The School of Humanities and Arts, in partnership with the Humanities Research Center, is pleased to announce the renewal of our fellowship program for humanities and arts faculty on the tenure track. These fellowships are funded by Rice University’s Office of Research, led by Dr. Christopher Johns-Krull and Dr. David Sholl, and aim to recognize the significance of humanities research and the importance of research and writing time to the advancement of humanities and arts scholarship.
This year, we are issuing a call for one (1) Research and Promotion Fellowship for Associate Professors only.
VPR Research and Promotion Fellowships provide a leave of one semester, with the goal of advancing the promotion of associate professors to full professors. A specific promotion plan must accompany this application, including a timeline for the completion of the scholarly project and submission of the promotion dossier. These fellowships aim to support the work of applicants who aim to finalize their dossiers for promotion to full professor within two years (with possible consideration of a three-year timeline if special circumstances apply).
Eligibility:
- Associate professors in the Rice University School of Humanities and Arts are eligible to apply.
- Faculty applicants must have been at Rice University for at least one year and have taught at least four courses to be eligible to apply (i.e., associate professors in their first year at Rice are ineligible to apply).
Application materials should include:
- Preferred semester: Indicate whether you plan to take the fellowship in the Fall or Spring semester
- CV (most recent; no more than 10 pages)
- A project proposal, which should include:
- A Project title and abstract (no more than 200 words)
- Project proposal/narrative (5 pages maximum) explaining:
- Nature and significance of the ongoing project
- Current status of the project and work that remains to be completed
- Project prioritization: How do you plan to focus on the project during the fellowship semester and manage any other research commitments
- Plans for submission, publication, exhibition, and/or performance
- How the fellowship semester will enable project completion
- Anticipated impact of the project on relevant scholarly/artistic communities or the broader public
- Project outline (no more than 3 pages): For book projects, include a chapter outline indicating the content of each chapter and completion status. For other projects, provide an equivalent structural breakdown showing work completed and remaining
- Promotion plan (no more than 5 pages): Detailed timeline showing how the project will be completed during or immediately following the fellowship semester and initiation of the promotion process, with specific milestones and deadlines
- Course and Leave History:
- A list of all courses and enrollment numbers per course over the past three years, specifying course level, semester/year taught, and enrollment numbers from Spring 2023 through Fall 2025 (inclusive)
- A list of all forms of leave and course releases held over the past five years (Fall 2021 through Fall 2025, inclusive), including HRC faculty research fellowships, external fellowships, ad-hoc teaching releases, and sabbaticals
- Chair endorsement: Endorsement from the applicant’s department chair (or dean, if applicant is department chair) addressing the applicant’s proposed promotion timeline (but does not need to address the specific scholarly or artistic project). Endorsements should be directly uploaded to the following Box folder by the application deadline.
Fall 2025 deadline:
Monday, November 24, 2025, 11:59 PM
Applicants will be notified by December 20, 2025
Terms of this fellowship award:
The semester of leave from teaching would also carry a research fund of $10K to advance additional research expenses (travel to archives, libraries, or museums; assistance with data compilation, mapping, or other forms of research assistance; the costs of exhibit curation; editing, indexing or subventions for publication costs or the costs of image reproduction not covered by the publisher). The $10K sum would be available to the awardee during the entire fellowship year and for one subsequent year.
The department will receive $7.5K per course during the semester of the faculty member’s leave in order to cover the costs of replacement teaching (for a maximum of two courses, up to $15K in total). Funds will be disbursed after the submission of documentation showing that hiring has been completed in order to offer courses that the fellow would have ordinarily taught. Should the department not need or use these funds, they will remain in the pool of the VPR–Dean’s Office research fund for other uses.
This one-semester leave may be combined with an earned sabbatical.
Applicants may also apply for HRC Faculty Research Fellowships but are eligible to receive only one of these awards for AY 2026–27.
The terms of this leave adhere to University and Faculty Senate policies on scholarly leave for faculty (Policy 208), i.e., faculty should not plan to take more than two scholarly leaves in a four-year period except under very exceptional circumstances. The School of Humanities and Arts expects faculty who have held leaves funded or subsidized by the university to return to teaching for a period of at least two years before taking another leave.
Review/Selection Process:
Associate and Full Professors in the Humanities Research Center Faculty Council will do the first review of applications and submit recommendations to the Dean of Humanities and Arts. The Dean of Humanities and Arts and the Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Graduate Programs will select the finalists. The final decision will be subject to the approval of the Vice-President for Research.
Applications are reviewed according to the following criteria:
- The intellectual significance of the research project within relevant disciplinary or interdisciplinary arenas
- The clarity of conceptual framing, methods, and significance of the project in the applicant's scholarly trajectory
- The feasibility of the proposed timeline for the project and promotion plan, including specific goals for the fellowship semester and plans for project completion/ submission/ publication/ exhibit/ performance, and initiation of the promotion process
- The history of past scholarly leaves over the past five years and contributions to leadership, service, and community at department, school, and/or university levels over the past five years (Fall 2021 through Fall 2025, inclusive)
- The number of courses and students taught over the past three years (Spring 2023 through Fall 2025, inclusive)
- The final decision will be subject to the approval of the Vice-President for Research