Expressions of interest due February 8, 2015
The Department of African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) is seeking a teaching assistant to work under the department’s language coordinator, taking responsibility for all classroom instruction of the Wolof language beginning in August 2015.
The teaching assistant must be a full-time post-graduate student working toward an M.A. degree (possibly followed by a Ph.D. degree) in the Department of African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This is a preliminary call for expressions of interest. Candidates who receive encouragement from us will be asked to apply formally for admission to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School for study in the Department of African Languages and Literature, with an August 2015 start date.
To express interest
Interested persons should send an email message to the department’s language coordinator, Professor Katrina Thompson (katrina.daly.thompson@wisc.edu) stating this interest; please attach three documents:
(1) A letter of about two pages outlining your academic background and research interests, describing how they fit with and can be accommodated by the department (http://african.wisc.edu/). The letter also should describe your background with the Wolof language and any experience or training that you might have in language pedagogy in general and/or the teaching of Wolof in particular. A background in language pedagogy or Wolof language teaching is not required. However, a willingness to be trained to teach the language while also pursuing post-graduate study and research in a field covered by the department’s faculty members is required.
(2) A current CV.
(3) Copies of transcripts for all prior post-secondary academic work (they need not be official at this point).
The benefits of a teaching assistant position at Wisconsin include waiver of most university tuition and fees and a salary sufficient to support the student at a basic level in Madison.
Deadline
If interested, submit an email message, as described above, to Professor Thompson by 8 February 2015. We may organize brief Skype interviews with selected applicants in late February.