Teaching

• No additions or clarifications to the CLAS standards

Service

Service in Cinematic Arts should be defined expansively, reflecting the collaborative, interdisciplinary, and public-facing nature of the field. While departmental service remains a core expectation, the department also values service in an array of forms, including:

• Institutional service: Contributions that support the functioning and growth of the department, college, and university.
• Professional service: Contributions that sustain and advance the discipline through engagement with its evolving practices, networks, and organizations.
• Community and public service: Contributions that expand the reach and visibility of cinematic practice in broader cultural and civic contexts.

These domains should be understood as open and flexible. Any activity that strengthens the department, the institution, the discipline, or its communities—whether through leadership, collaboration, innovation, or advocacy—should be recognized as meaningful service.

Research

Departmental supplements to the expectation that tenure-track faculty “Produce original research, scholarship, and creative works that contribute to the advancement of their field.”

• Collaboration is central to research and creative work in cinematic arts, particularly in the creative areas. Film and media projects frequently require contributions from many people (directors, screenwriters, producers, executive producers, consultants, cinematographers, editors, sound designers, performers, dancers, and artists working with emerging technologies). These collaborative endeavors should be recognized as legitimate and significant forms of research. Faculty members are expected to clarify their role within collective projects, but shared authorship and craft in collaborative work must be considered on equal footing with individual scholarship.
• Collaborative research may also take the form of interdisciplinary partnerships, open-source development, community engagement, or cross-institutional projects. Such work expands the field’s knowledge base and creative practices and should be valued as scholarly and artistic contributions.
• Assessment of research should emphasize the originality, rigor, and impact of creative work, recognizing that effort and innovation may be more important measures than volume or length. Each act of dissemination, including screenings, installations, broadcasts, publications, or adaptations, constitutes a distinct contribution.

Departmental supplements to the expectation that tenure-track faculty “develop a national reputation by presenting work at academic conferences and seminars or colloquia at other institutions.”

• Equivalents to this expectation for tenure-track faculty in Film/Video Production may include, but are not limited to, presenting work (or having work screened) at film festivals, cultural institutions, university departments, classrooms, or other academic institutions.
• Equivalents to this expectation for tenure-track faculty in Screenwriting may include, but are not limited to, giving public readings of creative work; participation (presentations, roundtables, workshops, etc.) at writers’ conferences, film or writing festivals, colloquia, public events, other writing programs, etc.

Departmental supplement to the expectation that tenure-track faculty “Regularly publish and present research, scholarship, and creative works in reputable and peer-reviewed venues.”

• Equivalents to “peer-reviewed venues” for original work in film/video production may include, but are not limited to, film festivals, cultural institutions (galleries, museums, cultural spaces, film archives, etc.), academic institutions, various forms of commercial or artistic distribution, and significant collaboration on industry projects.
• Equivalents to “peer-reviewed venues” for original work by screenwriting faculty may include produced scripts for film or television, published literary work (e.g. fiction, poetry, essays) in book form or in periodicals and journals (esp. with plans for future screen adaption); commissioned original or adapted scripts created under contract with production companies or studios; acceptance into juried development workshops (e.g., Sundance Lab, Austin Film Festival etc.); placing in screenwriting contests or winning development prizes (e.g., The Black List, The Nichols Fellowship, etc.); having one’s literary work developed for the screen and/or serving as executive producer or co-executive producer on a produced film, television series, or video game.

Further indicators of national/international recognition for research and creative work include artist residencies, scholarly residencies and fellowships, visiting scholar positions, and visiting artist invitations of all sorts.

Service

Departmental supplements to the expectation that tenure-track faculty “engage in professional service activities.”

• Professional service activities for tenure-track faculty in film/video production may include, but are not limited to, contributions to public screenings and film festivals (juries, selection committees, panels, as program director, moderator, etc.); service on adjudication and selection committees (granting agencies, fellowship, etc.); service in relevant academic and professional associations; service on editorial boards and/or contributing to relevant publications in the field; significant public outreach positions; significant consulting roles.
• Professional service activities for tenure-track faculty in screenwriting may include, but are not limited to, participation in screenwriting contests or film/writing festivals (juries, selection committees, part of an organizational team, etc.); participating in mentorship programs (e.g., though organizations like Sundance and the WGA); service on granting or fellowship agencies, service on editorial boards and journal publications, significant public outreach activities, significant consulting roles.