Teaching Assistant Recruitment
in the Colleges Writing Programs

The Critical Community Engagement (CCE) program at Eighth College invites applications for TA positions for the 2025-2026 academic year to support CCE 120: Community Partnership and Project Design. This role provides graduate students with experience in community-engaged pedagogy, participatory action research, and applied project development. As a TA, you will work closely with students as they collaborate with local community partners, gaining skills in facilitation, project-based learning, and ethical engagement with external organizations. The position offers an opportunity to develop mentorship and teaching skills while supporting students in applying interdisciplinary research to real-world challenges.

CCE 120 is the capstone course in the CCE sequence, where students put their learning into practice by designing and implementing projects in partnership with local organizations. TAs play a key role in guiding students through this process, facilitating discussions, supporting research and writing, and liaising with community partners to ensure ethical, reciprocal engagement.

TAs attend and assist with two sections of CCE 120 per quarter, working in concert with faculty to provide structured guidance on project design and implementation. They lead two discussion sections per week, focused on critical community engagement, research ethics, and partnership-building. In addition to providing feedback on student work, TAs help assess projects and support students in applying participatory action research (PAR) methods to their collaborations.

This is a 50% appointment (~20 hours per week, 220 hours per quarter), and TAs are expected to commit for the full academic year (Fall, Winter, and Spring) unless otherwise arranged.

Key Responsibilities

• Attend the CCE 500 pedagogy seminar weekly to refine instructional and facilitation skills.
• Assist with two sections of CCE 120 per quarter, working alongside faculty to support students’ project development.
• Facilitate two weekly discussion sections, guiding students through ethical frameworks, community-engaged research methods, and applied project design.
• Help students develop written and public-facing components of their projects, ensuring they align with ethical and community-centered research practices.
• Hold two office hours per week to provide individualized support.
• Assist in assessing student work, ensuring projects demonstrate critical reflection, reciprocity, and responsible community engagement.
• Coordinate with community partners, supporting students in navigating partnerships and ethical collaboration.

Qualifications

• Interest in community-engaged research, participatory action research, and social justice education.
• Experience with writing instruction, undergraduate mentorship, or qualitative research methods.
• Commitment to anti-racist, pro-Black, and equity-driven pedagogies.
• Ability to facilitate collaborative learning environments and support students in applied research and project-based learning.
• Graduate standing at UC San Diego with departmental approval to hold a TA position.

revised 3/3/2025

The Culture, Art, and Technology Program hires teaching assistants (TAs) to teach in the Core Sequence (CAT 1, 2 and 3). Each quarter we offer a selection of interdisciplinary writing courses, which take a variety of approaches to thinking about the intersections of art and technology and how those intersections reflect, critique, and produce culture. CAT 1, CAT 2, and CAT 3 are Sixth College's core writing sequence and these classes foreground critical reading, literacy across media, argumentative writing, research, and collaboration.

CAT TAs lead discussion sections (attached to a bigger topic-specific lecture) that help students understand the lectures, readings/screenings, and other course materials as they develop their writing, reading, and communication skills. TAs are required to comment on and grade student work (using programmatic rubrics), hold regular office hours, attend course lectures, participate in weekly planning meetings with course instructor and fellow TAs, and participate in person in a final TA meeting during the Monday of finals week (All CAT 1-3 courses and meetings are in person). These weekly meetings support TAs in their teaching, but also enable TAs to implement CAT curricular expectations and standards with fairness and transparency across all courses and quarters.

In their first year, TAs new to CAT are required to attend a weekly CAT 200 seminar in Fall to develop their teaching skills and attend CAT 500 pedagogy workshops during Winter and Spring terms. Prior to Fall classes, all TAs are required to attend a mandatory one day orientation, focused on pedagogy and program expectations.

CAT appoints TAs across the whole academic year. A 50% appointment in CAT includes all the above responsibilities. The teaching appointments are as follows,

CAT 1 -- 2 sections of 16-17 students, 1 day/week (+ teaching seminar in first year)

CAT 2 & 3 -- 2 sections of 15-16 students, 2 days/week (+teaching workshops in first year)

rev. 02/26/25

The Dimensions of Culture Program (DOC) welcomes Teaching Assistant applicants who are committed to intersectionality, antiracism, and interdisciplinary approaches to American culture as tools for honing the critical thinking and writing skills of first-year students in Thurgood Marshall College. Many graduate students who TA in DOC will find their own research enhanced by engagement with DOC faculty and TAs with interests and expertise in the social sciences and humanities. Moreover, the opportunity to teach in an interdisciplinary first-year writing program like DOC can greatly strengthen academic CVs while providing rigorous training in pedagogical philosophies and practical approaches.

