Skip over navigation
Brown Home Brown Home Brown University Cogut Center for the Humanities Brown Home Brown Home Brown University

Faculty Fellowships

The Cogut Center for the Humanities sponsors semester-long fellowships for Brown faculty members who wish to be affiliated with and resident at the Center while pursuing their research on campus. All regular Brown University faculty (i.e. lecturers, senior lecturers, tenure-track, and tenured faculty) are eligible to apply for the fellowships. Each year, four (4) fellowships are awarded for the fall semester and four (4) fellowships are awarded for the spring semester. Recipients are relieved of their regular teaching responsibilities for the semester of the award.

Applications are reviewed by a committee of distinguished scholars from outside Brown and evaluated for both scholarly merit and the likelihood that a collective experience will enhance and be enriched by the proposed research project. Research projects must be humanistic in character but need not necessarily come from members of designated humanities departments. Fellows attend a weekly seminar consisting of a two-hour discussion of a pre-circulated essay or chapter from the work in progress.

Faculty members are invited to submit applications in Fall 2007 for the 2008-2009 academic year (either Fall 2008 or Spring 2009).  Proposed fellowships may take one of two formats, as follows.

  1. Faculty members may apply for a faculty fellowship that will not count as a leave semester. In this format, a Cogut Center Faculty Fellow will teach one semester-long seminar on a topic related to the proposed research project, and will carry out the usual administrative duties, but will be relieved of regular teaching responsibilities.  
  2. Faculty members eligible for a sabbatical may apply for a fellowship that will count as a sabbatical semester. In this format, a Cogut Center faculty fellowship relieves the faculty member from all teaching and administrative duties. Faculty members who are receiving 75% of their regular semester salary will receive the remaining 25% from the university (i.e. up to 12 ½ % of the annual salary in the case of a full academic year’s sabbatical).  Please note that the implementation of Brown’s new sabbatical policy is currently being worked out by the office of the Dean of Faculty. 

To apply for consideration, the applicant must submit the original and five copies of the following:

  • A curriculum vitae and cover letter. In the cover letter, the applicant should indicate the preferred semester, whether there is flexibility or not, and the format (no. 1 or 2 as above) under which s/he is applying.
  • A copy of a scholarly paper (35 pages or fewer).
  • A one-page abstract and a detailed proposal (1,000 to 3,000 words) outlining the research that the applicant will pursue during the term of the fellowship; applicants are also encouraged to submit a working bibliography for their project.
  • Two letters of recommendation from senior colleagues from within or outside Brown to whom candidates should send their research proposal. Letters of recommendation should include an evaluation of the candidate's proposed research proposal. Referees should be instructed to send their letters directly to the Cogut Center. The Center must receive all recommendation letters by the application deadline.
  • A seminar proposal (for those applying under format 1, as above.) The proposal should address the novelty of the proposed course and indicate those departments and/or programs to which it may be relevant.

Deadline for application is November 1, 2007.