Faculty Seminar Application
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
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PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY PRIOR TO PREPARING YOUR ONLINE APPLICATION PACKAGE.
INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.
We welcome your interest in applying to the UNCF/Mellon Faculty Seminar!
The 2024 Mellon International Faculty Seminar
July 14 - 24, 2024
Comparative Carnival Through the Diasporic Lens: International Setting of Brazil
INTRODUCTION
The UNCF/Mellon Programs are pleased to offer the 2024 Faculty International Seminar in Brazil (Salvador and Rio de Janiero). This year’s seminar will be an immersive experience that centers the logics and logistics of carnival in order to both compare and engage with the various Afro-Diasporic practices, traditions, and cultures that connect us within the Black transatlantic, across histories and colonial powers. From the Americas (including the Caribbean) to the United Kingdom, the 2024 Seminar in Brazil contributes to the robust international conversations that center carnival practices as intrinsic to subversive acts of resistance, while calling for attention to race and gender (in)equalities within Black transatlantic communities. As a process of reclamation, in response to histories of human trade, enslavement, conquest, and environmental transformation, Carnival occurs throughout the year with many observing Catholic liturgical dates (Lenten and Christmas periods), work stoppages (Labor Day or Boxing Day), harvest seasons (Crop Over/Kadooment Day in Barbados) and emancipation days (Mashramani in Guyana).
Because Brazil is one of the few countries that is known for its robust carnival culture, this comparative carnival seminar will examine how Black transatlantic carnival and festival arts emerge from the margins of society producing analogs across Lusophone, Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone spaces. We will also invest in humanist research and pedagogies that are methodologically distinct, while combining knowledge production from academic institutions with community knowledge-holders. In turn, the seminar will support faculty members in developing a deeper understanding of the culturally entangled knowledge(s) and practices of carnival across the Black transatlantic. In particular, we will underscore how these variegated carnivalistic iterations manifest themselves in literature, poetry, visual art, and performance, as well as in qualitative research. In effect, professors of art, performance, humanities, the humanistic social sciences, visual, and/or material culture are invited to apply to join a peer-supported learning community devoted to creating innovative pedagogies that engage with Caribbean and African Diasporic carnival culture(s). Applications are equally welcome from educators interested in talking about forms of African cultural retention throughout human history. This seminar understands the significance of cultural respect and diversity; we further recognize the intelligence and wisdom different beliefs and practices add to the study of Afro-diasporic carnival practices. Faculty are therefore encouraged to revisit their religious tolerances in the interest of mutual respect, accountability, and communal engagement. Participants in this peer-supported learning community will convene for a 10-day program across two cities: Rio De Janeiro and Salvador.
DEADLINE
Your completed application package must be submitted by: January 31, 2024
ELIGIBILITY
The Mellon Faculty Seminars were conceived as enrichment opportunities for faculty who teach at the member colleges and universities of the United Negro College Fund. The Selection Committee invites applications fromtenure-track and tenured faculty trained or teaching in Mellon disciplines and fields. The Mellon Faculty Seminars will be composed of both junior and senior scholars who hold faculty appointments at UNCF institutions. Preference will be given to junior faculty scholars whose teaching and scholarship can be enhanced by participation in this seminar.
Faculty projects may contribute to scholarly knowledge in a discipline or field, or to the general public’s understanding of scholarship in the academy. The work of recipients should result in publication, exhibition, curricular reform or some other concrete product. Like the Faculty Seminars, projects must be based in Mellon supported fields and disciplines.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
Applications must be typed and must consist of the following materials.
- A completed application form (please save electronic files as follows: LastName, FirstName Mellon 2024; i.e., Spence, Cynthia Mellon 2024)
- A one-page abstract that summarizes the project’s purpose, goals and objectives
- A one-page detailed description of the project that contains mention of the importance of the project to the applicant’s disciplinary field of inquiry as well as the impact of the project upon pedagogy
- A full discussion of how the applicant’s proposed project is related to the theme and content of the seminar (2 pages maximum)
- A current curriculum vitae
- Two recommendation letters (please forward this link to your recommender): https://forms.gle/rWkPN4G82jmZU7BfA
- A letter from the Provost or Dean of Faculty confirming the applicant’s status as a tenure track or tenured member of the faculty
Please note that all eligible applicants may be interviewed by the Selection Committee via telephone or Zoom during the selection process. The Programs Office will contact all eligible applicants in advance to schedule the interviews.
Applications are reviewed by an interdisciplinary committee of specialists and scholars. Abstracts and project descriptions should be written with the composition of the Selection Committee in mind.
DEADLINE
The deadline for the 2024 Mellon Faculty Seminar applications is January 31, 2024. Applications are considered once each year. Applications must be received electronically no later than the deadline. Please email applications to info@uncfmellon.org.