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SOCIETY FOR THE HUMANITIES FELLOWSHIPS 2008-2009
The focal theme for 2008-2009 is “Water, A Critical Concept for the Humanities.” Six to eight Fellows will be appointed. Selected Fellows will collaborate with two Senior Scholars in Residence.
Fall 2008: Verena Andermatt Conley, author of Ecopolitics: The Environment in Poststructuralist Thought, Master of Kirkland House and Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature and Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University.
Spring 2009: Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship: A Human History, Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh.
Focal Theme 2008-2009
Water, A Critical Concept for the Humanities
The Society for the Humanities calls for scholarly reflection on critical concepts of water from a broad range of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives. While well-established as a subject of literary, historical, political, and aesthetic analysis, water also traverses emergent fields of inquiry such as ecopoetics and ecopolitics, ancient studies, critical geography, mapping and cartography, environmental humanities, oceanic studies, indigenous studies, and studies of diasporic arts and cultures. Scholars have considered water as an object of conflict and contest, as boundary, and as divider of regions and cultures, but also as a source of life and wealth, and as a medium of communication, migration, transport, commerce, and redistribution.
As access to fresh water becomes one of the most contentious issues of the twenty-first century, the study of water as well as disputes over water rights, especially those involving indigenous peoples and minorities, have increasingly become a focus of inquiry from many different disciplines. While the classical themes of water travel and the healing properties of water are richly elaborated in literary, visual, and ethnographic texts, scholars also investigate the ideological connection between voyages of exploration, colonization, and scientific inquiry. From the complexities of ecopolitics or theorizations of chaos and sexual fluids to natural events such as floods, droughts, tsunami, and hurricanes, frameworks of water pose complex poetic, ethical, aesthetic, political, cultural, technological, and scientific challenges to the humanities. Critical reflection on water, ecology, and migration evokes current and future crises, extending from Australia to the Mediterranean Basin, from sub-Saharan Africa to India. While the Mediterranean is now being rethought as a distinctive unity across time and space, from prehistory to the present, involving encounters between African, Arab, and European worlds, the Indian Ocean is acknowledged as a center of exchange in early modern times. Trans-oceanic movement is studied in relation to the slave trade, to imperial expansion, exploration, and exploitation, as well as a feature of global cosmopolitanism. Thus powerful metaphors like the “Black Atlantic” and the “Pacific Rim” have emphasized continuous trans-oceanic dialogue and inter-continental exchange, allowing for reassessment of cultural products as hybrid forms transcending cultural and ethnic boundaries. Finally the enigmatic nature of water and corollary fluids has catalyzed exciting experiments in the arts, music, and performance while dialoguing with challenging work in theory and philosophy for which water has been an important referent. The Society for the Humanities welcomes applications from scholars and artists who theorize, research, and perform water as a critical concept for the humanities.
Qualifications
Fellows should be working on topics related to the year's theme. Their approach to the humanities should be broad enough to appeal to students and scholars in several humanistic disciplines.
Applicants must have received the Ph.D. degree before January 1, 2007. The Society for the Humanities will not consider applications from scholars who received the Ph.D. after this date. Applicants must also have one or more years of teaching experience which may include teaching as a graduate student.
Application Procedures
Candidates should inform the Society of their intention to apply by returning the attached form immediately. The following application materials must be postmarked on or before October 1, 2007. Faxed applications will not be accepted.
1. A curriculum vitae and a copy of one scholarly paper no more than 35 pages in length. Applicants who wish to have their materials returned should enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
2. A one-page abstract in addition to a detailed statement of the research project the applicant would like to pursue during the term of the fellowship (1,000-3,000 words). Applicants are also encouraged to submit a working bibliography for their projects.
3. A brief (two-page) proposal for a seminar related to the applicant's research. Seminars meet two hours per week for one semester (fourteen weeks) and enrollment is limited to fifteen graduate students and qualified undergraduate students.
4. Three letters of recommendation from senior colleagues to whom candidates should send their research proposal and teaching proposal. Letters of recommendation should include an evaluation of the candidate's proposed research and teaching statements. Please ask referees to send their letters directly to the Society. Letters must be postmarked on or before October 1, 2007.
Send applications and letters of recommendation to:
Program Administrator
Society for the Humanities
A.D. White House
27 East Ave.
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-1101
For further information:
Phone: 607-255-9274
Email: humctr-mailbox@cornell.edu
Awards will be announced by the end of December 2007.
Note: Extensions for applications will not be granted. The Society will consider only fully completed applications. It is the responsibility of each applicant to ensure that ALL documentation is complete, and that referees submit their letters of recommendation to the Society before the closing date.
The Society for the Humanities
The Society for the Humanities was established at Cornell University in 1966 to support research and encourage imaginative teaching in the humanities. It is intended to be at once a research institute, a stimulus to educational innovation, and a continuing society of scholars.
In addition to promoting research on central concepts, methods or problems in the humanities, the Society for the Humanities seeks to encourage serious and sustained discussion between teachers and learners at all levels of maturity.
Fellowships
Fellows include scholars from other universities and members of the Cornell faculty released from regular duties. The fellowships are held for one academic year. Each Society Fellow will receive $45,000. Applicants living outside North America are eligible for an additional $2000 to assist with travel costs
Fellows spend most of their time at Cornell in research and writing but are invited to offer one seminar related to their research. The choice of topic and the mode and level of instruction are at the pleasure of the Fellow, but the seminars are generally informal, related to the Fellow's research, and open to graduate students, suitably qualified undergraduates, and faculty members. Fellows are encouraged to explore topics they would not normally teach and, in general, to experiment freely with both the content and the method of their courses.
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