Teaching Assistant Professor (EXPIRED)

The Program for Public Discourse is a relatively new initiative at the University of North Carolina, founded in 2019. Its mission is to support a strong culture of debate and deliberation at UNC through curricular and extracurricular programs. We base our work on the following core beliefs: 1. The university is a center for the creation, exploration, and dissemination of knowledge, and it serves a unique role both in history and in our contemporary culture; 2. The proper functioning of the university requires a commitment to open, frank, respectful, and productive debate; and 3. When our faculty, by practice and example, teach students how to think and argue well, with the processes and terms of rational justification open to examination, they strengthen our democracy and our public lives. The mission of PPD is to build our students’ capacities for debate and deliberation, enabling them to be better citizens, civic leaders, and stewards of our democracy.   The Program for Public Discourse (PPD) seeks to appoint one non-tenure track Teaching Assistant Professor to begin July 1, 2023. Initial appointment will be for a term of three years with the possibility of renewal. Area of study is political theory, philosophy, religious studies, and/or interdisciplinary studies in the humanities. We have a special interest in applicants with a background in rhetoric (especially discourse and classical texts), as well as applicants with experience in teaching undergraduate courses focused on productive dialogue and debate in the context of political polarization, and courses that guide students through fundamental questions of value and life purpose (e.g what is the good life? How can humans determine morality, truth and beauty? etc.). The successful applicant will also participate in workshops with faculty focused on how to foster productive dialogue across difference in the classroom, and work across disciplines to help PPD build bridges with multiple departments in the College.