Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Writing Studies

Company Description:

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a Carnegie R1, Opportunity, and Community-Engaged university at the heart of the U.S.-Mexico border region that is increasing access to excellent higher education.

We advance discovery of public value and positively impact the health, culture, education, and economy of the community we serve.

UTEP enrolls more than 26,000 students, 84% of whom are Hispanic and half of whom are the first in their families to attend college.

UTEP offers 169 bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.

The city's location on the Rio Grande in the Southwest where two countries and three states meet makes it an ideal venue for academic programs and research studies on topics of national interest, including bilingual education/language acquisition, health and health disparities, international relations, international trade, migration, and environmental sustainability and infrastructure.

The University enjoys strategic partnerships with two Department of Energy national laboratories in the region, multiple national laboratories beyond the region, and sits on the edge of White Sands Missile Range, making engineering and scientific research both a priority and an opportunity.

Along with its designation among the top 5% of universities in America for research, UTEP is also nationally recognized as an Opportunity University by the Carnegie Classification for its positive impact on economic mobility for students after graduation.

In 2024, Forbes found that UTEP students graduate with the lowest average debt of any college or university in Texas.

Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, El Paso is set against the backdrop of the Franklin Mountains and the Chihuahuan Desert in one of the largest binational communities in the world.

The city's active arts and culture community features the state's longest-running symphony orchestra, a nationally recognized chamber music festival, a vibrant street art and mural scene, art galleries, museums, and a full schedule of seasonal events and festivals.

In 2024, El Paso opened La Nube, a unique hybrid institution that merges the educational aspects of a science center with the interactive experiences of a children's museum.

UTEP adds to the arts and entertainment scene with concerts and live events at the city's largest indoor and outdoor venues; theater, music and dance productions; contemporary and student art galleries; and a natural history museum and desert gardens.

El Paso residents can also easily travel to the sister city of Ciudad Jurez, Mexico, to enjoy great food, markets and cultural events.

El Paso/Jurez is the fifth largest manufacturing region in North America and the center of commerce, education and health services for the region.

A family-oriented community, the cost of living in El Paso is very reasonable for a large metropolitan area with the average home value of $224,000 in 2025.

In 2026, U.

S.

News and World report named El Paso the best big city to live in the nation.

Texas has no state income tax and, when it comes to public safety, El Paso is consistently ranked among the safest large cities in the United States.

El Paso is also an ideal location for people who love the outdoors.

It is home to one of the nation's largest urban parks - Franklin Mountains State Park - and many options for year-round hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing at Hueco Tanks State Park and nearby White Sands, Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns national parks.

For sports fans, the UTEP Miners offer exciting Division I college athletics at several campus venues including Sun Bowl Stadium - where one of the oldest football bowl games takes place annually - and the Don Haskins Center arena.

Southwest University Park, located a mile away in lively downtown El Paso, is home to the El Paso Chihuahuas, the Triple-A baseball affiliate of the San Diego Padres, and the El Paso Locomotive FC, a professional soccer team founded in 2019.

About the College of Liberal Arts

With nearly 7,000 students and more than 20 departments and programs, the College of Liberal Arts is the largest college at UTEP.

The college offers 36 bachelor's, 24 master's, and four Ph.

D. degrees in the fine and performing arts, the humanities, and the social and behavioral sciences.

The college also provides most of the UTEP core curriculum to students in all colleges.

The college's undergraduate and graduate programs house many excellent faculty who have been recognized as national and international leaders in their fields.

Faculty conduct interdisciplinary research in Latinx culture, health disparities, social justice, border studies, migration, environmental communication, and numerous other fields that enrich our bicultural and binational region.

Under the UTEP EDGE, faculty and students across the college engage in a variety of high-impact practices including community engagement and research on both sides of the border, study abroad/away, internships, and capstone experiences that help prepare students for lifelong success.

The college includes a bilingual MFA in Creative Writing, the first of its kind in the country; doctoral degrees in History, Rhetoric and Composition, Sociology, and Psychology; and the College of Liberal Arts Honors Program.

UTEP is also home to the Patti and Paul Yetter Law School Preparation Institute, a university-wide program that serves students from all academic disciplines.

About the Department of English

The Department of English is a vibrant, diverse department, featuring undergraduate and graduate programs in English and American Literature, English Education, and Rhetoric and Writing Studies.

Our program offerings include a PhD program in Rhetoric and Composition, a newly revised MA in English Studies, BA degrees in English and American Literature (ENAL) and English Education (ENGL), and graduate certificates in Bilingual Professional Writing, Teaching English, and Technical and Professional Writing.

The First-Year Composition sequence is housed in our department, which means that virtually every undergraduate student at UTEP meets us at one time or another.

