Aspiration Research Chair

Associate Professor or Professor

ASPIRATION RESEARCH CHAIR IN AI AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Department: Faculty of Humanities (home department negotiable)
Rank: Associate or Full
Start Date: 01-Jan-2027 of 01-Jul-2027 (negotiable)

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the University of Victoria stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria (UVic) invites applications for an Aspiration Research Chair in AI and Cultural Change, with a start date of January 1, 2027 or July 1, 2027 (negotiable). The appointment will be made at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor, with the successful candidate’s home department(s) open to negotiation. Aspiration Research Chairs are intended for exceptional researchers acknowledged as leaders in their field, with recognized success in research-inspired teaching and fostering collaborative and interdisciplinary research. Aspiration Research Chairs are expected to facilitate dialogue and knowledge sharing across the Humanities as well as across their respective field(s).  The term of the Chair is five years, after which the appointment will revert to a regular faculty position at the appropriate rank. During the 5-year tenure of the Aspiration Research Chair, the appointee will receive up to $50,000 annually to support their research, build community and institutional partnerships, and develop dynamic learning programs. This appointment is limited to external candidates.

Salary Range
The candidate's qualifications, experience, and overall market demand will determine the candidate’s final salary offer. The salary for this position includes a competitive salary range of $142,000 - $175,000 at the Associate Professor rank or $180,000 - $223,000 at the Professor rank. UVic is committed to offering an equitable and competitive salary, inclusive of a generous benefits package, eligible leaves and pension plan.

The Faculty of Humanities is home to 160 faculty members, nearly 180 graduate students, and more than 1300 undergraduate students, who study the products and processes of human thought and creativity: languages, literatures, media, material cultures, histories and beliefs, places and times. The Faculty is committed to upholding justice, diversity, and inclusion, promoting global knowledges, cultivating intercultural acumen, and confronting how humanity engages with natural and constructed environments. It fosters interdisciplinary scholarship and public dialogue on some of the most pressing issues facing our world, and it is committed to implementing the principles of decolonization and Indigenization in its programs and organizational structures. Across campus, UVic prioritizes research that engages social justice and equity, technology and the human experience, climate, environmental change, and sustainability. The advertised position reflects the University’s goals to develop its interdisciplinary research community and increase its societal impact.

Requirements

The Aspiration Research Chair’s research will ideally be centered on AI, cultural change, and authoritarianism. Contemporary culture is dominated, in public and institutional discourse as well as in the domains of policy and political economy, by the promise and menace of transformative technological change, often framed under the problematic heading of “AI.” The understanding that “artificial intelligence” will revolutionise our everyday lives is accompanied by, and entangled with, the acceleration of authoritarian politics across the globe. The automated production of knowledge is intimately connected to endemic surveillance, militarism, extractivism, and exclusion. Its impacts, in terms of energy consumption, pollution and deforestation are already affecting our sociological and ecological worlds. Educational institutions have adopted a sense of inevitability rather than engage with a phenomenon that is upending not just the form but also the content of pedagogy and research. Simultaneously, researchers are critically assessing how GenAI and related technologies can be used to shape (new) epistemological approaches to knowledge production, enhance accessibility, and govern ethical engagements with machine learning.

In this context, we seek a candidate who embraces humanist traditions of critical thought to challenge the reproduction of exploitative, exclusionary and extractive forms of social and political power, even as those reproductions embed themselves in the production of knowledge and the design of AI systems and regulations. We seek an exceptional candidate from within the broad fields of Humanities-informed technology and critical data studies, who will be able to bring a justice-centered lens to the study of developing AI-focused technologies, algorithmic justice, data analytics, and ethical and decolonial approaches to technology.

Researchers working in AI and one or more of the following areas are especially welcome:

• Data (critical data studies; digital humanities; data sovereignty, governance, and regulation; algorithms; history of science and technology)
• Justice (intersectional justice; environmental justice; fascism, authoritarianism, surveillance, militarism; social change; Indigeneity; decolonial methods; critical disability studies)
• Archives (memory work, critical archival studies, engagement with UVic’s Transgender Archives, Kula Library Futures Academy, or Special Collections)
• Philosophy of technology (ethical considerations regarding technology and AI; social and political philosophy; applied ethics; epistemology of technology)

The candidate will join a department in the Humanities: English; Gender Studies, History; Philosophy; Pacific and Asian Studies; Greek and Roman Studies; or the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (comprising French and Francophone Studies, Hispanic and Italian Studies, Germanic and Slavic Studies, and Linguistics). They will be expected and encouraged to work in collaborative ways, both through participation in interdisciplinary programs (Indigenous Studies; Media Studies; Professional Communication; Religion, Culture, and Society; Academic and Technical Writing; Medieval Studies; Latin American Studies; European Studies) and through engagement with cross-campus partnerships and centres (e.g., Critical Humanities Commons, Centre for Global Studies, Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, Humanities Computing and Media Centre).

Additional information

Faculty and Librarians at the University of Victoria are governed by the provisions of the Collective Agreement. Members are represented by the University of Victoria Faculty Association.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply. If you are neither a Canadian citizen nor permanent resident, please indicate if you are or will be authorized to work in Canada, and be prepared to provide a copy of your permit authorizing the same. UVic employs an Immigration Consultant who may assist the successful candidate in the immigration process.

Contact information

Candidates are asked to prepare a single PDF document that includes:

• a 2-page cover letter providing an overview of qualifications, teaching, and research;
• a detailed curriculum vitae;
• a 2-page statement describing current and future research projects and how they fit with the goals of the Aspiration Research Chair, including, if relevant, work involving archives, partnerships, collaborations, and/or labs/studios;
• a 1-page statement outlining strengths and experience in promoting equity, diversity and inclusion, especially in relation to AI and technology; and
• contact information for three referees.

Please submit your application to Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin, Chair of the Search Committee (humsadr@uvic.ca) by 5am PST on August 28, 2026, using the subject line “AI Aspiration Research Chair Application.” Questions may also be addressed to Dr. Williams Boyarin.

Please note that reference checks will be done, and background checks, including credential and degree verification, may be undertaken as part of this recruitment process.

Application deadline

Equity statement

UVic is committed to upholding the values of equity, diversity, inclusion and human rights in our living, learning and work environments. In pursuit of our values, we seek members who are eager to actively participate in that shared responsibility. We actively encourage applications from members of historically and systemically marginalized groups.

Read our full equity statement.

The University acknowledges the potential impact that career interruptions can have on a candidate’s record of research achievement. We encourage applicants to explain in their application the impact that career interruptions have had on their record.

Persons with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, may contact Faculty Relations and Academic Administration in the Office of the VP Academic and Provost at FRrecruit@uvic.ca. Any personal information provided will be maintained in confidence.