Faculty Fellowship Program

The Center for the Humanities of WU Arts and Sciences is pleased to offer one-semester Faculty Fellowships for Fall 2014 and Spring 2015.  The Center is currently accepting applications for both semesters.  Whereas the Fall 2014 Faculty Fellows program will be open to applicants with research projects on any topic or theme, the Fellows’ projects for the Spring 2015 program will revolve around the theme “Networks and Production” (see theme description below).  Applicants are strongly discouraged from submitting applications for both semesters. 

Those awarded the Fellowship would be in residence at the Center for the designated semester and would be relieved of all teaching and administrative duties for that semester. The Faculty Fellows Program is designed to provide a supportive environment for innovative, interdisciplinary scholarship and research. The fellowships are open to all tenured and tenure-track faculty members in Arts & Sciences.

Purpose

• To provide greater support for research by junior and senior WU humanities faculty, who typically have fewer external opportunities for such support than their colleagues in non-humanities fields.
• To generate a greater sense of community both in the Center in particular and on campus in general and to spark greater innovation in scholarship and teaching across disciplines among humanities faculty by providing fellowship support for projects that involve interdisciplinary sharing and exchange.
• To enable the Center for the Humanities to become an important contributor to this sense of community by providing both a physical and intellectual environment for fellowship and research activities.
• To facilitate the working relationship between humanities departments and the Center and to aid in the wider communication about humanities research across campus.
• To make known to the broader (non-WU) academic community both the Fellows’ research specifically and the research profile of WU faculty more generally through interaction between Fellows and their external guests.
• To provide additional support for the mission of departments and for graduate education with the invitation of an external guest to give a public lecture and a workshop for graduate students.

What the Center Provides

• One full semester of relief from teaching and service so that the Fellow can devote his or her time to an extensive research project.
• An intensive interdisciplinary intellectual environment in which the Fellow can discuss his or her research with the other Fellows in residence, other WU humanities faculty, and invited guests.
• A forum in which the Fellow can communicate his or her research both formally (with the Fellow’s lecture) and informally (with the monthly Fellows’ luncheon) with other faculty and the WU community in general.
• Publicization of the Fellow’s research in Center publications, allowing the Fellow’s research to become more widely known on campus.
• The opportunity to invite an external guest of senior stature, with whom the Fellow shares research interests, to come to campus to give a public lecture and a workshop for graduate students.
• An office at the Center equipped with a computer and office supplies.

What the Center Requires

• Fellows must be in-residence at the university and make use of an office provided by the Center for the Humanities during the semester of the award.
• Fellows must give one formal, public lecture and one informal workshop about a topic related to their research during the course of their Fellowship semester.
• Fellows must attend periodic lunch meetings to talk informally about their research and interact with each other.
• Fellows must attend public lectures of other Fellows and at least one other event sponsored by the Center for the Humanities during their fellowship semester.
• Fellows must submit a short report giving an account of their activities at the end of the fellowship period.
• Fellows may be requested to carry out additional duties as negotiated with the Center’s Director of Research and Grants.

Eligibility

• All tenured and tenure-track faculty of Arts and Sciences at Washington University are eligible.
• All fellows must be in residence at the university and at the Center for the Humanities for the term of the fellowship.

Fall 2014 Faculty Fellows Program: Open Theme

Spring 2015 Faculty Fellows Program: “Networks and Production”
Following the development of actor-network theory in the field of critical sociology, various humanistic disciplines have explored the use of the model of networks to reconfigure how objects and products are embedded and find meaning within networks of social relations.  Networks are understood to function not in linear fashion, or according to established hierarchies, but rather through complex webs of group affiliations across space and/or time. A thematic of networks allows us to study the production, use and circulation of cultural products—art, literature, drama, film, or music for example—in the broadest possible frame. Examples of studies might include networks of commissions, trade, circulation, or sale of cultural products; transnational exchanges or expansions of networks of exchange that move cultural products from a metropole across borders or into peripheral or colonial spheres; and the development of social or professional networks that facilitate the shared production, display or publication of work, or types of critical reception. This model of analysis is adaptable across a very broad range of time periods and cultural settings, and also invites work from the humanistic social sciences as well as the traditional areas of humanistic inquiry.

The deadline for application for both the Fall 2014 program and the Spring 2015 program is Monday, September 16, 2013.  Applications must include:

1. A project proposal containing the following information in one document:

1. A statement as to whether the applicant prefers to be considered for a Fellowship for Fall 2014 or for Spring 2015.

2. A description not to exceed 800 words of the applicant’s research project, which should discuss what the project entails, both in terms of content and of form, and what the applicant hopes to accomplish during the term of the fellowship.  Please note that the Faculty Fellowship is intended for a substantial, well-conceived project that represents an active moment in the faculty member’s research program.

3. A statement not to exceed 500 words that explains the project’s relevance to the humanities and how it offers a fresh and innovative approach in the humanities or humanistic thinking.   The successful applicant’s research proposal must not only demonstrate general intellectual excellence, it must also indicate an impact on humanities scholarship or humanities teaching. 

4. For Spring 2015 applications only: A description not to exceed 500 words of how the project relates conceptually to the theme “Networks and Production.”

2. A current CV.

3. Two letters of recommendation in support of the application. One of the letters must be from an external faculty person and one letter must be from a member of the WU faculty who is not a member of the applicant’s department. Letters can be sent by email to cenhum@artsci.wustl.edu.

The entire application can be submitted via email. Please send to cenhum@artsci.wustl.edu.

Winners will be chosen by a selection committee consisting of WU tenured faculty aided by evaluations from outside reviewers.  Announcement of the winners will be made by December 2013. If you have any questions about submitting the application, please contact Erin McGlothlin, Interim Director at the Center for the Humanities, at mcglothlin@wustl.edu. 

For further information, please go to: http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/academics/faculty_fellow .