Whiting Foundation seeking proposals for Public Engagement Fellowship

[Announcement from VCPE-PUBLICENGAGE-L]

The Whiting Found is seeking proposals for their new

Public Engagement Fellowship Program which supports

Faculty in the Humanities.

The University of Illinois may nominate one candidate.

Internal nominations are due by August 7, 2015 at 5pm.

Specific details are quantified below or for more information

contact Barlow LeVold at jbl@illinois.edu or 217-244-8156

Office of Public Engagement

University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign

Connecting our campus and community to the world

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SENT ON BEHALF OF DR NANCY ABELMANN
ASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR FOR RESEARCH – HUMANITIES, ARTS & RELATED FIELDS
OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR FOR RESEARCH

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Dear Colleagues,

In partnership with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the Office of Foundation Relations is pleased to issue this internal Call for Proposals for the Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship program. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has received an invitation to submit one nominee for the Whiting Foundation’s new Public Engagement Fellowship program. This program supports faculty in the humanities who show commitment to sharing their research with the public.

Limited Submission

Whiting Foundation
Fall 2015 Public Engagement Fellowship

Internal Deadline: Friday, August 7 @ 5 p.m.

Purpose: Whiting Public Engagement Fellowships support faculty with a demonstrated commitment to using their scholarly expertise to reach wider audiences. The Foundation believes that those who devote their professional lives to the study and teaching of the humanities are in a unique position to contribute to public understanding. Fellowships are intended to amplify the voices of scholars who take up the challenge of engaging the public, to build a community of faculty dedicated to this form of service, and ultimately to help restore broader faith in the value of advanced work in the humanities.

Terms of the Awards: Illinois has been invited to participate in this opportunity and may nominate one humanities (broadly defined) faculty member who received tenure between fall of 2010 and fall of 2015. Individual scholars doing humanistic work in social-science fields such as cultural anthropology are also eligible. Candidates should have prior experience in translating their scholarly work for the public.

Fellowship recipient’s home institution will be given a grant of $40,000 to fund six consecutive months of leave and an additional stipend of up to $10,000 to be made available to the fellow to cover costs such as travel, collaboration, and training. Fellows may choose to take the leave in the fall of 2016 or the spring of 2017. All fellows will participate in two convenings, one in the summer of 2016 and one in the summer of 2017, and provide a brief final report on their work at the end of the fellowship.

In cases where the $40,000 grant does not fully cover half of the nominee’s annual salary and benefits, the Foundation expects that the home institution will ensure the fellow continues to receive her or his full salary and benefits without interruption or diminution.

Supported Projects: A nominee may propose to work on any ambitious project, new or existing, that will substantively engage the public beyond the academy. Opportunities to contribute to public life and understanding vary considerably based on a scholar’s expertise, interests, and talents, and they are not restricted to those who study the topics most obviously connected to contemporary political, cultural, or social debates. The Foundation will support Fellows whose scholarship covers a range of disciplines, periods, and perspectives.

The Foundation will support Fellows who, taken as a group, use a variety of methods and forms to engage the public; more important than the medium chosen is the ability to connect with a broader audience in an intellectually rich and compelling way. Illustrative examples include, but are by no means limited to:

·         Writing a deeply researched book for a general audience on a topic in contemporary philosophy

·         Writing and placing one or more articles in a mainstream online or print magazine on the history of science

·         Contributing to the research for and creation of a documentary film on Elizabethan theater

·         Curating an exhibit at an off-campus museum or gallery on an aspect of race in American history

·         Collaborating with a director as a dramaturg for a theater or play with a significant historical aspect and creating program notes incorporating scholarly research

·         Developing curriculum modules for grades 6-12 on the history and culture of East Asia, along with a plan to disseminate them effectively

·         Working with a local station to launch a live radio show and/or podcast bringing the English Romantic poets or the Harlem Renaissance to a wide listenership

·         Co-creating a smartphone app to direct users to rich historical information about nearby sites

·         Designing and implementing a series of professional development workshops for high school teachers of Latin to discuss recent scholarship on the ancient world and consider how they might incorporate it in their pedagogy

For the purpose of this fellowship, interpretive humanities are distinguished from the creative arts. For example, a professor proposing to choreograph a new dance piece would not be eligible, though one proposing a film on the history and meaning of the work of a choreographer would be.

