Cover letter for an academic position (4 samples)
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This blog post will show samples of “cover letters for an academic position.”
How to write a cover letter for an academic position
When you are applying for an academic position, your cover letter will differ significantly from the standard business cover letter. If your cover letter meets the basic qualification, the human resource will forward it to a search committee comprised mostly of faculty members and academic deans.
The search committee are accustomed to reading a lengthy academic resume, thus they are more interested in the philosophical foundations for your work than the typical business recruiter.
When writing an academic position cover letter, these are some of the important things to keep in mind:
- The faculty reviewers are more interested in your philosophy and approach to teaching and research within your discipline. They will also be evaluating how your background fits with the type of institution where they work.
- Before you begin writing your cover letter, consider researching the institution, the department, and the student population. Incorporating all three aspects in your letter will help convey your interest in the position.
- Address the employer with a formal salutation. For example, “Dear/Hello (name of the recipient).” If you do not know the name of the recipient, you can refer to them as the hiring manager.
- The next step is to state the position you are applying for and how you found the opening. Make a brief statement about why you’re interested in the position.
- Describe your research experience and interests. Consider mentioning your research questions, methods, and key findings, as well as where and when you published and/or presented this work.
- State your skills and work experience. Ensure your skills and experiences are similar to the job position. When highlighting skills, provide the accomplishment you have achieved.
- Conclude your letter with a forward-looking statement. For example, “I look forward to discussing the position with you further.”
Sample 1: “Cover letter for an academic position”
“Date: Month Day, Year
Search Committee Chair’s First and Last Name, Graduate Degree
Full Department Name
Name of Institution
Department Address
Dear Dr./Mr./Ms. Search Committee Chair’s last name and/or Search Committee Members:
Paragraph 1 [3-5 Sentences]: Identify the position you are applying for. Introduce yourself to the committee and your research interests. Connect your interests to the department and describe what makes you interested in becoming part of this departmental community.
Paragraph 2 [3-5 Sentences]: Briefly explain your research to date. Consider mentioning your research questions, methods, key findings, as well as where and when you published and/or presented this work.
Paragraph 3 [4-5 Sentences]: Elaborate on your current research project. Consider mentioning your most prestigious funding awards for this project. Explain your key findings in more detail.
Paragraph 4 [3-5 Sentences]: Introduce your future research plans and goals. Point out the intellectual merit and/or broader impacts of this future work.
Paragraph 5 [3-5 Sentences]: Briefly discuss your teaching experience and strategies. Provide examples of teaching strategies or an anecdote highlighting your teaching effectiveness. You may also want to introduce your philosophy on diversity in an academic setting.
Paragraph 6 [2-3 Sentences]: Make a connection between your work and the department to which you are applying. Include how you will participate in the intellectual life of the department both inside and outside the classroom. Provide concrete examples of how you will be a hard-working and collaborative colleague.
Paragraph 7 [1-2 Sentences]: A thank you for the search committee’s time and consideration.
Sincerely,
[Signature]
Your Name
Credentials and Position
Institution/Affiliation Name”
Sample 2: “Cover letter for an academic position”
“Date: Month Day, Year
Search Committee Chair’s First and Last Name, Graduate Degree
Full Department Name
Name of Institution
Department Address
Dear Dr./Mr./Ms. Search Committee Chair’s last name and/or Search Committee Members:
Paragraph 1 [3-5 Sentences]: Identify the position you are applying for. Introduce yourself to the committee and your research interests. Connect your interests to the department and describe what makes you interested in becoming part of this departmental community.
Paragraph 2 [3-5 Sentences]: Briefly discuss your teaching experience and pedagogical commitments. Provide examples of teaching strategies or an anecdote highlighting your teaching effectiveness. You may also want to introduce your philosophy on diversity in an academic setting.
Paragraph 3 [3-4 Sentences]: Provide a discussion of how you involved yourself with students or the broader university community outside of the traditional classroom setting. Discuss how those interactions influenced your teaching.
