University of Wisconsin - Madison, Center for the Humanities and Institute for Research in the Humanities
Postdoctoral fellowship in the humanities and humanistic social sciences
Institution Type: | College / University |
Location: | Wisconsin, United States |
Position: | Post-Doctoral Fellow |
The University of Wisconsin-Madison invites applications for its postdoctoral fellowship program in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, it will provide 3 two-year postdoctoral fellowships for recent PhD recipients starting on August 24, 2015. Fellows will be affiliated with a department in the College of Letters and Science, as well as the Institute for Research in the Humanities and the Center for the Humanities. They will teach one undergraduate course per semester in one of the humanities or humanistic social science departments in the College of Letters & Science.
The theme for 2015-2017 is Violences. We seek research that addresses the locations, causes, experiences, and effects of violence in scales varying from large to small, societal to individual, transnational to domestic, transhistorical to localized, physical and psychological, to epistemological and spiritual. Who or what engages in violence? Why and with what results? Who or what experiences violence? Why and with what results? What are the forces that generate violence, or its opposite, some form of non-violence? What is the role of memory in the legacies of violence? Research can focus on violence in relationship to human, animal, environmental, material, and/or mechanical experiences or conditions; and to the interrelationship of violence in and beyond its binary relationships with non-violence, peace, reconciliation, politics, and so forth. Projects can address communal and/or individual violence in war, religion, sectarianism, terrorism, families, sexuality, and other forms of embodied experience. We welcome projects that engage aesthetics, philosophy, cultural studies, history, psychology, critical race studies, geography, linguistics, media studies, LGBTQ studies, performativity, embodiment, and other core and emerging approaches to the topic. Interdisciplinary scope across fields in the humanities or between the humanities, arts, sciences, and social sciences is also encouraged.
In 2015-2016 the stipend for postdoctoral fellows will be at least $58,526 per academic year, with a $2,000 per year research allowance, $3,000 per year travel allowance, and $2,500 computer allowance in the first year. Fellows are eligible for health insurance (http://www.ohr.wisc.edu/benefits/new-emp/grad.aspx).
Eligibility
- Applicants must be scholars who are not yet tenured and who are no more than 5 years past receiving their PhD. To be eligible for this competition, degree must be received between August 2010 and August 2015.
- Fellows must hold a PhD in a humanities discipline or in the humanistic social sciences.
- Applicants who do not yet hold a PhD but expect to have it by August 2015 must provide a letter from their home institution (department chair, head of graduate studies, or advisor) corroborating the degree award schedule.
- Doctoral candidates and those holding PhDs or other doctoral degrees from UW-Madison are ineligible.
- In an effort to foster disciplinary diversity in our program of six postdoctoral fellows, we are not likely to award fellowships to candidates whose teaching would be in the departments of Religious Studies or Anthropology.
- The fellowship has no nationality requirements. If accepted, international candidates will be responsible for securing their own paperwork, visas, etc. as needed, though the university can provide some support in that process.
- Selected recipients may not hold another fellowship simultaneous with this one.
Application materials
Your application must include the following:
- 100 word abstract of dissertation or book project.
- Proposal of up to 2,000 words. The proposal should outline completed research (including dissertation); work in progress; research that will be conducted as a Mellon Fellow; an explanation of how that research relates to the Mellon theme; a description of professional goals and plans for publication; an indication of the undergraduate courses you might teach; and other relevant information. Include how you believe you would benefit from being at UW-Madison, including the faculty associations you would like to develop.
- Curriculum vitae; include work forthcoming and in progress. The proposal should clearly articulate a connection to the competition theme.
- Writing sample of up to 25 pages.
- Confidential reference letters from three writers. Reference letters should address the significance and feasibility of the proposed research; quality of the proposal; qualifications for the project; past work; and potential contributions to and benefits from being a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at UW-Madison.
- Optional: Statement of teaching philosophy and/or sample syllabi or descriptions of courses you have taught or would like to teach.
Application submission
Applications must be submitted via Interfolio. Submit your application: http://apply.interfolio.com/25554
- When you begin your application, you will be asked to upload your curriculum vitae, proposal, and writing sample as separate documents.
- If you would like to including teaching information and/or you have a letter corroborating the degree award schedule, upload these as additional documents.
- All reference letters must be submitted through Interfolio.
- All materials, including reference letters, must be submitted by November 1, 2014 to ensure full consideration.
Because this fellowship includes teaching, a criminal background check may be required of fellowship recipients.
For more information about the program, see http://humanities.wisc.edu/fellows/about-the-a-w-mellon-postoctoral-program/
Contact: |
Questions should be directed to Jessica Courtier, fellows@humanities.wisc.edu / 608.516.8109 |
Website: | http://humanities.wisc.edu/fellows/about-the-a-w-mellon-postoctoral-program |
Primary Category: | Humanities |
Secondary Categories: | Area Studies Cultural History / Studies Social Sciences |
Posting Date: | 08/12/2014 |
Closing Date | 11/01/2014 |