Assistant Professor, Cognition

Applicants may request a reasonable accommodation by contacting the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance at 847-467-6165 or via email at ocr@northwestern.edu.

Social Policy (SESP) invites applications for a faculty position (assistant professor level) whose work advances understanding of cognition and learning broadly construed within and across contexts. SESP is an interdisciplinary school focused on understanding teaching, learning, development, and policy across the lifespan and institutions. The successful candidate will maintain a rigorous, externally funded research program on cognition and learning. We welcome applicants trained in learning sciences, psychology, education, cognition, and related disciplines who bring theoretical and empirical depth to these issues. Candidates must have the capacity to teach and advise both undergraduate (especially in the Learning Sciences major) and graduate students in broad survey courses related to conceptual development and knowledge representations. Applicants with expertise in quantitative and/or qualitative approaches are welcome and we are especially interested in scholars who apply computational methods in their research. Applicants should submit via the online system, a letter outlining their research program and teaching experience, a current CV, representative papers, and three contacts for letters of reference. Letters can be addressed to Carrie Tzou, Search Committee Chair. Review of materials will begin on November 9, 2026. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their materials before that date. For more information about the School of Education and Social Policy, please visit http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/.

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  • Please ensure that your e-mail address is correct before submitting the form.
  • Northwestern University is an equal opportunity employer.
  • Some information is required and marked with asterisks (*).

Applicant Information

Official Contact Information

Academic Information

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Application Documents (files must be in Adobe PDF format)

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Self Identification - Veteran Status

Definitions

This employer is a Government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended by the Jobs for Veterans Act of 2002, 38 U.S.C. 4212 (VEVRAA), which requires Government contractors to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment: (1) disabled veterans; (2) recently separated veterans; (3) active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans; and (4) Armed Forces service medal veterans. These classifications are defined as follows:

  • A "disabled veteran" is one of the following:
  • A veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or
  • A person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service connected disability.
  • A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.
  • An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.
  • An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.
Protected veterans may have additional rights under USERRA — the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. In particular, if you were absent from employment in order to perform service in the uniformed service, you may be entitled to be reemployed by your employer in the position you would have obtained with reasonable certainty if not for the absence due to service. For more information, call the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS), toll-free, at 1-866-4-USA-DOL.

Self-Identification

If you believe you belong to any of the classifications of protected veterans listed above, please indicate by selecting the appropriate option below. As a Government contractor subject to VEVRAA, we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA.










Reasonable Accommodation Notice

If you are a disabled veteran it would assist us if you tell us whether there are accommodations we could make that would enable you to perform the essential functions of the job, including special equipment, changes in the physical layout of the job, changes in the way the job is customarily performed, provision of personal assistance services or other accommodations. This information will assist us in making reasonable accommodations for your disability. Applicants and employees may request a reasonable accommodation by contacting Northwestern's Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance at 847-467-6165 or via email at ocr@northwestern.edu.

Submission of this information is voluntary and refusal to provide it will not subject you to any adverse treatment. The information provided will be used only in ways that are not inconsistent with the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended.

The information you submit will be kept confidential, except that (i) supervisors and managers may be informed regarding restrictions on the work or duties of disabled veterans, and regarding necessary accommodations; (ii) first aid and safety personnel may be informed, when and to the extent appropriate, if you have a condition that might require emergency treatment; and (iii) Government officials engaged in enforcing laws administered by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, or enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act, may be informed.

 

Self Identification - Diversity

Gender/Ethnicity/Race

Northwestern University is subject to certain governmental record-keeping and reporting requirements for the administration of civil rights laws and regulations. To comply with these laws, Northwestern University invites applicants to voluntarily self-identify race/ethnicity, gender, and veteran status. Submission of this information is voluntary, and refusal to provide it will not subject you to any adverse treatment. The information is kept confidential and is only used in accordance with the provisions of applicable laws, executive orders and regulations, including those that require the information to be summarized and reported to the federal government for civil rights enforcement. When reported, data will not identify any specific individual.

If you do not wish to provide this information, please check the box to the left of 'I don't wish to answer.'

Gender Identification Ethnicity Identification Race Identification



Are you Hispanic or Latino/a?

A person of Cuban, Mexican, Chicano/a, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
What is your race?

    A person having origins in any of the original people of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

    A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian Subcontinent, including for example, Cambodia, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, Viet Nam.

    A person having origins in any of the black racial groups in Africa.

    A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

    A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
    Questions?
    Contact Jigbie Aguirre at jigbie.aguirre@northwestern.edu