While studying toward his doctorate at the University of California, San Diego, Altheide held several teaching positions as well as administrative appointments. In 1968 he became an instructor at
Southern Colorado State College (now
Colorado State University-Pueblo) and later became a tenured assistant professor in 1970 at Southern Colorado State College, where he also became the Sociology Department's chairman in 1971. In the same year, Altheide was a part-time instructor and a teaching assistant (T.A.) at the following colleges and universities throughout
San Diego:
San Diego State University,
Chapman College,
Grossmont College, and
UCSD. In 1974, Altheide began his career at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona as a visiting professor. From 1975 to 1982, he became an associate professor of sociology; from 1982 to 1983, he served as an associate professor at Arizona State's Center for the Study of Justice. In 1983, Altheide was promoted the position of full professor, and for the next seven years (until 1990), he was a professor in the School of Justice Studies. In 1991, while on the faculty of the School of Justice Studies, Altheide was awarded the title of
Regents' Professor, Arizona State University's highest faculty honor. The Regents' Professor title "is conferred on ASU faculty who have made pioneering contributions in their areas of expertise, who have achieved a sustained level of distinction, and who enjoy national and international recognition for these accomplishments." Altheide has served as resource faculty at
Evergreen State College from 2008 to 2009, and has also held faculty positions abroad. In the spring of 1981, he was a visiting professor in the Department of Sociology at the
University of Lund in
Lund,
Sweden. In the spring of 1988 he was named an honorary research fellow in the Department of Sociology at the
University of Lancaster in
Lancaster,
England. ==Areas of research==