2025-2026 Visual Art (VISA) Sessional Lectureships

2025-2026 Academic Term Visual Art Sessional Lectureships

The Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory (AHVA) at the University of British Columbia invites applications for part-time sessional lecturers from within the existing sessional lecturer pool for the following courses in Visual Art (VISA):

VISA 110 — Foundation Studio: Digital Media (online lecture, two sections term 2)

VISA 210 — Digital Arts (one section term 1)

VISA 220 — Drawing (one section term 1; one section term 2)

VISA 230 — Painting (one section term 2)

VISA 241 — Digital Photography (two sections term 2)

VISA 250 — Print Media (one section term 2)

VISA 260 — Sculpture (one section term 1; one section term 2)

VISA 312 — Expanded Digital Media (one section term 1)

VISA 390 — Performance (one section term 2)

Course descriptions are available here

The term dates are term 1, September 1 to December 31, 2025, and term 2 January 1 to April 30, 2026. All instruction takes place in person, unless otherwise indicated.

A minimum of an MFA is required, and preference will be given to applicants with post-secondary teaching experience and a record that provides evidence of teaching effectiveness. The minimum salary for a three-credit course in the Faculty of Arts is currently $9,559.11.

Applicants must submit their application at https://ahva.air.arts.ubc.ca/application-for-visual-art-sessional-lectureships/ and upload the following in the order listed within a single PDF (max size 15MB):

cover letter
CV, which includes a record of experience and a detailed list of all post-secondary courses taught (course name and number, length, credit value, dates, and teaching responsibilities)
sample course outline(s)
evidence of teaching effectiveness (i.e., teaching evaluations, if available)

Applicants should also arrange to have two confidential reference letters submitted by email to ahva.head@ubc.ca (or have them on file for incumbents). All materials should be received by 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.

For information, please visit www.ahva.ubc.ca

All positions are subject to availability of funds and will be governed by UBC’s “Agreement on Conditions of Appointment for Sessional Faculty Members.” The salary effective July 1, 2024 is $3,186.37 per credit, based off a nine-credit term. Therefore, a regular three-credit course in our department would be remunerated at $9,559.11

Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Métis, Inuit, or Indigenous person. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

2025-2026 AHVA TA Postings

ARTH TA Postings 2025W__REVISED
VISA TA Postings 2025W

Application: Please upload copies of the following by 4:30 PM on Wednesday, 30 April 2025.

1)Cover letter indicating the course(s) you are applying for and preference;
2)Curriculum vitae, which includes a list of all Art History/Visual Art courses that you will have completed by Fall 2025.

-Tutorial times can range between 9:00 am – 6:30 pm (ARTH), 9:00 am – 8:00 pm (VISA)
-Students must be in British Columbia by the start date of a TA assignment in order to hold the appointment

UBC hires on the basis of merit and is committed to employment equity. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply. Successful applicants will become members of the Teaching Assistant union, CUPE 2278. Assignment of positions is guided by the stipulations within the collective agreement between UBC and CUPE 2278.

Morgan Sears-Williams

Samira Pourghanad

Tiffany Law

Alex Gibson

Francisco Berlanga

“Le Noyé” and “Construction Worker, Paris” in Hippolyte Bayard and the Invention of Photography

Jillian Lerner, “Le Noyé [The Drowned Man]” and “Construction Worker, Paris” in Hippolyte Bayard and the Invention of Photography, edited by Karen Hellman and Carolyn Peter. Los Angelos, CA: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2024.

Book information:

The first English-language volume about Hippolyte Bayard, one of the inventors of photography who helped transform the burgeoning medium into an art form.

Hippolyte Bayard (1801–1887) is often characterized as an underdog in the early history of photography. From the outset, his contribution to the invention of the medium was eclipsed by others such as Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851) and William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877). However, Bayard had an undeniable role in the birth of photography and its subsequent evolution into a form of art. He was a pioneer in artistic style, innovator in terms of practice, and teacher of the next generation of photographers.

Alongside an exploration of Bayard’s decades-long career and lasting impact, this volume presents—for the first time in print—some of the earliest photographs in existence. An album containing nearly 200 images, 145 of those by or attributed to Bayard, is among the Getty Museum’s rarest and most treasured photographic holdings. Few prints have ever been seen in person due to the extreme light sensitivity of Bayard’s experimental processes, making this an essential reference for scholars and enthusiasts of the very beginning of photography.

Edited by Karen Hellman and Carolyn Peter, with contributions by Éléonore Challine, Paul-Louis Roubert, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Art Kaplan,Tania Passafiume, Jillian Lerner, Anne McCauley, Anne de Mondenard, Nancy B. Keeler, Michel Frizot, James A. Ganz, Sarah Freeman and Ronel Namde, Luce Lebart, and Anne Lacoste. This volume is published to accompany an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum from April 9 to July 7, 2024.

For more information: https://shop.getty.edu/products/hippolyte-bayard-and-the-invention-of-photography-978-1606068939

“The Freedom to Work” in Mary Cassatt at Work

Nicole Georgopuluos, “The Freedom to Work” in Jennifer A. Thompson and Laurel Garber, Mary Cassatt at Work. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2024.

Book Information:

A new study of Mary Cassatt that explores the centrality of work to both her inventive technical practice and her distinctive approach to modern subjects.

In her sensitive depictions of the social, intellectual, and professional lives of modern women, Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926) often emphasized the work involved in the undervalued sphere of feminized activity. From her renowned portrayals of women and children that foreground the labor of caregiving—whether performed by hired help or mothers—to her representations of the myriad activities of bourgeois femininity in scenes of embroidering, theatergoing, and reading, her subjects are deeply engaged, and often engrossed, in what they are doing.

Highlighting Cassatt’s attention to women’s roles in the making of modern life, this study connects her recurring subjects and rigorous techniques to her own understanding of her status as a professional artist. Rather than inspiration, genius, or sentiment, it was intense effort that Cassatt most identified with, which resulted in an ever-evolving style that left the labors of art-making visible. Mary Cassatt at Work brings together more than 130 paintings, pastels, drawings, and prints to reveal what the artist referred to as her “hard work” and “effort upon effort.” Drawing on previously unpublished letters, Cassatt family correspondence, and groundbreaking insights from technical examination of her works, Cassatt’s carefully constructed professional identity is placed within the wider social context of Parisian modernity.

For more information: https://store.philamuseum.org/mary-cassatt-at-work/