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Assistant Professor - Medieval Studies - Comparative Literature and Spanish & Portuguese
Position overview
Position title: Assistant ProfessorApplication Window
Open date: October 13, 2026
Next review date: Sunday, Nov 15, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.
Final date: Sunday, Nov 15, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Applications will continue to be accepted until this date.
Position description
The Departments of Spanish & Portuguese and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley seek applications for an Assistant Professor specializing in Medieval Literature and Culture.
The successful candidate will have a rigorous grounding in Medieval Studies, with specialized training in Spanish and another language and the ability to work across languages and traditions. This broad, interdisciplinary field can include the study of literary history, social history, intellectual history, religious history, or linguistic history. Additional areas of specialization that would be welcome are Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, Catalan, Occitan, Mediterranean Studies, gender studies, race studies, and material culture studies.
The successful candidate will teach a broad range of undergraduate and graduate courses that are central, both to the majors and to general education in the Division.
The appointee will also advise undergraduates and graduates and supervise student research, develop a successful and original research program, and provide service contributions. The appointee will be encouraged to contribute to the department’s diverse and inclusive community through their research, teaching, and/or service.
In addition to a strong grounding in literary and/or cultural history, we would welcome secondary training in areas such as gender studies, historical linguistics, critical race studies, material culture studies, classical reception studies, or Mediterranean Studies. The Iberian peninsula in the Middle Ages was characterized by a rich and fascinating intersection of cultures using Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic. Work that takes this complexity and diversity into account would be of special interest to us. Beyond that, we are looking for creativity, rigor and distinction in the candidates’ written work and oral presentations—and, not least, their ability to develop new strands of research that will continue to shape the field going forward.
About the Departments:
The departments of Comparative Literature and Spanish and Portuguese
provide faculty with the opportunity to teach and mentor both graduate and
undergraduate students. Faculty members teach on a wide variety of topics and approaches.
UC Berkeley values the family needs of faculty, including dual career couples, single parents, or those who may have taken time off for family reasons. For information about potential relocation to Berkeley, or career needs of accompanying partners and spouses, please visit the Office for Faculty Equity and Welfare's website.
The UC Berkeley Department of Comparative Literature is dedicated to comparative literary study that is both historical and theoretical, covering literary traditions from several inter-related regions and traditions. This combination of intensity and breadth is reflected in the composition of our faculty, seventeen of whom are jointly appointed with national literature departments. Faculty are actively involved in various programs on campus, such as the Critical Theory Designated Emphasis, Film Studies, Medieval Studies and the Early Modern Studies Designated Emphasis. Our signature combination of teaching and research on literature, film, and other media is based on knowledge of original languages, an understanding of historical context and production, and theoretically innovative perspectives. Texts read in research seminars include both authors from a global range of literary and cultural traditions, and theoretical interventions that question the how and why of cultural production.
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese studies the literary, cultural, and linguistic products of the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds, and aims to legitimize, support and empower the Hispanic and Lusophone-speaking and -studying students that we serve. We offer students an abundance of opportunities to achieve mastery of the languages and cultures we study, which include Catalan, Nahuatl, Portuguese, Romance Studies, and Spanish. Our programs are designed for highly motivated students with a passion for other languages, literatures, and cultures, linguistics, as well as for approaches that carefully cross traditionally defined geographic, linguistic and disciplinary borders. Faculty are formally involved with many departments or units on campus: for example, Applied Data Science, Latin American Studies, European Studies, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Rhetoric.
For more than a decade, the placement record for tenure-track jobs in both departments is among the very best in the country. This remarkable record speaks not only to the intellectual culture of the departments but also to our faculty’s consistent devotion to teaching and mentoring. Both undergraduate programs are flourishing. Given California’s Hispanic heritage and demographics, the intersection of Comparative Literature and Spanish/Portuguese offers remarkable opportunities for teaching across languages, genres, and media.
Both departments deeply value multilingualism and international engagement.
Department: https://complit.berkeley.edu/
Department: https://spanish-portuguese.berkeley.edu/
Qualifications
Ph.D. (or equivalent international degree), or enrolled in PhD or equivalent international degree-granting program at the time of application.
Native or Near-native English and Spanish language proficiency is required to conduct courses in English, as well as in Spanish.
Evidence of ability to conduct research in more than one language, literature, and culture, working with texts in the original languages of the relevant literature/cultures.
Evidence of broad competence in literary studies and in critical approaches to theoretical frameworks, demonstrated through formal study and/or publication record.
Evidence of ability to teach a range of graduate and undergraduate courses and to teach in broadly based undergraduate courses with a trans-historical or multilingual dimension.
Evidence of ability to attract undergraduate and graduate students to the departments, mentor them, nurture their research interests, and work dynamically in a variety of pedagogical contexts, both individually and collaboratively.
Application Requirements
Cover Letter - A cover letter that outlines current and future research plans, service, and teaching experience.
Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.
Writing Sample - A writing sample of no more than 30 pages (double spaced), demonstrating your best work as a scholar and critic.
Teaching Statement - A two-page reflection on your approaches and experience with teaching. This need not be a traditional “Teaching Statement,” but should be something that will help our committee understand your values and interests in the classroom.
Please discuss prior teaching experience, teaching approach, and future teaching interests. This can include, for example, specific efforts and accomplishments, and future plans to support the success of all students through classroom environment and pedagogy. Please also discuss your mentoring approaches.
Research Statement - Please discuss research accomplishments and plans––past, current, and future. This can include, for example, an extended summary of dissertation/book project, as well as broader research profile, including essays, presentations, other research practices that promote the excellence of research, and areas for future research.
Service Statement - In a document of no more than one page, please discuss specific prior and proposed academic, professional and/or public service activities. This can include, for example, participating in professional or scientific associations, serving on committees that advance department, campus or discipline goals, and conducting outreach activities that can remove barriers and increase participation of academics in your field.
Authorization to Release Information Form - An institutional reference check will be completed only if you are selected as the candidate to whom the hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer. Download, complete, sign, and upload the Authorization to Release Information form.
- 3 letters of reference required
Help contact: clfa_apc@berkeley.edu
About UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in our public mission of research, teaching, and service, consistent with UC Regents Policy 4400 and University of California Academic Personnel policy (APM 210 1-d). These values are embedded in our Principles of Community, which reflect our passion for critical inquiry, debate, discovery and innovation, and our deep commitment to contributing to a better world. Every member of the UC Berkeley community has a role in sustaining a safe, caring and humane environment in which these values can thrive.
The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status.
For more information, please refer to the University of California’s Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment Policy and the University of California’s Anti-Discrimination Policy.
In searches when letters of reference are required all letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality prior to submitting their letter.
As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.
The University of California is committed to creating and maintaining a community dedicated to the advancement, application, and transmission of knowledge and creative endeavors through academic excellence, where all individuals who participate in University programs and activities can work and learn together in a safe and secure environment, free of violence, harassment, or discrimination. Consistent with this commitment, UC Berkeley requires all applicants for Senate faculty positions to complete, sign, and upload an Authorization of Information Release form into AP Recruit as part of their application. If an applicant does not include the signed authorization, the application will be considered incomplete, and as with any incomplete application, will not receive further consideration. Although all applicants for faculty recruitments must complete the entire application, applicants will only be subject to institutional reference checks if and when they are selected as the candidate to whom the hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer. More information is available on this website.
As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct.
- “Misconduct” means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant’s previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment or discrimination, as defined by the employer.
- UC Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Policy
- UC Anti-Discrimination Policy
- APM - 035: Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment