OUR OPEN FACULTY POSITIONS
Over the last fifteen years, the Division of Games (and its predecessor, the Entertainment Arts and Engineering Program) has been remarkably successful as one of the first academic programs in games, receiving consistent rankings in the top 6 worldwide by Princeton Review since 2008, and preparing our undergraduates and graduate students for success in life beyond the U and into professional identities as game makers. Since the creation of our undergraduate degree, the BS in Games, in 2017, the program has skyrocketed in demand, is now the eighth most popular major on campus, and has landed "top three" spots among public institutions in the both US News and World Report and Princeton Review rankings.
In the last two years, the Division of Games has received remarkable support for this growth from the university's Office of the President. Since 2023, the Division has hired six remarkable teaching professors to further strengthen its teaching mission. Starting this year, the Division will expand its tenure-line faculty by one more, and will continue its hiring effort for faculty. We have plans and financial support from university President Taylor Randall to continue a multi-year process to build the Division's strengths in research, scholarship, and creative works. As Provost Mitzi Montoya said,
“Its new mission includes its old mission — to be a world leader in games education in higher education. But it also includes a new charge — to lead the progress in research and scholarship around games, to create a deeper understanding of games, and to apply that knowledge in teaching and research to change the lives of players for the better.”
We're on a mission to establish ourselves as the leading academic department of games, with transformative goals that focus on Utah Games' mission:
to create ideas that advance our understanding of games, to share that understanding with our students, our community, and society, and with that understanding to develop skilled, principled, and innovative game makers who change the world.
Our process over the near term will be to define ourselves as a new academic department, one that is built on our existing values, that sets the bar for excellent teaching, research, and creative work in games, and that always advances the power of games and play to transform lives for the better. We have a bold vision statement:
Utah Games' graduates will lead the world in advancing new forms of games and play that improve entertainment, health, justice, learning & training, collaboration, safety & security, and many other aspects of individual and societal well-being. The ideas developed at Utah Games will transform our capacity to create games that change lives. The Division's focus on excellence in education, research, collaboration, and community will catalyze partnerships across our campus and serve as a foundational element of a thriving games ecosystem in Utah and the nation.
But a statement alone isn't sufficient. We're driven to push this vision forward with action, and we're passionately seeking colleagues to join us in this work. If you are interested in creating ideas that advance our understanding of games, sharing those ideas with students, the community, and society, and applying those ideas to change society for the better, we would love to hear from you.
We have multiple faculty positions this coming academic search season -- a number for tenure-line scholars and two positions specifically for teaching faculty working at the university's Utah Asia Campus outside Seoul, South Korea. Links to the position postings and application instructions are here:
- Utah Asia Campus positions
- Two positions at our campus in Incheon, South Korea: Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Games
- Salt Lake City campus positions
- Multiple positions at rank of Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in AI, Games-Based Learning, Human-Centered Computing, and/or Perception and Cognition
- Multiple positions at rank of Associate or Full Professor (Tenure-Track) in AI, Games-Based Learning, Human-Centered Computing, and/or Perception and Cognition
Our hiring plans are moving by leaps and bounds, like the rest of our program. We expect to continue our growth in these and other areas, hiring ten or more tenure-line faculty colleagues in the next 4 years.
For more information, you can reach out to Utah Games' Chair, Michael Young, or to any of our faculty, to talk about the vision for Utah Games, where we are in our work to create a new academic department of games, and how you might play a role in building games as a discipline here at the U.