DUKE FACULTY FELLOWSHIPS, 2009-10

* Application Deadline for 2009-10 Fellowships: November 17, 200

The FHI offers up to six fellowships each year for members of the Duke faculty. Felllows participate in the FHI Annual Seminar, and are provided with release time equivalent to two courses and office space in the Franklin Center. The fellows’ home departments are provided with a subsidy for teaching replacement costs. Faculty members in the humanities, interpretive social sciences and arts are encouraged to apply, and faculty members in other areas may apply in many cases. One fellowship position is designated for members of the faculty in Duke’s professional schools.

Seminar Project Description

The 2009-10 Franklin Humanities Institute Seminar, Innovating Forms, will explore the role of form in the production of knowledge. What happens when knowledge takes form? Is thinking liberated, or constrained, or is the emergence of form, the process of informing (or en-forming) best understood as an interplay of flight and seizure, where taking form is inextricably bound with breaking (away from) form? In taking up the ontology of form we will also take up the history of form. We’ll consider the place or force of change in form as well as changing conceptions of form in the history of thought. We expect that the seminar will take up a series of interrelated questions around the meanings and articulations of innovation, the forms of disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledges, the theoretical possibilities of everyday “informal” practice and organization. For a complete project description, visit this page or download a PDF of the call for proposal.

We invite proposals from Duke faculty colleagues whose work engages the cultural, historical, theoretical, creative, and/or empirical aspects of innovative forms, and who seek conversations that cross both disciplinary boundaries and critical orientations. We aim to assemble a group of scholars and creative practitioners who are not just interested in their individual projects but also in working together to explore the interplay of knowledge and form.

The seminar will meet weekly and begin in the fall semester with a shared curriculum of reading to be chosen by the co-conveners. Later in the year, our meetings will be devoted to the work of the seminar participants or to visits by prominent scholars, film screenings, and other activities designed to enhance the disciplinary diversity and intellectual richness of our conversations.

The 2009-10 FHI Seminar will be comprised of: (a) a total of eight faculty fellows from the College of Arts & Sciences; (b) one faculty member from Duke’s professional schools; (c) a professional librarian from the Duke libraries; (d) up to three Duke graduate fellows; (e) up to two external postdoctoral fellows, selected via a national call for proposals; and (f) a fellow from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For information on all fellowship categories, please visit the FHI website at www.fhi.duke.edu, or write to christina.chia@duke.edu.

Eligibility and Participation

All tenured, tenure-track and regular rank Duke faculty members are eligible to apply for fellowships in the FHI seminar. We are committed to diversity in the fullest sense of the word, and as in all previous seminars, we shall be looking for a mix of junior and senior faculty from a range of departments in the humanities and social sciences, whose work spans a broad spectrum of methodologies and historical periods. Faculty fellows will be appointed for the 2009-10 academic year. In exchange for participation in the seminar, the FHI will arrange for release from two courses, and will provide each fellow’s department with a subvention to offset teaching replacement costs. The seminar is provided with funding to support visiting speakers, small conferences/symposia, and other programs. FHI staff members provide logistical and technical support, programmatic support, and administrative support.

Faculty fellows will be expected to participate actively in weekly meetings and programs, to provide input and suggestions on visiting speakers, readings, and topics, and to contribute as needed in the coordination of seminar programs and projects. Fellows are strongly encouraged to draw from their seminar experience to develop an interdisciplinary course designed to have an impact on curriculum development in the humanities. Courses may be team-taught and designed for any Duke student constituency (graduate, undergraduate, MALS, etc.), and should take place within three academic years of the conclusion of the seminar. If feasible, fellows may teach a related course during the spring semester of the FHI Seminar, allowing students to take advantage of the visiting speakers and programs offered by the Seminar.

To support the development of courses and special projects which might emerge out of the seminar, the FHI may be able to provide funds for the later development of courses and special projects developed by current and former seminar fellows. Funds are requested via a short, informal proposal, and may be used to offset research travel, guest speakers, materials and other relevant costs.

Each faculty fellow will be provided with shared office space in the John Hope Franklin Center for International & Interdisciplinary Studies. We encourage participating fellows to become members of the Franklin Center community – to hold office hours in the Franklin Center, to use their offices for writing and research, and to teach courses at the Franklin Center. Among its many other resources, the Center has a library-delivery service that enables research materials to be delivered quickly and efficiently.

The Proposal and Selection Process

Fellowship proposals from Duke faculty members should include the following components:

1. A letter-form proposal, with original signature, of 1500 words or less that describes: (a) your current research; (b) the ways in which your work connects with the theme of the seminar; (c) your teaching goals and the ways in which your participation in the seminar might support your work in the classroom; and (d) a description of a course or special project you might develop as a result of your participation in the seminar. Please address your letter-form proposal to the seminar co-conveners, miriam cooke and Fred Moten, at the address below.

2. A current curriculum vitae and a short biographical summary.

3. A letter, with original signature, from your department chair agreeing to release time equivalent to two courses in academic year 2009-10.

The complete proposal with original signatures must be received by the Franklin Humanities Institute by 5:00 PM on Monday, November 17, 2008. Proposals should be delivered to:

Professors miriam cooke and Fred Moten
c/o Christina Chia, Assistant Director
John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute
Box 90403, 2204 Erwin Road

The seminar co-conveners and the Director of the Franklin Humanities Institute will review all proposals and forward their recommendations to the Dean of Humanities, who will make the final decisions. Fellowship appointments will be announced in Spring 2009.

For general information on the Franklin Humanities Institute, including information on previous seminar themes, co-conveners, and fellows, please visit www.fhi.duke.edu.

If you have questions about this call for proposals, or if you need additional information, please write to christina.chia@duke.edu or call (919) 668-1902.