Fellowships

Arts and Sciences Fellows for Academic Year 2007-2008

The Center for the Arts and Sciences invites Bentley faculty to apply for course-release fellowships for the 2007-2008 academic year. In keeping with the center's mission to support faculty engaged in innovative, rigorous research and to encourage cross-disciplinary conversations, the fellows program will bring together faculty from several disciplines around a theme of broad intellectual and social significance. The theme of this year's fellowship competition, “Equalities and Inequalities,” addresses the issue of equality, broadly construed. Applicants may be pursuing applied or theoretical research. They may be investigating concrete historical, social, economic, scientific, quantitative or political phenomena, either within the United States or in a global context. Alternatively, applicants may be interested in the notion of equality from a theoretical perspective, pursuing a conceptual analysis rooted in philosophy, economics, political theory, law, or the natural sciences. Examples of research topics related to the theme could include (for illustrative purposes only):

  • Changes in federal policies addressing income inequality in the United States since the War on Poverty
  • The rise of political movements explicitly opposed to affirmative action and gay marriage
  • Implications of the Human Genome Project for biological conceptions of human equality
  • Public perceptions of the meaning of equality in former socialist countries of Eastern Europe
  • Political unrest related to growing income differentials in rural China
  • Quantitative analysis of living standards before and after adoption of structural adjustment programs in Latin America
  • Meaning of John Rawls' conception of equality in non-Western contexts

During the academic year the Arts and Sciences fellows, along with the center's postdoctoral fellow, will meet regularly to discuss the progress of their research. They will also present their work to the larger Bentley community in the center's working seminar series. In making selections, the center will give preference to faculty who can demonstrate a strong and recent record of publication. Other factors being equal, preference will be given to junior over tenured faculty. Please note that the center will also consider outstanding proposals that are not directly related to the theme. The Center will select up to five faculty members for its first cohort of fellows. Each will receive a one-course release for both the fall and spring semesters. If fellows are already on a 1-1 teaching load, they will receive a stipend of up to $4,000 per semester.

A complete application will include a detailed research proposal (up to five double-space pages) that includes a plan of action, a statement relating the research to the 2007-2008 theme, and an indication of outcomes and benefits for Bentley, a bibliography (two double-spaced pages), a current cv that highlights publications, presentations, and teaching related to the proposal, and an application cover sheet, available shortly on the web site of the Center for Arts and Sciences. The deadline for submission of all application materials is Friday, January 26, 2007.