External Faculty Fellowships
With generous funding from the Lynette S. Autrey Endowment and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Humanities Research Center hosts four visiting professors for one semester each academic year. The fellows teach a course affiliated with a humanities department and take part in the intellectual life of the Center. The HRC sponsors special symposia or conferences centered on their research. These programs give Rice faculty and students significant exposure to eminent scholars from around the world.
2008-2009 External Faculty Fellows
Visit the HRC office to examine or borrow selected books published by these scholars.
 |
David Gordon, Spring 2009
Visiting Scholar from the History Department of Bowdoin College. "Ancestors of a Nation: the Political Imagination in Zambian History." His first book Nachituti’s Gift: Economy, Society, and Environment in Central Africa (University of Wisconsin Press 2006) was finalist for the Melville J. Herkovits Award for Best Book in African Studies and has been hailed as a major contribution to the field. His project based on current field research in Africa illuminates the political nature of seemingly religious practices and the religious nature of political practices, challenging the accepted narrative of political secularism. During his residence at Rice, Dr. Gordon will teach a course in the history department and will contribute to the African Studies Workshop.
|
 |
Carol Harrison, Spring 2009
Visiting Scholar from the Department of History at the University of South Carolina. “Restoring Catholicism in Post-revolutionary France: Gender, Belief, and Secularization.” Examining the intersections between faith, feminism, and citizenship, her research assesses the dual role of religion in shaping the lives of families and in limiting women’s citizenship in the aftermath of Revolutionary dechristianization. She is the author of The Bourgeoise Citizen in Nineteenth-century France (Oxford UP, 1999). During her fellowship term, Dr. Harrison will teach a course in history cross listed with the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality.
|
 |
Avery Kolers, Spring 2009
Visiting Scholar from the Philosophy Department of University of Louisville, Kentucky. "A Political Theory of Individual Responsibility." Dr. Koler's new project undertakes to understand individual responsibility within institutions and the significance of notions such as participation, complicity, and implication. The project asks how our individual moral agency is determined by a group rather than by ourselves in light of our membership in groups large and small. His first book is Land, Conflict and Justice: A Political Theory of Territory (Cambridge UP, 2008). At Rice, Dr. Kolers will teach a course in the Philosophy Department.
|
 |
Gerardo Marti, Fall 2008
Visiting Scholar from the Department of Sociology of Davidson College. “Congregational Diversity and Worship Music.” Author of Hollywood Faith: Holiness, Prosperity and Ambition in a Los Angeles Church (Rutgers UP, in press) and A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church (Indiana UP, 2005), Dr. Marti will examine the intersection of race, religion and music in light of the desire among some church leaders to promote congregational diversity. He hopes to lay the groundwork for understanding what kind of music may accelerate racial and ethnic variety in churches. At Rice, he will teach a course on race and religious faith cross listed in religious studies and sociology. Click here to download the course flier for RELI 327. |
Call for 2009-2010 External Faculty Fellows
Deadline: November 17, 2008
Applicants should describe how their research project would contribute to the intellectual focus of one or more of the HRC faculty workshops; or to interdisciplinary humanities initiatives such as the Americas Colloquium or the Medical Humanities communities; or to faculty research in the School of Humanities.
Criteria for Selection
- The promise of the specific research project being proposed.
- The originality and intellectual distinction of the candidate's previous work.
- The research project's potential interest to scholars in different fields of the humanities.
- The applicant's potential contribution to the intellectual community at Rice and in the HRC.
Selection Process
Each proposal is evaluated by members of an interdisciplinary committee comprised of the HRC Faculty Advisory Panel, and a representative member of the Dean of Humanities Planning Committee. Applicants will be notified of fellowship decisions in late December 2008.
Submit the following materials by email attachment to hrc@rice.edu
(subject: External Faculty Fellowship)
- Cover sheet
- Curriculum vitae (limit 10 pages)
- 1000-word project proposal and one-page bibliography. Please double-space and use 12-point font type. In language appropriate for a multi-disciplinary panel of non-specialist readers, the proposal should
- explain the nature and significance of the project, including its impact on larger scholarly communities within and beyond the humanities.
- include a brief history of prior research or planning, past support, and future plans for the project.
- describe the scope and resource materials of the research project, the main issues to be addressed, and the relationship of the research to other published and ongoing work in the field.
- 250-word statement of the project's potential contribution to one or more of the HRC's faculty workshops, or to interdisciplinary humanities initiatives, or to Rice faculty research in the School of Humanities.
- One-page course proposal
- Two letters of reference solicited by the applicant and sent directly to the HRC by the referees. The most effective letters show a detailed knowledge of the candidate's past work and address directly both the importance of the proposed project and the candidate's qualifications to pursue it. General praise is less helpful to the committee. Referees may be directed to our External Faculty Fellowships Referee Guide. Reference letters must be received at the center by the application deadline: consideration of letters received after that date cannot be guaranteed. Referees may send letters by email (subject: External Faculty Reference) or by hard copy.
Eligibility
Fellowships are awarded to support research projects in the humanities. This includes, but is not limited to history, philosophy, languages, literature, linguistics, religious studies, art history and the arts. Proposals employing humanistic approaches are welcome from the anthropology and other social sciences, natural sciences, music, architecture, and engineering.
Both junior and senior scholars with tenure or tenure-track appointments at universities and colleges other than Rice are eligible to apply. They must be at least three years beyond receipt of the Ph.D. at the beginning of the fellowship term (i.e. for 2009-2010 fellowship, should have received Ph.D. no later than July 1, 2006).
In the event that a proposal is not funded, the candidate is welcome to resubmit an updated proposal in any subsequent year.
Rice University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. Scholars who are members of traditionally under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.
There is no citizenship requirement or restriction for this fellowship. Non-U.S. nationals are welcome to apply.
Employment eligibility verifications requested upon hire.
The fellowship position at Rice does not provide medical benefits.
