The School of Humanities, in partnership with the Humanities Research Center, is pleased to announce the renewal of our fellowship program for humanities faculty on the tenure track. These fellowships are funded by the Vice President for Research, Dr. Ramamoorthy Ramesh, and aim to recognize the significance of Humanities research and the importance of research and writing time to the advancement of Humanities scholarship.
This year we are issuing a call for three (3) Research and Promotion Fellowships 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 3-year timeline if special circumstances apply).
Application materials should include:
- A project proposal, accompanied by a timeline for project completion, plans for submission and/or publication (no more than 5 pages)
- A current CV (no more than 10 pages)
- A promotion plan, including a timeline for project completion and initiation of the promotion process (no more than 5 pages)
- A list of all courses and enrollment numbers over the past 3 years. Please be sure to specificy the course level, the semester/year in which it was taught, and the number of students who were enrolled in each course, from Fall 2021 through Fall 2024 (inclusive).
- A list of all forms of leave and course releases held over the last five years, including internal HRC faculty research ("teaching-release") fellowships
- A brief endorsement by the department chair, which should address 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: https://rice.app.box.com/f/0d585310af3748ca9a92a5439e6dba99.
Eligibility:
- Associate professors in the Rice University School of Humanities are eligible to apply.
- Applicants must have been at Rice University for at least one year and have taught at least four courses to be eligible to apply.
Fall 2024 deadline:
Monday, December 2, 2024, 11:59 PM
Applicants will be notified by December 20, 2024.
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). Should the department not need or use these funds, they will remain in the pool of 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 2025–26.
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 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. The Dean of Humanities 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 the disciplinary or interdisciplinary arenas that are most definitive.
- The clarity of conceptual framing, methods, and the significance of the project in the applicant’s own 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 number of courses and students taught over the past three years.
- The history of past scholarly leaves, including sabbaticals over the past five years, as well as the applicant’s contributions to leadership and service at the department, school, and/or university level over the past five years.