The plan to complete a project should be thoroughly fleshed out, though work need not yet be underway. Nominees may propose work that will not be finished within the fellowship period, though they should be in a position to make significant progress on it through six months of concentrated attention. (If a project requires more time to complete, the application should make clear how the fellowship term will fit into the overall timeline.) If the project involves collaboration with individual or organizational partners, those relationships should be in place by the time the application is submitted to the Foundation. For example, if a nominee proposes to develop a radio show, an agreement should be in place with the partner station.

Instructions for the Internal Selection Process:

Deadline: Friday, August 7, 2015 @ 5 p.m.

This is a limited submission opportunity; the university may nominate one candidate. For the internal selection process, we ask that interested applicants address the following in a single-spaced, 10-point Times New Roman type, PDF document with 1-inch margins, reflective of Foundation guidelines:

1. Role of public engagement in your career (1/2 page): Describe previous experience engaging audiences outside the academy through your scholarly expertise.

2. Project description (up to 2 pages): Describe how you will use the fellowship leave and stipend, with special attention to the selection criteria laid out below. Include the following sections, as applicable:

·         Summary: Describe the work and intended outcome. Be sure to make clear, in language compelling to a non-specialist audience (citations are discouraged), why the project will be engaging to the general public. In addition, indicate the project’s current status and, if applicable, describe any work already completed; discuss how the work will draw on your scholarly expertise; address the nature of the contribution to public understanding; describe the plan to ensure the project reaches the intended audience.

·         Timeline: Lay out the anticipated timeline for completing your project, including any major intermediate steps. If the project will not be completed within the term of the fellowship, be sure to indicate how that term fits into the larger timeline.

·         Collaboration (if applicable): Identify partners who will be critical to the success of the project.

3. Updated Resume / C.V. (indicate tenure award date)

4. Reference letter: Please include one letter of reference from an appropriate source. It is suggested that the letter address both the intellectual and academic merits of your previous scholarship and your ability to communicate with an audience outside your field.

The committee will consider each project in light of the following three selection criteria:

• Intellectual significance: Does the project make use of the nominee’s scholarly expertise in an intellectually rigorous way? Will the project make a meaningful intellectual contribution for its audience, conveying the complexity and nuance of humanistic learning? Does the nominee have an outstanding history of research and teaching that lends itself to the proposed project?

• Anticipated public impact: How significantly will the project affect the public, in terms of both breadth (e.g., size of the audience) and depth (e.g., level of engagement)? (Note that projects need not be national in scope.) Does the nominee have a clear plan to reach the intended audience(s)? Has the nominee demonstrated an ability to reach broader audiences effectively?

• Feasibility: Does the nominee have the qualifications to complete the work proposed during the fellowship (or in the longer timeline laid out in the application)? Is the project itself manageable, taking into account any work the nominee has already done? If success of the project depends on collaborators or a third party (such as a magazine or book publisher), does the proposal include persuasive evidence that the collaboration will be effective?

Submission: Applications and all questions should be submitted via email to Barlow LeVold (jbl@illinois.edu), in the office of Foundation Relations. Applications will be reviewed by a faculty committee. Applicants will be informed of committee decisions by mid-September.

If you have any additional questions, please contact Barlow LeVold at jbl@illinois.edu or 217-244-8156.

_____________________________________________

Barlow LeVold, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Foundation Relations

  Office of the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  507 E. Green Street, Suite 426 (MC-418)
  Champaign, IL 61820
  Tel: 217-244-8146
  Web: http://vcia.illinois.edu/FoundationRelations