six courses per academic year with possible course credits for work associated to the Curiosity Lab. Additional responsibilities include student mentorship, professional development, service to the communication design program, college, university, and profession, and continued enhancement of the design department creating community and industry partnerships. This position is limited to up to a 3-year term.

Requirements

• Completed relevant graduate degree MS, MA, MFA.
• An active record of professional practice.
• A minimum of ten years of professional practice in the field of communication design with a focus on user experience and interaction design.

Nice To Haves

• Evidence of university-level teaching experience.
• Evidence of professional communication design experience, including publication design, digital/web/interactive design, user experience design and interaction design.
• Fluency in Adobe Creative Cloud software: Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop
• Professional and/or teaching experience with interaction design, including prototyping methods and software such as Figma, Figma Make, Google Stitch, Framer, WebFlow, etc.
• Experience developing and delivering design thinking workshops or seminars for professional and/or industry audiences.

Responsibilities

• Teach undergraduate and graduate students in the User Experience Design/Interaction Design Concentration.
• Foster forward-thinking, practice-based learning.
• Demonstrate a well-developed industry network, supporting connections between academic inquiry and professional practice.
• Develop a focused service/community outreach agenda.
• Interface with and assist in initiatives related to CVAD’s newly established Curiosity Lab.
• Student mentorship.
• Professional development.
• Service to the communication design program, college, university, and profession.
• Continued enhancement of the design department creating community and industry partnerships.

Benefits

• Competitive and commensurate compensation based on qualifications, experience, and discipline, in accordance with university guidelines and available funding.
• ORP Eligible retirement plan.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Associate degree