The University of Tennessee, Knoxville invites applications and nominations for Director of the School of Interior Architecture, a bold intellectual and organizational leader ready to guide a talented, ambitious community of faculty, students, and staff at a pivotal moment of growth. The director sets the school's strategic and intellectual direction, embracing a plurality of approaches to teaching, research, and practice while synthesizing the discipline's most pressing forces, including technological change, environmental and social justice, visualization, and shifting global economies, into a coherent vision for the field's future. Beyond intellectual leadership, the role demands a fiscal and organizational acumen; managing budget, advocating for the school internally and externally, fostering collaboration across the college's schools of architecture, design, and landscape architecture, and connecting daily decisions to long-term ambition. The director should understand the shared mission among the varied constituencies of the college and the school and should be able to listen and communicate sensibly to a wide range of faculty, administrators, students, alumni, and others.
The position offers a competitive salary and benefits package commensurate with the successful candidate’s qualifications and experience, as part of a 12-month full-time appointment at the rank of full professor. As a faculty member, the director is expected to teach and maintain knowledge at the leading edge of the field. The successful candidate will serve a renewable 5-year appointment as director subject to annual performance reviews from the dean of the College of Architecture and Design. The positions preferred start date is July 1, 2027.
The School of Interior Architecture offers a Bachelor of Science in Interior Architecture within a highly competitive professional program. Faculty, students and staff in our school advance the discipline by situating human-centered, spatially driven interior architecture, maker culture and theories of interiority at the forefront of research, creative practice, scholarship, and teaching. The curriculum is uniquely created to encourage cross-disciplinary studies and collaborations within the university as well as the community and to prepare students for professional practice. Recent national and international student and faculty awards distinguish the school, including Brinkman Scholarships, Donghia Scholarships, Graham Foundation Grants, and IDEC and IIDA Faculty Awards.
The school currently has more than 200 students and 16 full- and part-time faculty and is supported by one dedicated administrative assistant and 25 other staff members across the college. Admission targets bringing in 56 freshmen annually with a goal of maintaining four cohorts of roughly that size. The school has attracted over 550 freshmen applications in each of the last four years from both within the state of Tennessee and nationally. Generous state scholarship programs make education accessible to students from a broad range of backgrounds and income levels. Over 36% of our students are from out of state or international.
The school is in the College of Architecture and Design alongside the Schools of Architecture, Design, and Landscape Architecture. We also share a building with the School of Art. As such, the position offers rich opportunities for cross-disciplinary partnerships and collegiality.
The College of Architecture and Design is comprised of 850 students, 57 full-time faculty, 26 staff organized across four schools—architecture, design, interior architecture, landscape architecture. Faculty deliver curriculum in three main facilities: the 160,000 square-foot Art+Architecture Building, in the center of UT Knoxville’s campus, the 27,000 square-foot Southern Depot and the 20,000 square-foot Fab Lab, an advanced maker space. Both the Southern Depot and the Fab Lab are in downtown Knoxville. The “A+A” is an award-winning building which features open studios, a four-story atrium, the Ewing Gallery, a woodshop, review spaces, and lecture halls. The Southern Depot is an historic adaptation of a train station comprised of two buildings built in the early 1900s, and houses studios and instruction spaces as well as faculty offices and administrative space. Our Fab Lab featuring advanced machinery for digital and robotic fabrication, allows our faculty and students to integrate state-of-the-art fabrication technology into design education and research.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville is a public land-grant Research-1 university and the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee system. There are just over 41,000 students and 2,200 instructional faculty across its 14 degree-granted colleges and over 900 programs of study.
Known as ‘The Maker City,’ Knoxville is the third largest city in the state with a metropolitan statistical area population of over 960,000 people. The region is a hub for research and design with a focus on environmental research, urban studies, and advanced technologies such as additive manufacturing technology and advanced fiber composites. East Tennessee benefits from collaborative synergies with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Downtown Knoxville boasts an effervescent nightlife with theater, film, art, music, and well recognized events and festivals like Big Ears, a vibrant live music scene across all genres, excellent restaurants, heritage celebration events, farmers’ markets, and community gardens. Unique and walkable residential and business districts include Knoxville’s historic Market Square and Old City, North and South Waterfronts, and the Urban Wilderness recreational area. Knoxville and the surrounding region also benefit from the energy and advocacy of civic, business, religious, neighborhood, and community organizations invested in local quality of life. Within a fifteen-minute commute of campus, Knoxville offers a diverse range of housing from downtown lofts to homes in historic tree-lined neighborhoods. The city and county also offer strong public and private K-12 educational options including public international baccalaureate, art and science magnet programs, as well as private, religious, and Montessori schools. Knoxville’s neighborhoods also benefit from easy access to parks, multi-use trail systems, and the Urban Wilderness. The nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park and TVA reservoir-lakes provide stellar outdoor recreation including biking, water sports, climbing, and hiking.
Overall, the University, Knoxville, and the School's existing national and international connections, Knoxville’s position at the intersection of Appalachia, the South, and post-industrial America, together with its traditions of making and distinct cultural identity and the interdisciplinary resources of an R1 university, makes UTK a compelling place to teach, conduct research, and continue building the program.
ON LEADERSHIP
ON RESEARCH, CREATIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, DESIGN, AND EXCELLENCE
ON TEACHING
Please submit the following application materials in the form of a PDF
Additional materials will be requested for candidates under consideration.
Initial review of applications will begin on December 1, 2026, with continued review until the position is filled.
For questions, please contact Search Committee Chairperson, Courtney Childers: childers@utk.edu.
All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment and admission without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, and parental status, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law. In accordance with the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the University of Tennessee affirmatively states that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, or disability in its education programs and activities, and this policy extends to employment by the university.
Requests for accommodation of a disability should be directed to the ADA Coordinator at Equal Opportunity and Accessibility, 1840 Melrose Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996-3560, by email to eoa@utk.edu, or by phone at 865-974-2498. Inquiries and charges of violation of Title VI (race, color, and national origin), Title IX (sex), Section 504 (disability), the ADA (disability), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (age), sexual orientation, or veteran status should be directed to the Office of Investigation and Resolution, 216 Business Incubator Building, E J. Chapman Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996-3560, by email to investigations@utk.edu, or by phone at 865-974-0717.
