[employment: assistant or associate prof. of info graphics]

*ASSISTANT OR ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN INFORMATION GRAPHICS AND DATA VISUALIZATION*

*Working title/rank:*  Assistant or Associate Professor in Information
Graphics and Data Visualization

*Type of appointment:* Tenure-track faculty

*Position category:* Tenure-track faculty

*Department or school:* Journalism/Mass Communication

*Application deadline:* Open until filled (Applications will begin to be
reviewed on January 15, 2010)

*Proposed start date:* July 1, 2010

*Position summary*

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is searching for an outstanding assistant or associate professor specializing in information graphics and data visualization.  The successful applicant will teach courses in information graphics and visualization, which includes cartography and statistical representation, 3D design, animated graphic storytelling and other appropriate courses over time. All of the school’s graphic design courses are taught in our state-of-the-art Macintosh labs.  The successful candidate will teach a 2/2 course load and perform other customary duties of a faculty member in the school’s research tenure track: research, advising, service and teaching/advising students at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

*Education requirements*

A Ph.D. in journalism/mass communication or a relevant related field is required.  ABD will be considered with a firm anticipated completion date.

*Experience and qualifications*

   - Preferred 7 years of full-time professional experience as an informational graphic artist/specialist.
   - Entrepreneurial and/or freelance work experience.
   - An outstanding, international award-winning professional portfolio that includes print and online journalistic work.
   - Proficiency in appropriate software including Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and a 3D software program such as Maya or Lightwave.  Working knowledge of Flash and Dreamweaver. Proficiency in programming languages such as ActionScript and R.
   - A well-defined research agenda that addresses pertinent issues in information visualization and new technologies.
   - Ability to be an outstanding teacher.



*Special instructions*

Go to *http://jobs.unc.edu/1002162* <http://jobs.unc.edu/1002162> to apply.
Please submit a letter, vitae, names and contact information of least three references and a link to online portfolio materials. Supporting documents including course syllabi and other materials will be helpful in selecting finalists and should be submitted as electronic attachments to the application when possible.  Any other materials may be mailed to: 
Jo Bass
Assistant to the Dean
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
UNC-Chapel Hill
Campus Box 3365
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3365








Note: The amazing image is from Aaron Koblin who has compiled flight pattern data from the FAA for the United States and most of North America. He calls the work "Flight Curves."

[employment: lecturer in digital anthropology]

I just love seeing employment opportunities that are focused on the digital (especially within humanities).

Applications are invited for a permanent lectureship in Digital Anthropology to begin 1 August 2009. The successful applicant will be responsible for, and will teach within, our new MA programme in Digital Anthropology and contribute to general teaching in Material and Visual Culture. They will carry out research in Digital Anthropology and contribute to normal administrative duties within the UCL Department of Anthropology.

Applicants should have a PhD and begun researching in the field of Digital Anthropology.

Applications from qualified candidates specialised in any area of the world are welcome.

Further particulars are available here. This appointment is available from 1 August 2009 on the UCL salary scale Grade 7 in the range £ 32,458 per annum to £35,469 per annum plus £2,781 per annum London Allowance. A UCL application form may be downloaded from the UCL website. Applications consisting of the application form, a CV, the names and contact details (particularly e-mail) of three referees and a cover letter describing the candidate's research interests and teaching expertise should all be sent electronically to the Departmental Administrator, Mrs Alena Kocourek (a.kocourekucl.ac.uk).

UCL Taking Action for Equality
The closing date for applications is Wednesday, 1st April 2009.

[visual literacy periodic table]

Interesting visualisation tool over at visual-literacy.org. I can imagine employing this tool as an educator, as a way of modeling to students how they might go about addressing problems or working through essay development etc... A good exercise might involve asking students to pick two "elements" of the visual literacy periodic table and apply them to the same problem to see which tool works best for the problem and their learning style.

Usefully, when clicking on each element an image appears with an example of the visualisation element. For example, clicking on the RI (Rich Picture) Element brings up:



Similarly, clicking on Tr or Mi elements brings up:



and:

Try it yourself at http://www.visual-literacy.org.

[my rss + wordle = tag cloud 2.0]

You can make your own text cloud at Wordle by uploading a link to any site with an rss feed, linking to a delicious feed or pasting in text manually. This application seems to have quite a bit of potential in the classroom...perhaps as a way to help students summarise important aspects from their reading or as a way of offering a visual interpretation of data.

[learning on screen - part deux]

Another interesting session led by Sarah Jeans, University College for the Creative Arts - Farnham

(have been searching for links to all the speakers but oddly they aren't googleable...weird)

• the blending of industry and academia - why is it important
• challenging, current industry debates, fit for purpose and inclusive experience
• as an educational institute what do they offer a practising professional and how do they keep them engaged
• the student experience - raising expectations, first hand knowledge of trials and tribulations, current debates, integrating practise
• what some students say: "as he was particularly critical, people were put on the spot, and pushed to a higher level." "Not everyone wants to make the same type of style of film. As a result a lot of the film could potentially be a bit samey and nothing would be produced that was groundbreaking or very different..." (students commenting on Paul Watson's role in the classroom)
• difficulties for industry people coming into edu: scheduling, language, priorities, methods etc...

[gesturing towards transliteracy]

For some time the PaRT group (Production and Research in Transliteracy) has been considering, musing upon and developing the concept of transliteracy. We had an interesting Transliteracy Colloquium where all participants shared their relationship to transliteracy and how/why it might be useful.

Rather excitingly the PaRT group has had their first communal effort on transliteracy published. Check out this month's First Monday issue for what Sue would call our flag in the sand.




Here is the abstract:

Transliteracy might provide a unifying perspective on what it means to be literate in the twenty-first century. It is not a new behavior but has only been identified as a working concept since the internet generated new ways of thinking about human communication. This article defines transliteracy as “the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks” and opens the debate with examples from history, orality, philosophy, literature, and ethnography. We invite responses, expansion, and development.

As the Asheninka tribe say:

"Everything we use has a story; each drawing has a long and comprehensive story. Each drawing which is passed from one generation to another is our writing; each little symbol has an immense story. As one learns a drawing, one learns its origin, who taught it, who brought it to us."