Elissa Wernick and Great Neck Richman Visiting Professor

The Design Program within the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at the George Washington University invites applications for the Wernick-Richman Visiting Professor. The one-year, full-time position-with responsibilities in teaching, research, and service-will begin as early as Fall 2026 and continue through May 2027.

The position offers an opportunity for the Visiting Professor to develop their teaching practice and gain experience within a collaborative and interdisciplinary arts and design academic setting. They will teach courses for the BFA in Graphic Design and contribute to the development and launch of the BA in Design, a new interdisciplinary degree that explores the intersections of 2D, 3D, and 4D design practices. Teaching assignments will include classes in the foundations and core of the design curricula; the Visiting Professor also will teach an elective aligned with their area of creative research and expertise.

The Wernick-Richman Visiting Professorship is made possible through a provision of the Elissa Wernick and Great Neck Richman endowment to the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design, a division of the GW Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. The award focuses on the elevation of entrepreneurial or professional practices in the arts and design.

Candidates will demonstrate familiarity with the commercial industries of contemporary graphic, interaction, and/or spatial design and/or have a history of critical engagement, through experience or scholarship, with approaches to or discourse related to the fields' (changing) societal roles and valuation. As part of their program- and school-level service, then, the Visiting Professor will take an active role in stewarding the GW Corcoran Design Lab, the school's semi-professional design studio, through which student-workers gain applied design experience through client-based commissions and projects.

In support of their creative research, the Visiting Professor will give a public presentation of their work through the GW Corcoran Research & Practice event series. And, they will have the option of developing an exhibition or installation for one of the GW Corcoran galleries.

The GW Corcoran School of the Arts & Design is an interdisciplinary art and design environment within a large, diverse research university. We invite applications from candidates who contribute to the academic and creative community's multiplicity of approach through their teaching, research/creative practice, and/or service. Individuals who bring diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences are particularly welcomed. The GW Corcoran School of the Arts & Design strives to foster diversity, equity, and justice in our academic and creative communities.

The GW Corcoran Design Program seeks to contribute to the school's mission both in the orientation of our degree programs and in our daily practices. As a central mediator in the relationships between people and the cultural, societal, and political systems around them, the design fields are vital to describing and influencing how we live. In daily practice, we center the support of students and faculty. Through the structure of our curricula and the coordination of our public outreach and programming, we strive to build considered and considerate relationships between people and the systems around them.

Responsibilities include:

Applicants must have at the time of application:

The successful candidate will have access to the full range of GW employee benefits including medical insurance. For more information about GW employee benefits, see:
https://hr.gwu.edu/benefits-programs.

The Design Program at the GW Corcoran School of the Arts & Design is grounded in human-centered world-shaping in an interdisciplinary design context, educating undergraduate and graduate students in multi-dimensional design. Students focus on the art of persuasive, visual problem solving. Beginning their study in a foundations program that develops relationships across the GW Corcoran's studio programs, students cultivate multi-disciplinary approaches to envisioning and making that can sustain a life-long investigative practice. The relationships between technical specialization, concept ideation, design research processes and methods, messaging and communication strategies develop and grow as students progress through the curriculum, culminating in a year-long capstone/thesis project. Through the opportunity to bring in the Visiting Professor, the Design Program seeks to expand on existing strengths and identify new opportunities and collaborative points of connection in order to prepare our students to excel in a discipline defined by change.

The Design Program draws on studio resources across the GW Corcoran, including a Digital Fabrication Lab, a Printmaking area, and Shops for multiple media (including ceramics, metal, and wood). Developing collaborations with Computer Science and the Innovation Center in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are sites of growing conversations, curricular connections, and student participation. The university's Gelman Library offers an extensive archive, including an art/design book special collection.

The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at the George Washington University prepares its graduates to be the next generation of global creative leaders with more than 20 degree programs in the fields of Art History, Studio Arts, Design, Theatre and Dance, Music, Museum Studies, and Interior Architecture. We function as an incubator for artists, designers, and scholars, who learn from internationally renowned faculty at the intersection of creativity and social innovation. We are a community of civically engaged artists and practitioners, aiming to impact the world through creative change. Our students are poised to not just join the field of their choice, but to define it for themselves.

As part of the George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, we embody and exemplify the College's Engaged Liberal Arts credo, striving to link disparate fields and better prepare our graduates for rich, multidimensional careers in our evolving world. The challenges society faces are diverse, requiring varied modes of thought; we prepare our students by encouraging inquiry and collaboration.

The GW Corcoran School's home in the heart of downtown Washington, D.C. means that our students tap into both a vibrant, historied local city and a nerve center of international culture and government. We have a strong track record of students initiating new creative ventures and placing with top-ranked employers after graduation; we have alumni working and studying at some of D.C.'s most prestigious companies, galleries, museums, and design firms.

To be considered please submit an online application and upload the following:

Review of applications will begin on June 5, 2026 and will continue until the position is filled. Only complete applications will be considered. Questions? Contact Andrea Dietz, Search Committee Chair at ahdietz@gwu.edu.

The university is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that does not unlawfully discriminate in any of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.