Assistant Professor​/Associate Professor in Public Policy

Department/Organization
225101 - School of Leadership & Policy

Rank
Assistant/Associate Professor

Position Summary
The University of Alabama School of Leadership and Policy (SLP) invites applications for multiple renewable contract faculty positions in Public Policy, at the rank of assistant or associate professor, beginning August 2027. We seek teachers and mentors who will prepare students to analyze, shape, and carry out public policy. The SLP will open its doors for classes in fall 2027 as the first new college-level unit established at The University of Alabama in 60 years;

as a new school, the SLP offers faculty a rare opportunity to help build a curriculum and set of programs from the ground up.

Detailed Position Information
These are teaching- and student-focused appointments in the undergraduate and graduate public policy programs. Preparation for this role can come from academic training alone or from a combination of academic training and practical experience. We expect to hire multiple faculty into these positions and understand that an individual candidate may not meet all of the preferences below. We will build a faculty whose strengths are complementary.
Beyond classroom teaching, faculty in these positions will support students directly and will build the school's relationships with the organizations that host and hire them. This work may include career advising and mentoring, supervision of the public policy capstone and student internships, development of experiential learning programs and courses, identifying capstone clients and internship sites, and connecting students to employers. Assignments are made by the department chair or dean and will reflect the needs of the school and the strengths of each faculty member.
Research is not a condition of these appointments and carries no weight in evaluation, reappointment, or promotion.
Rank at appointment will reflect the candidate's qualifications and experience. Appointments are for a three-year term and are renewable. Reappointment depends on documented performance, continued departmental need, and continued availability of funding. Renewable contract faculty are eligible for promotion in rank.
We offer a competitive salary and relocation assistance.

Minimum Qualifications
Candidates must hold either a doctorate or other terminal degree in a relevant field, or a master's degree combined with a record of professional accomplishment in public policy. Relevant doctoral fields include public policy, public administration, economics, political science, and related disciplines in the social sciences. We also welcome candidates whose doctoral training lies elsewhere but whose research and teaching bear directly on public policy.
All candidates must demonstrate strong potential for undergraduate and graduate teaching and for mentoring students. Candidates applying at the associate professor rank should present a record of teaching and professional accomplishment appropriate to that rank.

Preferred Qualifications
Teaching. Applicants should demonstrate the potential to teach in the SLP's public policy curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Courses include Economics of Public Policy, Policy Analysis and Evaluation, Research Methods in Public Policy, Values in Public Policy, Communicating Public Policy, the Policy making Process, and Leadership in Public Policy. Experience directing or teaching a capstone course in public policy, or demonstrated aptitude for doing so, is particularly valuable.

Successful candidates will help build out the curriculum by developing additional courses that reflect their own expertise and areas of specialization. Policy expertise. We welcome candidates whose expertise bears on the policy challenges facing Alabama and its communities. That expertise may have been developed through scholarship, professional practice, or both. Analytic preparation. We are particularly interested in candidates prepared to teach the analytic core of the curriculum, including policy analysis and evaluation, economics for public policy, and the research methods sequence.

Professional experience. Candidates whose qualifications are based on practical experience should have led the design, adoption, implementation, or evaluation of public policy in government, the military, the nonprofit sector, or private industry. Mentoring. We seek candidates who are committed to student development and who show evidence of it, whether through teaching, advising,…