Faculty Applicants
Full-time tenure-track faculty fellows will be released from their ordinary duties for two semesters. The center will provide full funding for release from all teaching duties for faculty fellows for one semester, and every faculty applicant must also have secured one additional semester's leave from all professorial duties, including administrative and committee responsibilities, from his/her department. A letter from the department head confirming the semester's release must accompany the application. (Such leaves can be supported by a variety of means, for example, a pre-tenure course release or a faculty development leave.) In order to apply for a Humanities Center fellowship, a faculty member must first secure a full-semester leave, using any combination of already existing procedures, for the academic year of the fellowship. For successful applicants the Humanities Center itself will fund a second full-semester leave in order to create a two-semester fellowship.
To secure the prerequisite full-semester leave, faculty members may use or combine the following means: 1) faculty development leave; 2) banked courses, or 3) an already awarded chancellor's grant for faculty research. Detailed procedures for each of the three are available on the university website.
Department heads will certify that the proposed full-semester leave properly uses one or more of the already existing procedures, and will provide departmental approval for the fellowship, which requires faculty members to have no teaching and administrative duties whatever, with the single exception of dissertation supervision.
Furthermore, all applicants to the center fellowship program must show evidence that they have applied for an external fellowship (for example, an application to NEH, Guggenheim, ACLS, National Humanities Center, or Institute for Advanced Studies) for the same project within the calendar year preceding the application deadline. Two letters of support, one may be internal and one must be external (both can be external), should be submitted with each application.
A p p l i c a t i o n P r o c e s s
The deadline for applying to the center's fellowship program is December 3 of the current calendar year. Instructions for applying are given below and are also available here as a PDF document. We believe that this exciting new venture dedicated to helping those faculty members and graduate students working in the humanities will attract many applicants, so prospective applicants should not hesitate to contact us for further information.
University of Tennessee Humanities Center (hereafter THC)
Application for Faculty Fellowship
1. Cover page
Include a cover page with your application. Applicants must be full-time members of the professorial faculty from the rank of assistant professor. The cover page should provide your name, departmental affiliation, rank, status (tenured or non-tenured), the academic year you are applying and your email address. Lastly, please identify the fellowship competition(s) to which you have applied for external funding during the calendar year preceding the application deadline and the period covered by the fellowship.
2. Letters of support
(A) Provide a letter from your department head stating that you will be receiving funding for a semester's release from all teaching for the semester in the academic year which you are seeking the fellowship from the THC.
(B) Two letters of recommendation, one may be internal and one must be external. External examiners will review all applications.
3. CV
Your application should provide a two-page CV. Please indicate all external funding you have sought.
4. External Fellowships
All applicants for a fellowship to the THC are required to (or have already submitted for the same academic year) submit an application for an external fellowship (e.g., NEH, ACLS, Guggenheim, etc.) in the same academic year in which they are seeking funding from the THC.
5. Application Requirements
Your application should detail your proposed research project and state how the time at the THC will lead to its completion. Your application should provide an intellectual justification for your project and should not assume specialized knowledge and should be free of technical terms and jargon. You should demonstrate the intellectual significance of the proposed project, including its value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Please provide an overview of the project, explaining the basic ideas, problems, or questions examined by the study. Explain how the project will complement, challenge, or expand relevant studies in the field. You may submit the same application to THC, which you have submitted to one of the external fellowship agencies, provided it meets THC's application requirements spelled out here. The narrative part of your application must not exceed five (5) typed pages in 12 point Times New Roman and should be double-spaced maintaining one inch margins throughout. Your application should also include a one-page single spaced bibliography and lastly a timetable detailing your expected progress during the academic year you are in residence in the THC. An appendix can be used if you have need to illustrate a translation project or artwork.
6. Residence in THC
All successful applicants will be required to work daily in the personal office provided in the THC during the length of the tenure of their fellowship. You will be provided with a private office.
7. Faculty Seminars
All successful applicants will be encouraged to sit in on one of the on-going faculty seminars being held in the THC, if appropriate to their subject. Each fellow will make a public presentation of their research during the year of their residency. The time of their presentation will be decided during their stay.
8. Deadlines
All completed applications must be received electronically in the THC office by the close of the workday December 3, and applicants will be notified in the first week of February. Late applications will not be considered.
9. Address
Please send all applications electronically as attachments to Professor Thomas J. Heffernan, Kenneth Curry Professor of English and Director of The University of Tennessee Humanities Center. His email address is theff@utk.edu.