Humanities Center Eminent Scholar Chair

ABOUT THE POSITION: The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) invites applications for a semester- long Visiting Professorship, to begin in August 2026 or January 2027. The successful applicant will be appointed as Eminent Scholar Chair in the Humanities, receive a salary of $75,000 for the semester, and is eligible for certain university benefits. The Eminent Scholar Chair in the Humanities enjoys the use of a private faculty office, access to library and other faculty resources, as well as access to funding for expenses directly related to their scholarly work. This is a limited term position of one semester (either Fall or Spring). Appointments are subject to approval by the Chancellor and Board of Trustees for the University of Alabama System.

Responsibilities: The successful applicant will be expected to offer one in-person course for the semester of their appointment, give at least two public lectures on a topic relating to the humanities, lead at least one meeting with faculty regarding curriculum development or research, and be prepared to mentor junior faculty and graduate students in the humanities. 

Required Qualifications: 

• terminal degree in a humanities discipline

• current or past appointment as Full Professor at an accredited institution 

• either national or international recognition of past and original contributions to a humanities discipline or national or international recognition as a public intellectual

Preferred Qualifications:

• demonstrated record of excellence in teaching

• experience mentoring junior faculty and graduate students

• successful track record of interdisciplinary collaboration

APPOINTMENT DATE: August 2026 or January 2027

ABOUT THE HUMANITIES CENTER: The Humanities Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville coordinates opportunities for members of the UAH campus and the Huntsville region to experience and benefit from the skills and knowledge that derive from the humanities. The Center supports faculty from a range of disciplines, including Art, Art History, and Design, Communication Arts, English, History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Theatre & Film, and World Languages & Cultures. The Center provides faculty with a wide range of funding opportunities. These include: research grants for humanities-related projects; travel grants to support attendance at professional conferences relating to the humanities; library enhancement grants for faculty-curated additions to the collections at the M. Louis Salmon Library; public programming grants to enrich the intellectual and professional lives of UAH faculty and students as well as the Huntsville community; and book manuscript workshop grants to help authors strengthen book proposals, connect with experts in their areas of specialization, and raise the profile of humanities and humanities faculty within the academic community. For more information about the Humanities Center, see https://www.uah.edu/humanitiescenter. 

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY: The University of Alabama in Huntsville offers academic and research programs in the Colleges of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering; Nursing; and Science. With its seventeen research centers and sprawling campus, the University of Alabama in Huntsville is adjacent to Cummings Research Park and Redstone Arsenal, which is home to more than 75 federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Materiel Command, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center, and the FBI's new $1B HQ2 campus. For more information about UAH, see http://www.uah.edu/about.  

ABOUT HUNTSVILLE: The Huntsville area is a culturally diverse community and maintains one of the highest per capita incomes and standards of living in the Southeast. U.S. News recently ranked Huntsville as the best place to live in 2022-2023 among the 150 most populous metro areas in the country. Known as “Rocket City,” Huntsville has a major presence of technology, space, and defense industries, which allows the city to offer a variety of educational, recreational, and cultural opportunities. Huntsville is the most populous city in Alabama, with a metropolitan area population of more than 400,000 and growing. Huntsville’s Cummings Research Park is the country’s second largest research and technology park, housing nearly 300 companies and 29,000 employees involved in technology research and development. Huntsville has a high concentration of Ph.Ds., engineers, and STEM workers, and is recognized as a leading technology city with a rapidly expanding and diverse corporate ecosystem rich in innovation. Huntsville boasts a number of museums, historic sites, parks, and professional sports venues, including Huntsville Museum of Art, Burritt Museum and Park, EarlyWorks Children’s Museum, Alabama Constitution Village, Huntsville Botanical Garden, Monte Sano State Park, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Minor League Baseball’s Toyota Field, MLS Next Pro’s Huntsville City Football Club, and Probst Arena for professional hockey. Active downtown and mid-city arts and entertainment districts, including Broadway and symphony performances and a new outdoor amphitheater music venue, contribute to Huntsville’s vibrant cultural life. For more information about Huntsville and its convenient location with easy access to Nashville, Birmingham, and Atlanta, please visit http://www.huntsville.org.