Paragraph 4 [2-3 Sentences]: Briefly explain your current research interests to date and how it relates to your teaching. State your research questions, methods, and key findings or arguments. Point out the intellectual merit and/or broader impacts of this future work.
Paragraph 5 [3-5 Sentences]: Highlight when and where your research was published and/or presented this work or any forthcoming publications. Mention any prestigious funding or awards. Introduce your future research plans and goals.
Paragraph 6 [2-3 Sentences]: Make a connection between your work and the department to which you are applying. Include how you will participate in the intellectual life of the department both inside and outside the classroom. Provide concrete examples of how you will be a hard-working and collaborative colleague.
Paragraph 7 [1-2 Sentences]: A thank you for the search committee’s time and consideration.
Sincerely,
[Signature]
Your Name
Credentials and Position
Institution/Affiliation Name”
Sample 3: “Cover letter for an academic position”
“JS Jobs, PhD.
Department of Physiology
University of Pennsylvania
B-400 Richards Building
3700 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19102
To Whom It May Concern:
It is with great enthusiasm that I submit my application to join the faculty at the The University of Oregon. In reviewing the research interests of your department, it seems that the opportunity for collaboration is great. I’m particularly excited about potential collaborations involving the role of calcium in skeletal muscle physiology. I have spent the last 12 years developing as a scientist and believe that I am ready to lead my own lab group.
My interest in Muscle Physiology stems from my interest in sports supplements with an
application to human performance. As I progressed through my graduate career I drifted
away from sport supplement work and toward fundamental issues of muscle
pathophysiology including disuse atrophy and muscle dystrophy. My own grandmother
is partially responsible for this change in direction. Following open heart surgery in her
upper 80s she has left wheelchair-bound due to severe muscle atrophy caused by
prolonged bed rest. I was shocked that the atrophy was so severe and the regrowth was
nearly non-existent. The focus of my graduate work at the University of Florida was
centered around the development of countermeasures for disuse atrophy and potential
mechanisms to augment muscle regrowth. It became clear that in order to answer many
questions about physiology I would need a new set of skills. I completed my post-doc in a
lab that routinely uses molecular biology techniques in order to gain a mechanistic
understanding of skeletal muscle disease and function. Along with those tools, I also
developed a passion for the study of muscular dystrophy and have become quite touched
by parents and boys suffering from this disease. In concert with techniques, I’ve learned
previously, molecular biology techniques allow me to answer questions ranging from
broad questions regarding muscle physiology to very precise questions about a single
disease. My research plan calls for continued investigations into disuse atrophy and
muscle regrowth as well as muscular dystrophy.
Several features of this department are particularly attractive. The first is that there is an
abundance of experience in this department, which will undoubtedly be useful for a new
faculty member. While I do believe that I am prepared to function independently, I am
eager to collaborate with existing faculty and feel that I can both learn from their
expertise, but also complement their lines of research. Additionally, this department has
an interest in skeletal muscle research. I have chosen not to apply to several other
departments/universities because they lacked a nucleus of interest.
I hope that you will carefully review my application for employment and give serious
consideration to granting an interview. I am eager to discuss my potential role as a faculty
member of the Department of Human Physiology. As requested, please find my CV. I
have asked several people to submit letters on my behalf. They should be arriving under
separate cover. For your convenience, I have also included the names and contact
information of these people. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
JS Jobs, PhD.
Post Doctoral Fellow
Department of Physiology
University of Pennsylvania
B-400 Richards Hall
3700 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Lab: 215.xxx.xxxx
Fax: 215.xxx.xxxx
Email: blank@mail.med.upenn.edu”
Sample 4: “Cover letter for an academic position”
“000- S. 10th St. #2
Philadelphia, PA 19107
xxxxx@sas.upenn.edu
July 13, 20XX
Professor XXXXXXX
Department of Art and Art History
X University
One X Place
San Antonio, TX 78212
Dear Professor XXXXXXX,
I am writing to express my interest in the position of assistant professor advertised in the
CAA positions listings. I am currently completing my PhD at the University of
Pennsylvania in the Department of the History of Art, working with Professor
YYYYYYY. I expect to graduate in May of 20XX.
