OPEN CALL: Professor or Associate Professor in Contemporary Art

Professor or Associate Professor in Contemporary Art with focus on Speculative Materials

About the position
The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art at NTNU is excited to announce an opportunity for a 100 percent permanent position as Professor or Associate Professor with a focus on Speculative Materials. We are seeking applications from dedicated and qualified candidates who can help us develop and define the notion of speculative materials and push the academic boundaries through exploring materials as frameworks for societal re-imagination and transformation. An emerging field of artistic research, speculative materials investigate the notion of materials as active agents in shaping cultural, technological, and ecological futures. At the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, we are dedicated to shaping the roles and impact of artists in society. The successful candidate will thrive in an environment characterized by high ambitions, access to relevant networks and facilities, and a strong international reputation in artistic research.

Your immediate leader is Head of Department, and the position will require working at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, NTNU, Norway.

About NTNU and Trondheim
The Trondheim Academy of Fine Art is a department within the Faculty for Architecture and Design at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). With a dynamic and experimental approach to education and research, our department comprises 30 staff members including 15 PhD candidates, and approximately 80 students across bachelor and master programs.

The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the innovation capital of Norway with a population of 200,000. The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available. Furthermore, Trondheim offers great opportunities for education (including international schools) and possibilities to enjoy nature, culture and family life and has low crime rates and clean air quality.

Duties of the position
The primary responsibilities include teaching, conducting artistic research, and fostering artistic development, collaboration, and new initiatives within the realm of speculative materials. The ideal candidate will be committed to exploring the potential of art and culture to drive societal transformation, working with academic colleagues both within and outside the department, as well as international public and private sector actors. They will contribute to advancing and articulating our department’s study programs, with a specific focus on developing speculative materials perspectives in education, while engaging in collaborative artistic research projects in the department and across various academic domains.

Candidates must be dedicated to exploring the potential of an art academy embedded within a University for Science and Technology. They should show enthusiasm for relocating their professional activities to the art academy in Trondheim, Norway, enabling them to share their artistic research and production processes and outcomes with the University, its local contexts, and broader national and international networks.

Responsibilities include tutoring and teaching courses in the existing Bachelor and International Master programs in Fine Art, as well as the new educational initiatives in speculative materials. Additionally, the candidate will supervise fellows in a PhD program in artistic research.

Candidates should demonstrate the ability to develop and carry out advanced and collaborative artistic research projects, including collaborations with other academic contexts across the arts, science, and society.

Qualification criteria
You must have the qualifications required for the position of associate professor or professor in the field of Speculative Materials, as outlined in section 3-6 of the regulations concerning appointment and promotion to teaching and research posts.

You must document relevant basic competence in teaching and supervision at a university/higher education-level, as referenced in the NTNUs guidelines for academic positions. If this cannot be documented, you will be required to complete an approved course in university pedagogy within two years of commencement. NTNU offers qualifying courses.

New employees who do not speak a Scandinavian language by appointment is required, within three years, to demonstrate skills in Norwegian or another Scandinavian language equivalent to level B2 of the course for Norwegian for speakers of other languages at the Department of Language and Literature at NTNU.

The position will be expected to deliver the highest-quality teaching at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including supervision of Master’s and Doctoral candidates. In addition to a clear vision of the role of contemporary art in rapidly changing societies, successful applicants will outline a teaching philosophy that elaborates on traditions of studio-based (or possibly conservatory-based) arts educations, while addressing future challenges by linking it to artistic research practices that advance in terms both methodologies and substance. Special care should be taken to demonstrate and articulate experience with innovative teaching methods, including how these can be implemented collaborating with partners in and outside the academic context.

We are looking for candidates with strong teamwork skills, including the ability to work efficiently under varying workloads and deadlines. Being collegial, reliable, actively present, and committed to NTNU’s vision, values, social mission, key challenges, and main objectives is important for this position.

We offer
–Exciting and challenging tasks in a dynamic and international academic environment
–An open and inclusive working environment, with enthusiastic colleagues
–Favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
–Employee benefits

About the application
Your application and supporting documentation must be in English. To apply, please submit your application materials through our recruitment system before August 17, 2026 at 11:59pm (CEST). Please follow the link to jobbnorge.no for more information about the position and how to apply: Professor of Associate Professor in Contemporary Art with focus on Speculative Materials

The attachments (including a description of your scientific work) must accompany the application as these documents form the basis of the application assessment. The documents must be in Norwegian, a Scandinavian language or English.

Your application will be considered by an expert committee. Candidates of interest will be invited to an interview, and to deliver a trial teaching session.

General information
If you have any questions regarding the position, please contact Head of Department Jacob Jessen at jacob.jessen@ntnu.no or phone +47 920 97 913.

If you have questions regarding the recruitment process, please contact HR Adviser Natalia Swahn at natalia.swahn@ntnu.no.

Application deadline: August 17, 2026.