Job Description:

Our department is one of the most productive at UTEP in terms of research, and our faculty have won many of the most prestigious awards in their fields, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Mellon Foundation, and many others.

Faculty members have secured NEH funding to support professional development initiatives with K-12 teachers, lead community-engaged projects in partnership with businesses, cultural institutions and nonprofit organizations, and conduct scholarship that addresses local, international, national, and global concerns.

Faculty in the department have served in leadership roles and on governing bodies of major scholarly and professional organizations, including the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the Modern Language Association (MLA), and the American Studies Association (ASA).

We are committed to achieving the highest quality of scholarship and teaching, and we pride ourselves on welcoming and supporting our students at all levels, from their first semester in the university to the completion of their highest degree.

The Department of English at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Writing Studies position beginning Fall 2027.

We seek a scholar whose research and teaching examine the intersections of rhetoric, writing, literacy, artificial intelligence (AI), and emerging technologies.

Applicants may hold a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition, Writing Studies, English Education, Literacy Studies, Technical and Professional Communication, or a closely related field.

We are interested in candidates whose work explores the relationships between AI and emerging technologies with humanistic approaches to writing processes, composing practices, teaching of writing, writing assessment, professional communication, and public discourse.

The successful candidate will join the Department of English and may contribute across multiple programs and areas within the department, including English Education, First-Year Composition, Literature, and Rhetoric and Writing Studies.

As part of this role, the candidate is expected to participate in the leadership of UTEP's nationally recognized First-Year Composition (FYC) program, including service as Director of FYC on a rotating basis.

This position is grounded in UTEP's commitment to multilingual writers, particularly native speakers of Spanish, access-oriented education, and innovative writing instruction.

Because FYC serves thousands of students annually and constitutes the University's primary writing curriculum, the successful candidate will contribute leadership in developing ethical, accessible, and scalable approaches to AI and writing instruction.

The position includes responsibilities related to writing program administration, curriculum development, graduate instructor education, assessment, professional development, and institutional conversations concerning AI, emerging technologies, literacy, and writing.

Areas of Specializations may include, but are not limited to:

Artificial Intelligence &

• Writing processes, including pedagogy and assessment
• Writing program administration
• Multilingual Writing
• Digital rhetoric and emerging technologies
• Cultural Studies
• Its influence on the humanities, including literary studies
• Ethics, policy, and governance related to AI
• Human collaboration in writing and composing
• Its use in academic and/or public composing, writing and literacy practices

Requirements:

• PhD in Rhetoric and Composition, Writing Studies, English Education, Literacy Studies, Technical and Professional Communication, or a closely related field by the date of appointment.
• Evidence of an established or emerging research agenda in Artificial Intelligence in Writing Studies.
• Evidence of successful teaching or strong potential for excellence in teaching.

Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate experience designing, studying, or teaching AI-informed approaches to writing and who can translate that scholarship into graduate instructor education, writing program leadership, and First-Year Composition instruction.

Advanced Assistant Professors are encouraged to apply.

Additional Information:

In keeping with its access, excellence, and impact mission, The University of Texas at El Paso is committed to an open, diverse, and inclusive learning and working environment that honors the talents, respects the differences, and nurtures the growth and development of all.

We seek to attract faculty and staff who share our commitment.

The University of Texas at El Paso is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or sexual orientation and gender in employment or the provision of services in accordance with state and federal law.

Discrimination on the basis of sex includes an employee's or prospective employee's right to be free from sexual harassment under Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments of 1972. Inquiries-including the filing of a Formal Complaint or reporting an incident-about the application of Title IX may be referred to the Title IX Coordinator, who can be reached by phone at (915) 747-8358, by email at titleix@utep.edu, or by mail at 500 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX, Kelly Hall, Room 312.

For accommodation information for employees and applicants with disabilities, please contact UTEP's Equal Opportunity Office at eoaa@utep.edu.

To the extent that this position involves research, work, or access to critical infrastructure as referenced in Executive Order GA-48, being hired for and continuing to be employed in this position requires the ability to maintain the security or integrity of the infrastructure.

Application Instructions:

Applicants should submit:

• Letter of application
• Curriculum vitae
• Teaching statement
• Research précis (1-2 pages)
• Writing sample
• Contact information for three references

Applicants should include a 1-2-page research précis that situates their scholarly agenda in Artificial Intelligence and Writing Studies.

The précis and writing sample should clearly represent the candidate's research program and demonstrate its relevance to writing studies, rhetoric, literacy, composition pedagogy, writing processes, and emerging technologies.

Applicants are encouraged to explain how their research informs their teaching, mentoring of graduate instructors, and approaches to writing program administration and First-Year Composition leadership.

If you have questions about the position, please contact the Department Chair / Search Committee Chair, Dr.

Vay (Dr. Vershawn Ashanti Young) at EnglishChair@utep.edu.