I read with enthusiasm the description of your available position to teach 19th- and 20th
–
century architecture and urbanism. I have hoped to have the opportunity to teach
at a liberal arts college; my own undergraduate experience was at Trinity University, and
therefore I have experienced first-hand the benefits for students and faculty that are a
result of the smaller class sizes increased individual attention and the tight-knit
the community at smaller institutions. My work to date has focused on the architecture
and city planning in the United States and Europe, with a particular emphasis on
questions of place, space, and memory.
With the support of a Dissertation Research Grant from the Deutscher Akademischer
Austausch Dienst (DAAD), I will be spending the 20XX-20XX academic year in Berlin
completing my dissertation, entitled “Capital Building: Anxiety and Memory in Berlin’s
Regierungsviertel.” My project looks at the buildings that were designed after the German
reunification for the new capital, specifically the Reichstag, the Chancellery, and the
other buildings clustered around Berlin’s Platz der Republik. These new government
buildings are charged with an enormous burden that calls upon them to satisfy an
international audience with diverse demands. Perhaps unexpectedly, the various pressures
placed on the new Regierungsviertel have resulted in a set of structures that are less
examples of architecture than theoretical statements about architecture, employing
strategies of transparency and display to cope with Germany’s troubled history.
I will be delivering a paper entitled “Encountering the Uncanny in Daniel Libeskind’s
Jewish Museum,” at the Congress of the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA) in
Melbourne, Australia this January. In this paper, I address the productive relationship
between Libeskind’s building and Freud’s theory of the uncanny, as well as question the
role of museum architecture in contemporary society. Rather than seeking to edify, elevate,
or enlighten the viewer, the architecture of the Jewish Museum is tended to destabilize,
disconcert, and upset. This effect change is typical of contemporary museum
architecture, a result of changing attitudes towards history and how architecture can
formally express them.
During my time at the University of Pennsylvania, I have been privileged to have several teaching opportunities. I have served as a teaching assistant for a range of
classes, including Impressionism, Modern Architecture, and the second half of the
department’s Visual Media survey course. I have also taught my class on Modern
Architecture. Furthermore, I spent two semesters as a writing instructor for these classes
and spent another year teaching my writing seminar on Frank Lloyd Wright under
the auspices of Penn’s Critical Writing Program.
These experiences, particularly the latter, have allowed me to develop my teaching skills
and to help students become familiar with and excited about art and architecture. In the
classroom, I strive to serve as both a lecturer—someone who communicates key
information effectively and engagingly—and a facilitator of conversations among
students. I have found that students respond positively to a collaborative classroom
environment, where every individual (not just the professor) is accountable for helping
others work through our subject matter. I have grounded my teaching thus far in using
writing as a cognitive tool, so my classes typically incorporate some writing
projects, both informal and formal. I hope that students leave the classroom with not
only a working knowledge of our content but also a honed set of critical thinking skills
that they can use throughout their university careers. I would be eager to try similar
strategies with your excellent students at X University.
Along with this letter, I include my c.v. and a chapter from my dissertation. Letters of
the recommendation will arrive to you under separate cover from Professors XXXXX and
AAAAA (Department of the History of Art) and Professor LLLLLL (Department of
Germanic Languages and Literature). Please feel free to get in touch with me for any
reason; my contact information is included above, and I would be pleased to forward it to
Do you have any other information that would be helpful?
With warmest regards,
_______________
(Signature)”
Frequently Asked Questions: How to write a cover letter for an academic position
What can your employer ask to include with your cover letter and resume or CV?
A cover letter (PDF format) of interest indicating your qualifications and reason for application, Curriculum Vitae (PDF format), and a minimum of three professional references, including phone and email contact information.
How many pages should an academic cover have?
An academic cover letter is typically two pages compared to a single page for non-academic letters.
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Citations
https://www.liveabout.com/how-to-write-an-academic-cover-letter-2060155
https://grad.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/academiccoverletters.pdf
