FACULTY BOOK MANUSCRIPT WORKSHOPS, 2009-10

* Download PDF of application guidelines for the Fall 2009-10 cycle here

With support from the A.W. Mellon Foundation, the FHI is pleased to announce the continuation of a valuable intellectual development opportunity for full-time Duke faculty in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences, at the Assistant and Associate rank. The FHI’s Faculty Book Manuscript Workshops will provide support for the production and completion of near-complete scholarly manuscripts, when the work can most effectively utilize constructive criticism from experts in the field. The FHI will run two cycles of the program each year, with proposal deadlines in late spring and late fall.

About the Program

The FHI will organize three workshops each year focused on the development of manuscripts of scholarly monographs by assistant and associate professors in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences. Eligible faculty members will submit proposals and engage in a competitive process for each workshop. The FHI’s goal is to annually offer three workshops: two workshops devoted to manuscripts by assistant professors who are finishing their first books, and one workshop for associate professors, in support of the second major monograph. The focus of the program will be on collective learning and constructive, informed criticism of a scholar’s research. The workshops are intended to improve the manuscript under consideration, thereby making a good scholarly manuscript into a superlative published monograph.

Each workshop will involve convening two major experts external to Duke and the Research Triangle whose work is relevant to the subject of the book in question. The FHI will provide these external reviewers with honoraria, and will cover all travel and lodging expenses. In addition to the external participants, the workshops will also include an acquisitions editor from a major scholarly press with experience in the field, and a small but select group of scholars from Duke and area universities. Groups will be limited to 15 participants in total, and will be closed sessions. The faculty member whose book is the focus of the workshop will select each participant, and all participants will be provided in advance by the FHI with up-to-date copies of the manuscript under review.

The half-day workshop will consist of a series of presentations and commentary from the group. Invited guests will be asked to make a formal presentation of their thoughts on the book, to be followed by a response from the author and discussion with the group, and the discussion will continue over a working dinner. In this way, the author may learn from the process of expert opinion that such positive criticism of a manuscript produces, even as a peer group of cohorts, collaborators, and students provide support as well as advice that can resonate with ongoing research questions and methodologies in that particular scholarly area.

For information on eligibility, selection process, and complete program information, please download the Fall 2009-10 cycle CFP, or contact FHI Assistant Director Christina Chia (christina.chia@duke.edu, 919-668-1902).