July 25, 2006

SFU Makes its Move

by Noah Wardrip-Fruin · , 12:48 pm

GTxA’s neighbors to the north at Simon Fraser University are making a move that will shake the academic digital media landscape. This coming season they are hiring six assistant (or possibly associate) professors and four lecturers in Interactive Arts and Technology — which is a very fast scaling up in the academic world, especially for a young field like ours. After this, students and faculty will be ranking digital media programs differently.

The deadline for applications is early: 15 September 2006. The ten positions are:

1. Digital Media: Video, 3D, VR and/or Animation

2. Game Design and Development

3. Interaction Sciences

4. Interaction Design and Physical Computing

5. Design Theory

6. Performance and Technology

7. Applications of Programming and Computation in Multimedia (lecturer)

8. Media Specialist (lecturer)

9. Interactive Technologies, Prototyping and Technology (lecturer)

10. Design Process: Media & Design Prototyping (lecturer)

According to the job ad:

Successful candidates should have teaching experience at the undergraduate level and have high potential for instructional innovation. Tenure track faculty are expected to develop research programmes attractive to external funding and responsive to collaboration with other faculty and graduate students. All SIAT faculty must have a high degree of technological literacy regardless of their disciplinary background. As SIAT is a new and expanding School, faculty are expected to demonstrate leadership and programme development expertise. Those appointed will play key roles in developing SIAT curricula and in fostering relationships with industry.

SIAT is a vibrant, multidisciplinary programme that integrates the arts, design, science and technology. SIAT’s teaching and research draw upon fields ranging from performance and media art, digital media, design and information technology. SIAT offers BA, BSc., MA, MSc. and Ph.D degrees. The School currently enrols about 500 undergraduates and approximately 90 graduate students. This fall SIAT will move into state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories at the newly built Surrey campus.

Simon Fraser University at Surrey is located in the greater Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada. The area is home to Canada’s cultural and entertainment industry and much of its digital media production. The region’s rich cultural, natural and intellectual resources make it one of the world’s most desirable places to live and work.

There is more information about SFU’s open positions online.

One Response to “SFU Makes its Move”


  1. Adam MacDonald Says:

    That’s awesome! Makes me want to live in Vancouver all the more. It’s worth noting that EA’s giant dev center will no doubt benefit and interact with this program. And that’s a good thing, inasmuch as students can have a realistic connection with the industry (whatever one might think of EA). I know EA has had some work with SFU’s CS dept.

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