The DOC Director and Associate Director guide and mentor Teaching Assistants weekly in antiracist writing pedagogy, specifically the instruction of composition and analysis of texts as potent forms of social justice. As part of DOC’s commitment to antiracist pedagogy and to mitigating the harm of standards-based grading on low-income students of color, DOC utilizes specifications-based grading. Under specifications-based contract grading, students are assessed on revision and engagement in the practice of writing.

All graduate student Teaching Assistants are required to enroll in DOC 500: Apprentice Teaching – Marshall each quarter in which they’re employed. In this 4-unit graduate seminar they will receive training in best pedagogical practices, including but not limited to: responding to student writing, developing students’ critical reading and argumentative writing skills, guiding students in developing metacognition and rhetorical flexibility, cultivating a democratic and antiracist classroom, working with multilingual writers, and fostering academic integrity.

Teaching Assistants will put into practice what they have learned in DOC 500 as they instruct discussion sections in the program’s lower-division sequence: DOC 1, DOC 2, and DOC 3. This sequence is required of all first-year students in Thurgood Marshall College and constitutes the core of the College’s general education requirements. It provides a unified academic experience for all first-year students that is grounded in the College’s commitment to social justice, while it also helps students meet the UC system’s requirement that they demonstrate proficiency in writing in English. Each quarter, our undergraduate students attend both large-class lectures taught by DOC faculty and small discussion section meetings guided by Teaching Assistants.

DOC 1, DOC 2, and DOC 3 courses are designed to be integrated, with central themes flowing from course to course and learning objectives building upon each other to help Thurgood Marshall College students practice the critical reading, drafting and revision, metacognition, and rigorous research necessary to succeed at UCSD and beyond by examining the promises and paradoxes in U.S. history, society, and culture.

DOC 1, “Reading Diversity,” is a four-unit course offered every Fall Quarter. In DOC 1, students practice critical reading. Students critically read the histories of multiple communities in the U.S., the origins of social stratification and structural inequities, and movements for social change. Teaching Assistants attend three DOC 1 lectures each week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) and teach two sections (of up to 16 students each) once each week, and they provide feedback on regularly assigned student journals.

DOC 2, “Arguing Justice,” is a six-unit, writing-intensive course offered every Winter Quarter. In DOC 2, students build on the critical reading they practiced in DOC 1 to hone their argumentative writing, exploring how authors make arguments for justice in U.S. society in the era just before and after the Civil Rights Movement. Teaching Assistants attend three DOC 2 lectures each week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) and teach two sections (of up to 16 students each) twice each week, and they provide comprehensive feedback at every stage of student drafts of three argumentative essays throughout the quarter.

DOC 3, “Imagination & Action,” is a six-unit, writing-intensive course offered every Spring Quarter. As the culmination of the lower-division sequence, DOC 3 has as its objective the development of students’ research processes. Students produce independent research projects that analyze a social problem/issue of their choice, and plan how they could implement a bottom-up intervention on campus supported by their research. Teaching Assistants attend three DOC 3 lectures each week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) and teach two sections (of up to 16 students each) twice each week, and they provide comprehensive feedback on research logs that culminate into a final research project.

rev. 02/26/2025

The Humanities Program is a five-course sequence required of all Revelle College undergraduates. The program is a core text curriculum that studies the Western intellectual tradition chronologically from its origins in the Ancient Mediterranean (Humanities 1) to its condition in the present (Humanities 5). Core text (or “great books”) curricula place the reading and study of texts at the center of their pedagogy. The Humanities Program is an interdisciplinary examination of history, philosophy, and literature.

The program does not require that TAs possess an expert knowledge of the texts or writing pedagogy; it does require that they possess a lively concern for individual students and their education, as well as an interest in core texts and persuasive writing.

During Fall quarter, TAs new to the Humanities Program will enroll in Humanities 501, a pedagogy seminar, and teach one discussion section of Humanities 1. During Winter and Spring quarters, they will teach two discussion sections per quarter, either in Humanities 1 or Humanities 2. Both courses include intensive writing instruction. TAs are responsible for planning and teaching their assigned discussion sections; attending all scheduled lectures and a weekly staff meeting; holding weekly office hours; and evaluating student writing, including essays and a final exam. Each discussion section in Humanities 1 and 2 enrolls 16 undergraduate students.

