Professor of Transversal Aesthetics

The Academy of Media Arts Cologne (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln: KHM) espouses an interdisciplinary engagement with Media Arts.  Its project-based diploma programme “Media and Fine Arts” focuses on creative practice as a cohesive process that integrates media technology and theoretical competencies.  KHM pursues an interdisciplinary approach in the teaching and research of media and visual arts.

For the winter semester of 2021/22, KHM is seeking to appoint a Professor of Transversal Aesthetics (academic salary band “W3”) on a permanent basis to join its Art and Media Studies department.

Reflecting the transdisciplinary ethos of KHM, the successful candidate will be engaging with aesthetic and cultural processes based on an understanding of perception as translation.  In this context, translation connotes a transversal approach that perceives the entanglement of time and space within the context of cultural, social, political and economic determinants, as well as reflecting the relationship between ecologies and organisms.

Advancing epistemological methodologies towards dimensions of affect, as well as sustainable degrowth and post-colonial / decolonial epistemologies, this professorship will investigate new forms of knowledge production. The successful candidate will engage with ethical and societal questions, particularly the conviviality of human and non-human forms of life. Adopting a critical-historical approach to aesthetics and translation, the development of a transversal aesthetic will be established.

We are seeking to appoint a distinguished individual with an internationally established portfolio of academic publication and research, who is also able to offer experience of teaching within the arts. The successful candidate will play an active part in supporting artistic development within the wide-ranging creative areas pursued by students at the KHM, as well as enriching the wider discourse, both within the Academy and beyond. It is expected that the person appointed to this professorial post will be based in (or near) Cologne. 

Essential to this role are a PhD and evidence of high-calibre research, as well as a publication record at post-doctoral level in one of the following subject areas: philosophy; cultural studies; philosophy of science and nature; art and media theory.

In addition to teaching and research, you will be involved in the support of creative projects as well as doctoral supervision and PhD examination practices; you will engage with academic and organisational processes at a range of levels within the KHM.  For further requirements in regard to a professorial appointment, please refer to section 29 of the relevant statutory higher education code of practice and conduct of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (see: § 29 Kunsthochschulgesetz Nordrhein-Westfalen). Appropriate teaching qualifications and experience, as well as excellent English and German language skills, are essential. 

The Academy of Media Arts Cologne supports a diverse environment, enabling its academics, students and wider staff alike to thrive. The KHM stands for equality of opportunity, fair treatment and widening participation, and is against discrimination of anyone on the grounds of ethnicity, language, religion, philosophy, disability, age, sexual preference, gender or identity. The Academy strives to increase its proportion of female colleagues engaged in teaching and research; KHM reserves the right to utilise positive discrimination methods in favour of suitably qualified and experienced female candidates. The KHM encourages applications from suitably qualified individuals who are disabled in accordance with statutory definitions of disability; please see Germany’s social legislation for further information (see: §2 SGB [Sozial Gesetzbuch] IX)

Please send your CV and supporting letter of application, which should incorporate initial ideas of potential teaching and learning concepts, via email, to the Rector of the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln. Email: bewerbung [​at​] khm.de / www.khm.de.

Please refrain from sending large data files via email (6MB data limit). Instead, please use a download or file transfer service, or incorporate a data file link within your email or application (and please do ensure such links remain live for at least 6 months from the application deadline).

For further information regarding the position or recruitment process, please contact Mr Thomas Hauch (Human Resources), hauch [​at​] khm.de

Please note: final closing date for accepting applications is September 30, 2020.