This position offers the opportunity for a recent PhD in art history or a related field of visual study to enter the field of academic museum education. At the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, we are invigorated by the creative potential of our global collections to impact teaching, learning, and research across Cornell University, and to broaden our reach as a world-class academic art museum. 

The Johnson Museum enriches learning opportunities for Cornell students by promoting object-based instruction and inquiry, as a component of coursework or independent study, in any discipline across Cornell’s schools and colleges. In collaboration with faculty and instructors, the Museum’s educators and curators develop and organize approximately 350 class sessions per academic year in the Museum’s galleries and classrooms. This position drives and supports object-based teaching across disciplines at scale while focusing on a certain number of faculty partnerships each year for a more sustained engagement with works in our collections or on view in our galleries.

We seek an individual with a passion for teaching and interdisciplinary thinking; a deep commitment to object-based learning and inquiry; and a collaborative approach to working with colleagues in the Museum and across the university campus. The Postdoctoral Associate will consult with a broad constituency of faculty and graduate student instructors as well as Johnson Museum curators to co-develop and co-teach museum sessions for an array of university classes, focusing primarily on artworks in the Johnson Museum’s permanent collections and temporary exhibitions. In doing so, the position will deepen integration of the Museum’s collections and object-based pedagogy into curricula across campus. In addition to teaching, the Associate will engage in scholarly reflection upon their practice as a museum educator and maintain an active research profile. In close collaboration with faculty partners, they will also program rotating displays in the Johnson Museum’s new Richard Sukenik ’59 Teaching Gallery by developing curricular installations that draw on the Museum’s collections to support and enrich learning. The Associate is particularly encouraged to support and promote new experimental pedagogical collaborations with faculty and instructors in the Sukenik Gallery, and to document and further explore key highlights by way of publication.

Reporting to the Director of Education, the Lynch Postdoctoral Associate in Curricular Engagement is part of a team of eight professionals that advances the educational and land-grant missions of the Johnson Museum and implements new strategies to encourage use of the Museum in creative ways. 

Required Qualifications:

PhD degree in art history or a related field of visual study plus museum experience and/or college-level teaching/teaching assistant experience with works of art. Capacity to respond quickly and effectively to class visit requests. Ability to work well with colleagues in a fast-paced environment. Excellent writing, research, and administrative skills. The successful candidate must have experience modeling values that support inclusion, belonging, and wellbeing.

Preferred Qualifications:

Curatorial experience and object-handling knowledge are desirable. Expertise in building and maintaining relationships with a diverse range of faculty, staff, and students.

This is a 4-year postdoctoral position. The selected candidate will be appointed annually, as per Cornell’s academic appointment policy. The salary range is $63,480 - $67,000 and includes a comprehensive benefit package and a modest annual stipend to support research.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

To apply, please submit a letter of application, CV, a list of three references, and a statement of teaching philosophy; all documents should be attached to the resume section of the application. Review of applications will continue until a suitable candidate is selected.

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

The Johnson Museum’s permanent collection numbers 40,000 works, spanning six millennia and encompassing art from most world cultures. Among the strengths of the collection are the holdings of Asian art; more than 23,000 prints, drawings, and photographs ranging from the fifteenth century to the present; modern and contemporary painting and sculpture; European art from ancient times to the present; African sculpture and textiles; and pre-Columbian sculpture and ceramics. Each year the Johnson Museum mounts major exhibitions and programs that present new scholarship and fresh perspectives on the works in our collection or on temporary loan. Many of these exhibitions are inspired by the Cornell curriculum or are the product of partnerships with faculty, graduate students, other museums, research centers, scholars, cultural practitioners, and source communities.

   

University Job Title:

Post Dr Assoc

   

Job Family:

Post Doc Other

   

Level:

No Grade - Annual

   

Pay Rate Type:

Salary

   

Pay Range:

$62,232.00 - $88,745.00

   

Remote Option Availability:

Onsite

   

Company:

Endowed

   

Contact Name:

Brenda Joly

   

Contact Email:

bjd33@cornell.edu

   

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2026-08-28