Returning TAs may be assigned to Humanities 1 - 3, or Humanities 3 - 5.

rev. 02/26/25

Thank you for expressing interest in the Making of the Modern World (MMW) Program! We look forward to working with graduate student Teaching Assistants (TAs) who seek to develop as teachers and learners and who are committed to strengthening students’ analytical and writing skills and to supporting their well-being.   

MMW is the General Education core program of Eleanor Roosevelt College (ERC). MMW has an interdisciplinary approach that is broadly grounded in world history and provides instruction in research and writing.  MMW is a foundational experience for all ERC students, serving as an academic manifestation of a central aspect of ERC’s mission for international connection and global understanding.  MMW promotes our global diversity and equips students with a broad understanding of the past and its relationship to the present. 

MMW is a five-course, lower-division sequence for students entering as freshmen (MMW 11 -15) and a two-course, upper-division sequence for students entering as transfer students (MMW 121-122).

For MMW learning objectives and course descriptions, please see the MMW website.

Job Responsibilities and Program Support

MMW is taught in high-enrollment courses consisting of faculty-led lectures and TA-led discussion sections. TAs with a 50% appointment should expect to spend an average of 20 hours/week meeting their MMW job responsibilities.

MMW TAs attend lectures, complete the assigned readings and prompts assigned by the course and program faculty, lead discussion section activities that foster student engagement with course content and hone analytical and writing abilities, teach the writing assignments, and evaluate and provide feedback on assignments.

TAs new to the MMW program teach in the first year of the five-quarter sequence (MMW 11, 12, 13). During Fall term, new TAs must enroll in the MMW 501 seminar, which provides pedagogical training and support, while also teaching in MMW 11. 

MMW 11 TAs attend three hours of lecture per week, meet with two 50-minute sections of 30 students each once per week, and hold two office hours per week.  

MMW 12 and MMW 13 TAs attend three hours of lecture per week, meet with two 50-minute sections of 16 students each twice per week, and hold two office hours per week.

MMW 14, MMW 15, MMW 121, and MMW 122 TAs attend three hours of lecture per week, meet with two 50-minute sections of 28 students each once per week, and hold two office hours per week. 

Before each term begins, TAs attend orientations led by program faculty and staff. 

MMW provides ongoing pedagogical support with teaching resources and materials to support lesson planning, discussions, feedback to students, and grading criteria. This support is provided in regular meetings with program staff and course faculty, email communications, and an online teaching manual. TAs can also enroll in a 4-credit graduate pedagogy course, MMW 501, which provides ongoing pedagogical development by fostering an intentional teaching and learning community in MMW.

Minimum Qualifications

Applicants must have completed the UCSD Teaching & Learning Commons’ Introduction to College Teaching course and/or must have experience in teaching and evaluating academic writing. Applicants should discuss these qualifications in their letter of application.

rev. 02/26/25

Website: http://muir.ucsd.edu/writing/index.html

The Muir College Writing Program (MCWP) welcomes GSTAs who are interested in issues of inclusivity, professional development, and deepening their pedagogic practice.

The Muir College Writing Program consists of a two-quarter sequence required of all Muir students. Muir TAs work under the guidance of program administrators but are the sole instructors in the classroom. This arrangement gives TAs a good deal of responsibility but also some autonomy. 

Our goal at Muir is to help students become critical thinkers in writing—to enable them to recognize and produce informed arguments that are logically sound. In MCWP 40 and 50, we emphasize the analysis and construction of arguments written from the perspective of three threads–sciences and technology, the social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities, broadly defined. We also focus on the relationship between what an author claims and how he or she chooses to support that claim.

In MCWP 40, TAs and lecturers teach from shared readings and an assigned non-fiction book. In MCWP 50, lecturers choose a topic for student writing and research organized around current issues in the three threads.

TAs in our program teach six sections per year. Each MCWP 40 section meets twice a week for 80 minutes. Additional responsibilities include implementing a course syllabus, commenting on multiple drafts of student papers, assigning grades, participating in quarterly grading meetings during finals week, holding office hours, and attending weekly MCWP 500 seminar meetings. Prior to the beginning of fall classes, TAs are required to attend a two-day training session focusing on pedagogy, program expectations, and course planning.

At Muir, we work to establish a supportive environment for the teaching of writing and revision. The program also offers opportunities for professional collaboration, including course development and pedagogical growth. We encourage applicants with teaching experience and wide-ranging interests from a variety of departments, including the humanities, social sciences, and sciences and technology departments.

rev. 02/26/25

Note: Seventh College will have no TA recruitment for the Academic year 25-26

rev. 02/26/25

Website: https://warren.ucsd.edu/warren-writing

Note: Warren College will not be recruiting TAs for the 2025-26 academic year

rev. 02/26/25