Working Title: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor: Physical Geography

State Role Title: N/A

Position Type: Instructional / Teaching Faculty

Position Status: Full-Time

FLSA Status: Exempt: Not Eligible for Overtime

College/Division: College of Integrated Science and Engineering

Department: 100060 - Integrated Science and Technology

Pay Rate: Commensurate with Experience

Specify Range or Amount:

Is this a JMU only position? No

Is this a grant-funded position? No

Is this a Conflict of Interest designated position? No

Beginning Review Date: 10/27/2025

About JMU:

Mission
We are a community committed to preparing students to be educated and enlightened citizens who lead productive and meaningful lives.

Vision
To be the national model for the engaged university: engaged with ideas and the world.

Who We Are
Located in the heart of Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley, the city of Harrisonburg is approximately 120 miles from Washington, D.C. and Richmond, VA. With a population of just over 53,000, Harrisonburg is one of the most diverse communities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. JMU is a selective, public institution with a growing national reputation for offering experiences that lead to an outstanding education and inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff. The student body includes approximately 20,000 undergraduate and 1,900 graduate students, with over 1,000 full-time instructional faculty.

JMU offers thriving programs in the liberal arts, science and technology, and professional disciplines at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. JMU has achieved national recognition for the high quality of its academic programs, focus on maintaining strong student/faculty interaction, and innovative faculty research.

General Information:

We invite applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Physical Geography within the School of Integrated Sciences (SIS) and its thriving Geography program starting August 2026. SIS supports innovative and dynamic academic careers for 40 faculty rooted in our constituent undergraduate programs--Geography, Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT), and Intelligence Analysis--along with growing graduate programs. SIS is a vibrant, welcoming, and supportive culture embracing innovation, collaboration, and student engagement. We prioritize the integration of teaching and research through cross-disciplinary collaboration. Our leadership is characterized by transparency and fairness. For more information about our School and its programs, please visit: www.jmu.edu/cise/sis

This position focuses on the physical geography curricular needs of the Geography program within SIS. This is a compelling area for leadership in the discipline and our own school: We are an academic community that prioritizes imaginative, boundary-crossing geographical scholarship, often with a problem-centric focus. We integrate science, technology, and the human dimension into engagement with critical environmental challenges.

Recognized with the national AAG Award for Bachelor Program Excellence, our Geography Program within SIS serves around 200 majors and 90 minors. Students value our core strengths across the discipline in physical, human, and nature-society geography along with geospatial technologies. Our well-resourced labs support faculty research, and students gaining expertise in physical geographical techniques as well as the latest geospatial tools. Geography faculty are committed to bringing diverse and externally supported work to the classroom and beyond. Current foci include urban climatology, land cover change, remote sensing, infrastructure geopolitics, humanitarian applications of geospatial technology, and more, with both global and local applications.

Duties and Responsibilities:

For this tenure-track position, our new faculty member will be able to teach our core Physical Geography course as well as offer upper-level courses in areas of expertise (especially those listed below), and potentially our General Education course on world regional geography. A typical teaching load is three courses per semester, and there are numerous opportunities for creativity in curricular development. We value a global perspective with local connections and encourage the development of regional and international field experiences.

We are open to a range of physical geographical subfields for this position but are particularly interested in new colleagues with scholarly expertise in one or more of the following areas: biogeography, wildlife/biodiversity studies, landscape ecology, agriculture/food systems, climate science, applied/critical physical geography, water resources/hydrology, geomorphology, soils, and oceanography/coastal landforms and processes.

As well as contributing to their primary programmatic home in Geography, our faculty participate in service activities to support the school, college, and university, and their professional community. We strongly support engaged learning, community engagement, and civic engagement.

Qualifications:

Successful applicants will have completed a Ph.D. by the time of appointment. We will prioritize those with (or pursuing) a Ph.D. in Geography or closely related field with a broad background in physical geography.

While research interests may focus on a wide variety of geographical sub-fields (see “Duties and Responsibilities”), ideal candidates should demonstrate experience connecting their work with others to collaboratively address complex multi-scale environmental problems.

We are particularly interested in individuals who:
· have a commitment to excellence in undergraduate geography teaching and research
· demonstrate an ability to work as part of an interdisciplinary team
· have the interest in or ability to incorporate geospatial technology and / or field methods in teaching and student research

Additional Posting Information:

To apply, complete the online application through the JMU career site and submit:
1. Cover Letter
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Teaching Philosophy
4. Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness, if available (submitted under "Other Document #1")
5. Scholarship Statement (submitted under "Other Document #2")

JMU’s Dual Career and Community Resources Program is available for candidates that will be relocating to the area. For more information, please visit https://bit.ly/2OTF1NG.

Conditions of Employment:  

Employment is contingent upon the successful completion of a criminal background check.

E-Verify Notice: After accepting employment, new hires are required to complete an I-9 form and present documentation of their identity and eligibility to work in the United States. James Madison University uses the E-Verify system to confirm identity and work authorization.

EEO Statement:

James Madison University is committed to creating and supporting a diverse and inclusive work and educational community that is free of all forms of discrimination. This institution does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national origin, parental status, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status.

We promote access, inclusion and diversity for all students, faculty, staff, constituents and programs, believing that these qualities are foundational components of an outstanding education in keeping with our mission. The university is interested in candidates whose experience and qualifications support an ongoing commitment to this core quality.

Anyone having questions concerning discrimination should contact the Office for Equal Opportunity: (540) 568-6991.

Reasonable Accommodation:

If you are an individual with a disability and need assistance searching or applying for jobs please contact us at (540) 568-3597 or jobs@jmu.edu. You may also visit the JMU Human Resource Office, located at 752 Ott Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22807 and we will be happy to assist you.