Faculty Hiring at EMU

students listening to a faculty member in a small group setting in the on-campus coffeeshop.

In the 2021-22 academic year, EMU completed a cohort hire that aligns with our strategic plan. The hiring of this cohort aligns with EMU’s commitment to increasing faculty, student, and curricular diversity. EMU continues to focus on recruiting faculty members who want to work collaboratively across different disciplines with research agendas and pedagogical commitments that address social justice, sustainability, racial equity, peacebuilding, restorative justice, non-Western thought, and other areas of study advancing equity and inclusion. We are looking for tenure track and continuing contract faculty in the following disciplines:

Biology: Learn more about the undergraduate biology and graduate biomedicine programs.
Engineering: Learn more about our ABET accredited engineering program.
Math: Learn more about our math program.
Music: Learn more about our music program.
Nursing: Learn more about our undergraduate nursing program.
- Psychology: Learn more about our undergraduate psychology program.
- Restorative Justice: This position is based in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.
Social Work: This position is based in the social work program.

If you have questions about these openings, please contact the Dean named in the disciplinary announcement of vacancies.

EMU, ranked in the top 25 percent of regional universities in the South, offers rigorous academic and professional study grounded in the liberal arts at the undergraduate, graduate, and seminary levels. More than 2,000 students study at the main campus in Harrisonburg, Virginia; the Lancaster, Pennsylvania site; the Washington Community Scholars’ Center in Washington, D.C.; and online. EMU’s mission is to serve and lead in a global context with core values including service to others, Christian discipleship, peacemaking, and community-building.

EMU is a consistently strong leader in experiential learning outcomes and student engagement: fully 90% of EMU 2020 seniors participated in NSSE-identified high-impact practices (compared to 62% nationally).

DEI Commitment

EMU is committed to having an inclusive and equitable campus community where everyone is treated with dignity, respect and can be their authentic self at work. As we pivot from our history as a predominantly white institution, we strive to extend the richness of the EMU experience to students, faculty, and staff who may have found themselves at the margins in the past. Our goal is to remove the barriers that underrepresented and marginalized groups have historically encountered in our society. Our commitment requires that together we face the fundamental causes that have led to discrimination, racial injustice, gender inequities, structural racism, and many other forms of oppression.

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Faculty Support

Our goal is to offer a work environment that supports the professional development of our employees, promotes their health and wellness, and supports their personal lives.

Course release in the first year
Professional development funds
Mentoring with an experienced faculty member
Orientation to the local community affinity groups and support in building relationships and networks in the wider community
Orientation to community services and organizations
A week-long retreat to give you the time and space to work on your independent or group research, writing, and creative projects
Monthly cohort meetings to check in and build relationships with your colleagues
Support in finding housing

Harrisonburg and Surrounding Area

EMU is located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of northwest Virginia.

Join a safe and welcoming community with a diverse population that consistently ranks among the best college towns in the country.
Experience a vibrant downtown restaurant and concert scene.
Bike, hike, fish, ski, rock-climb or canoe in the two national parks within a short drive.

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More about EMU

EMU is grounded in Anabaptist values which are embodied in our distinctive commitment to peacebuilding, social justice, cross-cultural engagement, and sustainability. EMU recognizes that a diverse faculty and staff enriches our community of learners on campus and the greater community. To that end, we aspire to recruit individuals who will further enhance our diversity, equity, and inclusivity goals, and we will support their academic and professional success. A pillar of the university’s strategic plan is to diversify.

Eastern Mennonite University takes seriously being a faith-based community of learning. EMU values a diversity of perspectives within its faculty and administrative staff. We do not seek denominational, doctrinal or theological uniformity. Within our diversity, we desire respectful supportive engagement with the core values, mission and commitments of the university, including the Anabaptist Christian understanding of faith that is foundational in our university. Together we pursue creativity, innovation and academic excellence in challenging students to live a faith-infused life of nonviolence, witness, service and peacebuilding.

For more information on our faith commitments see the following:

Life Together: Commitments for a Community of Learning describes the learning community we aspire to be.
For more background on Mennonites, we suggest reading the Shared Convictions of Mennonite World Conference and this FAQ about Mennonites