Assistant Professor - Emerging Media Arts: Film Production

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film seeks visionary filmmakers for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Emerging Media Arts:
Film Production.

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Emerging Media Arts in film production. Duties include teaching a range of film production courses. As a tenure-track professor, you will continue your outstanding creative work, further develop your research area, mentor students, help develop new curriculum, and participate in university service and outreach. As part of our community, you will contribute to and promote a culture of belonging.

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is an interdisciplinary center and creative research facility within the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, established with a $57M investment from the Johnny Carson Foundation. Research areas include filmmaking, interactive and immersive storytelling, experience and generative design, XR, machine learning, sonic and data arts, virtual production, and innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Carson Center brings together world‑class faculty and students to reimagine the future of media through inclusive, imaginative storytelling that addresses human‑scale challenges, provokes, and inspires. As the Center expands its international reach and collaborations, this is a unique opportunity to shape its growing mission.

Nebraska offers an attractive compensation and benefits package, commensurate with the successful candidate’s background and experience. Faculty status with opportunities for promotion in rank and sabbatical opportunities for continued learning and professional development are additional key benefits.

• Teach courses in film production, combining theoretical, critical approaches with hands‑on production techniques.
• Teach a range of pre‑production, production, and post‑production courses.
• Teach potential projects courses like narrative, documentary, essayistic, or experimental practices.
• Develop undergraduate and graduate curriculum.
• Mentor film capstone projects.
• Ongoing production of creative research projects in filmmaking.
• Help develop production spaces and capacity.
• Connect students to internships and professional networks.
• Mentor students on career goals, opportunities, and/or future graduate studies.
• Contribute positively to a community and culture of storytellers and makers.
• Engage in interdisciplinary collaborations across campus.
• Participate in department, college, and university service.

Lincoln, Nebraska, is more than a quintessential college community. The University is situated in a dynamic downtown area that includes the state capital and a growing tech industry, as well as restaurants, coffee houses, movie theaters, clubs, bike trails, and urban residences. Lincoln has excellent public schools, a low cost of living, and has been nationally recognized for its high quality of life.

It is a friendly, creative, intellectual, and vibrant community that loves the arts and is home to the Lied Center for Performing Arts; the Sheldon Museum of Art; the International Quilt Museum; the Nebraska State Museum with collections including anthropology, botany, and zoology; and the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, an art house cinema that is part of the College, as well as numerous alternative spaces and venues for visual art and music.

• BA or BFA in film production or an equivalent arts‑related field.
• Working career as a filmmaker represented through a body of work that has received national/international festival, museum, theatrical, network, or streaming exhibition.

• MFA in film production or an equivalent arts‑related field, OR in exceptional cases, significant professional credentials and experience in lieu of a terminal degree.
• Two years of teaching at the university level, beyond the teaching assistant level, or equivalent experience in a non-university setting.
• Experience working collaboratively across disciplines.
• Connections to industry partners.
• Active creative research…