Visiting Professor or Visiting Teaching Fellow – One-Year Appointment

Dharma Realm Buddhist University is seeking a candidate experienced in leading seminar discussions for a visiting professor or visiting teaching fellow position for the 2025-2026 academic year. This is a one-year, non-renewable appointment. The candidate is welcome to apply for any future teaching opportunities at the university.

What Is a Professor at DRBU?

Professors at DRBU are paramount to the learning experience of our students. Their role, however, differs significantly from what it might mean to be a professor at many other institutions of higher learning. Instead of demonstrating mastery in a single discipline and “professing” their knowledge for students to absorb through “listening,” professors at DRBU facilitate a discussion-centered collaborative approach to learning known as “shared inquiry.” This learning-in-the-round requires that all present in the classroom, regardless of their backgrounds, engage in a shared exploration of the text before them.

The purpose of the shared inquiry pedagogy is to stimulate a love of learning, not merely an acquisition of information. It is also meant to acknowledge and activate an inherent human capacity for wisdom possessed by all individuals. Developing this inherent capacity requires an orientation toward learning that is interactive, probing, and deeply self-reflective. This means that professors see the students not as receptacles that passively receive the understanding of others; rather, they view students as engines of discovery who are actively formulating their own understandings through deep questioning, personal testing, and direct affirming. Casting the teacher as a guide rather than a director of the students’ learning process reflects an ancient pedigree across classical traditions. As Plutarch noted in his discourse On Listening to Lectures, “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”

Professors facilitate the students’ understanding not by presuming to be a final authority on the text, but by clarifying the issues, demonstrating the methods, guiding discussions, and sometimes challenging students to reexamine their first interpretations. Professors at DRBU thus aim to ‘draw out’ (educere) rather than ‘pour in,’ so that each student develops the capacity to be an independent thinker. A core assumption underlying the University’s teaching methodology is that the text, instructor, and student form a triangular relationship of inquiry in which none of the three is seen as “the measure of all things.” Rather, “authority” is distributed and allowed to emerge through a lively give-and-take among the three; all center on arriving at one goal: the students’ knowing for and through themselves.

The most important duties of a professor at DRBU are to ask probing questions and to gently encourage and assist students in the bittersweet task of answering these important questions for themselves. By directly wrestling with the texts and, by extension, their own thoughts, feelings, and tendencies, they acquire a hard-won confidence and clarity that serves as a foundation for engaging life to its fullest. Amid all the conflicting desires and complex issues they will encounter in life, such individuals can undertake for themselves to discern, decide, and act upon what is true to themselves and responsible to others. This is what is meant by “self-cultivation.”

In order to achieve this, professors must continually learn outside of their disciplines and be actively engaged in their own efforts at self-cultivation. Academically, this involves a great deal of preparation, including but not limited to reading various texts, exchanging ideas with other professors, and innovating and participating in contemplative exercises integral to the program. It also requires a certain vulnerability and humility, not just in remaining open to new interpretations of even the most familiar works, but in staying alert and available to the kinds of spontaneous and heartfelt encounters that can and do occur in an atmosphere of sincere shared inquiry and genuine self-discovery.

For these reasons, professors at DRBU do not teach solely to their area of expertise, and learning is not separated into stand-alone, academic departments. Unlike what faculty might experience in many other University positions, professors at DRBU are encouraged but not required to publish academic works, nor are they restricted to conducting research in one particular field of study. At DRBU, the priority of each professor is to engage with the program in its entirety and over time develop a deep understanding of the collective texts. This method is enriching for professors ,in that their workload never becomes routine or rehearsed; they retain a refreshing openness of mind and infectious love of learning—hallmarks of a scholar and teacher.

More Information

Responsibilities

DRBU uses a version of what is commonly known as the “Great Books” model, which has several distinctive features:

The BA and MA programs have an all-required and sequentially-built curriculum that consists of a series of discussion-centered seminar-style classes around small cohorts of students (10-15).
Professors lead these seminar discussions without assuming authority based on their field or discipline expertise.
Professors teach across the curriculum, sometimes in areas that are not their previous or current areas of academic preparation.
All professors collectively determine all instructional matters such as content, methods of teaching, learning objectives, and methods of evaluation and assessment.
Professors participate in the governance of the programs and the university.

Given DRBU’s somewhat unique model, the primary responsibility of a DRBU professor is effective teaching in DRBU’s educational programs.

DRBU will evaluate each applicant holistically based on the following criteria:

A good beginning understanding of DRBU’s programs
Sincere interest in learning and engaging with DRBU’s programs
Demonstrated or potential competence in leading small, seminar-style classes
Ability to work in a learning community as a civil and collegial member

Annual salary for professors at DRBU will be $68,640 in 2025.

Applying to be a visiting professor or teaching fellow

If you would like to be considered for a visiting professor or teaching fellow position at DRBU, please follow the application procedure outlined below. Inquiries regarding the application process should be sent to Office of Academic Affairs (OAA@drbu.edu). For this round of hiring, DRBU cannot provide H1-B sponsorship for international candidates.

Application

Application for a teaching position at DRBU must contain the following materials:

A cover letter highlighting your understanding of DRBU’s method of pedagogy and stating what motivates you to apply for this position.
A completed Dharma Realm Buddhist University Application for Employment
An updated curriculum vitae or resume, listing educational and professional experience, credentials and advanced degrees, certificates, honors, publications, and professional memberships
Two references from former teachers, students, or colleagues. We will ask for letters of recommendation when an applicant is invited for a campus interview.
We will ask for transcripts of completed formal academic studies (undergraduate and graduate) when an applicant is invited for a campus interview.
A writing sample or a published article

Please send all application materials electronically to OAA@drbu.edu by April 25, 2025.

Review and Campus Visit

The Dean of Academics, with the help of the Instruction Committee, reviews the completed application files and selects applicants to be invited for an interview visit. The university provides food and lodging on campus, and transportation costs. The visit includes opportunities to audit classes and to converse informally with students and faculty. It also includes a teaching demonstration and a formal interview with the Instruction Committee, which is the faculty committee charged with making appointment recommendations to the president.

DRBU is an equal opportunity employer.