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We are soliciting proposals for 2020-2021 fellows at a pilot GW virtual humanities center co-sponsored by OVPR and CCAS. We aim to have a broad representation of disciplines, cultures, and time periods across the humanities as we seek to build a vital interdisciplinary organization to connect humanities researchers within GW and to promote their work to the larger community.

The theme for the year is "culture in crisis." We are looking to create a collaborative group of researchers working on various aspects of this theme; research related to the COVID-19 crisis, either regarding its contemporary dimensions or providing historical perspectives, is especially welcome.

Fellows will:

  • participate in the first-year incubation of the much-anticipated GW humanities center
  • present (virtually) a pre-circulated work-in-progress on “culture in crisis” to the center community sometime during your fellowship year
  • participate in the bi-weekly virtual center gatherings (the first and third Fridays of each month at noon)
  • develop a short public-facing presentation on your research
  • invite an outside speaker for a virtual presentation on the “culture in crisis” theme (outside speakers will be offered a $200 honorarium)
  • receive $1000 in FY21 research funds
  • receive 60 hours per semester of an undergraduate work-study RA

Center will:

  • foster interdisciplinary collaboration
  • incubate fellows’ works-in-progress
  • allow cross-fertilization between fellows’ projects
  • provide a public platform to promote fellows’ work in the humanities and its relevance in this moment of crisis
  • create a structured mechanism for student mentorship and student involvement in research
  • develop a launching pad to develop competitive funding proposals for nationally competitive grants

Deadline and application submission information are still pending. Application will be made available in InfoReady in the near future. In the meantime, you can start preparing the following:

  • a 500-word description of your "culture in crisis" research (on which you will present a work-in-progress this year), including a brief consideration of how you would use the research funds and RA support
  • a 100-word bio of the outside speaker you would propose inviting
  • your CV

For questions please contact Jamie Cohen-Cole (jcohencole@gwu.edu) or Lynn Westwater (llww@gwu.edu), OVPR Humanities Advisory Committee Co-Chairs.

You may have seen the announcement in the Research Update about the Dean's Office's intent to develop summer writing groups. 

The writing groups can be designed to help you in any project you desire, for example: writing book chapters; journal papers; or applications for fellowships and grants. These would provide an ideal way to help you power through that chapter, or approach the drafting of your NSF CAREER grant in a more structured way. The idea is to start with a six-week commitment (unless the grant deadline is earlier :-)), and you are free to agree as a group to extend the group beyond that period, if you are finding it helpful. This is our first time trying such a thing so we would welcome your participation and feedback as to how we can make the process better.

In order to register your interest, please fill out the google form by Wednesday, July 15th and we will try to match you with a small group (3-4) of faculty with similar aims and needs. There are three types of groups we came across in researching the model and they are explained at the start of the form. The group will typically meet once per week, but you are free to determine as a group whether you want to meet more or less frequently than that, how long each meeting will last, and which online platform you will use to meet.