Description

Position Title: Adjunct Faculty - BA Making Conscious Media WRI-458 (cross listed ART-455)

No. of Positions to Fill 1

Department/Program: Writing & Poetics 12090

Work Location: Arapahoe Campus

Reports to: Valerie Hsiung

FLSA Classification: Exempt/Salaried

FTE: 15% (6 hrs/week)

Compensation: $3900 per semester for 3 credit course ($1300 per undergrad credit)

Application Deadline: 7/1 or until filled

Job Summary:
The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics seeks a talented adjunct faculty member to teach WRI 458: Making Conscious Media during the Fall 2026 semester.

This interdisciplinary course introduces students to the creative, technical, and critical foundations of independent media production. Through a series of production and post-production projects, students explore moving-image practices as vehicles for artistic expression, cultural inquiry, and social engagement. The instructor will guide students in developing original media works while cultivating an understanding of how film, video, sound, and other time-based media can engage questions of aesthetics, ethics, consciousness, and the human condition.

Working within a project-based learning environment, the instructor will support students in the development of a final media project in documentary, experimental, narrative, or hybrid forms. Particular emphasis is placed on artistically ambitious work that demonstrates critical engagement with contemporary social, political, cultural, and creative concerns.

This is a 3-credit undergraduate course.

Course Description:

WRI 458: Making Conscious Media is a hands-on creative media course that explores the conceptual, technical, and artistic dimensions of independent media production. Through a sequence of short production and post-production projects, students develop practical skills in media creation while engaging critical questions concerning representation, storytelling, experimentation, and artistic practice.

The course introduces students to a range of approaches to documentary, experimental, narrative, and hybrid media forms. Students will examine historical and contemporary examples of innovative media-making while developing their own creative projects. Emphasis is placed on work that is socially provocative, artistically bold, and grounded in thoughtful explorations of human experience.

Through screenings, readings, discussions, technical demonstrations, creative exercises, and project critiques, students learn strategies for developing media works from concept through completion. The course culminates in a final project that reflects the student's creative interests, technical development, and critical engagement with contemporary media practice.
Cross-listed with ART 455.

Job Duties & Responsibilities:
• Develop a rigorous and coherent syllabus with a full semester-long arc.
• Teach and facilitate all scheduled class meetings.
• Introduce students to the creative, technical, and conceptual foundations of independent media production.
• Guide students through all stages of media creation, including concept development, production, editing, and presentation.
• Provide instruction in relevant production and post-production techniques and workflows.
• Facilitate discussions of contemporary media, experimental practice, documentary traditions, and narrative storytelling.
• Lead project critiques and foster a constructive creative feedback environment.
• Support students in developing original media projects that demonstrate artistic and critical engagement.
• Provide written and verbal feedback on student work throughout the semester.
• Assess student projects and submit grades in accordance with university policies.
• Maintain regular communication with students and respond to questions in a timely manner.

Minimum Qualifications:
• Terminal degree (MFA, PhD, or equivalent professional experience) in Film, Media Arts, Creative Writing, Interdisciplinary Arts, Documentary Studies, or a related field.
• Demonstrated record of creative or professional work in film, video, media arts, documentary practice, experimental media, or related disciplines.
• College-level teaching experience.
• Demonstrated knowledge of contemporary media practices, including independent, experimental, documentary, and/or narrative forms.
• Experience guiding students through creative production processes and project-based learning environments.
• Familiarity with contemporary digital production and post-production tools.
• All job candidates must demonstrate their level of understanding of the dynamics of privilege and oppression, and the impact these have on equity, access, and opportunity.
• All job candidates must demonstrate an appropriate level of understanding of and appreciation for the values of Naropa University and the capacity to demonstrate an integration and embodiment of these values as evidenced in work, communication, collaboration styles, and other general workplace behaviors.

Preferred Qualifications:
• Demonstrated expertise in contemplative education.
• Experience teaching film, video production, documentary practice, experimental media, or interdisciplinary arts.
• Active creative practice as a filmmaker, media artist, documentarian, or interdisciplinary artist.
• Familiarity with socially engaged media practices and traditions of independent cultural production.
• Experience mentoring student creative projects from conception through final presentation.
• Interest in the intersections of media, consciousness, artistic practice, social inquiry, and contemplative approaches to creative work.

Physical Requirements & Environmental Conditions
Faculty members spend most of their time in their classrooms or in virtual meetings with some time in offices. In the classrooms and on campus may experience: interruptions, distractions, heat, cold, dust and/or dampness. As a faculty member, you may spend extended periods in front of students and speaking as well as:
• Reading academic texts and materials, student papers, etc.
• Operating personal computer and audio-visual equipment.
• Standing or sitting for hours at a time.
• Moving around campus for classes and meetings.

Naropa recognizes the following holidays throughout the year: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Fall Break, 4th Thursday and Friday in November, and Winter Break, the last two weeks in December encompassing the Christmas holiday as well as New Year's.

Naropa's health and welfare benefits include the following: medical, dental, vision, FSA, HSA, employer-paid short-term and long-term disability, employer-paid life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment, an employer-sponsored pre-tax retirement savings plan, which includes up to 2.5% employer matching, and a variety of voluntary, employee-paid supplemental insurance plans.

A comprehensive benefits package is available to full-time employees who work a minimum of 30 hours each week. Employees who work 20 - 29 hours each week are eligible for only the employer-paid short-term & long-term disability, employer-paid life insurance & accidental death and dismemberment, and the retirement plan, which includes up to 2.5% employer matching.

Employees who work fewer than 20 hours per week are eligible to participate in Naropa's retirement plan only, which includes up to 2.5% employer matching.

All regular full-time and part-time faculty and staff, including student workers, accrue sick leave benefits. Full-time and part-time staff positions accrue vacation and personal time. All leave accrual rates vary based on the position, hours worked, and years of service.

The University recognizes the importance of including its employees in its organizational mission and values and welcomes employees into the classroom to "touch the magic." Specifically, regular employees are provided generous tuition remission opportunities for themselves and their family members.

Naropa University participates in the Council of Independent Colleges Tuition Exchange Program (CIC-TEP). CIC-TEP is a network of CIC colleges and universities willing to accept, tuition-free, students from families of full-time employees of other CIC participating institutions (full-time as designated by the employer/institution). Additional information can be found here: https://www.cic.edu/member-services/tuition-exchange-program.

Naropa University is an equal opportunity, non-discriminatory employer and Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits gender discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual and relationship violence. This law applies to all students, faculty, and staff.