Residency Application

PLEASE FILL IN THE APPLICATION FORM BELOW

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 Residency Program.

Program Description

The UNCF/Mellon Faculty Residency Program was developed to create an opportunity for selected UNCF faculty members to take up to a semester away from their home institution to complete or begin a scholarly project. Tenure-track and tenured professors are eligible to apply. The UNCF/Mellon Programs will work with the faculty member and her/his home institution to best determine the appropriate salary supplement as well as travel and research costs. Domestic Summer Faculty Residency awards will not exceed $10,000.00 per award. The International Summer Faculty Residency award will not exceed $18,000.00. Semester Faculty Residency awards will not exceed $40,000.00 per award. The faculty member’s home institution must commit to paying the faculty member’s fringe benefits while the faculty member is participating in the Faculty Residency Program. Faculty completing a semester residency away from the city of their home institution may request, once awarded, a housing allowance, not to exceed $6,500.00, to support housing costs in the residency location.

The UNCF/Mellon Programs have established relationships with potential residency sites including Duke University’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences, Emory University’s James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Study, Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center*, The National Humanities Center, the University of Chicago through three of their Institutional Centers - the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, the Pozen Center for Human Rights, and The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and the Steve Biko Institute in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The Programs Office will help facilitate residencies at these selected sites. Links to the sites are also provided below. However, interested faculty can identify their own choice of a research site. Thus, support will be provided for research at sites not listed. Confirmation from the site must be provided and is subject to approval by the Programs Office. We have entered into a partnership (newly formed) with The Africa Institute, Global Studies University (GSU) in Sharjah, UAE, to support Faculty Residency and International Seminar opportunities. We will soon provide more information about these opportunities.

* Residencies at Harvard University’s W.E.B. DuBois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center will be based upon space availability. Faculty interested in applying for a residency at Harvard University must notify the Director as soon as possible.

Faculty applicants must submit a letter of interest that includes a copy of their curriculum vitae and a 1-3 page proposal describing how they will spend their residency period. The proposal must include an itemized budget with verification of the level of support provided by the home institution. Letters of recommendation from the Chief Academic Officer and the department chairperson are required. In addition, a letter from the residency site director, if it is one other than those affiliated with the UNCF/Mellon Programs, is required.

The postmark deadline for applications for each of the Faculty Career Enhancement Programs is January 31. Eight faculty residencies will be funded, and the Selection Committee will determine the distribution between summer, international summer, and semester residencies. Domestic and International Summer faculty residency stipends will be paid directly to the faculty fellow. The salary portion of the semester awards will be paid directly to the fellow’s institution to cover the salary for the fall or spring semester.

FACULTY RESIDENCY SITES

Duke University

https://regss.trinity.duke.edu/

Emory University

http://jamesweldonjohnson.emory.edu/home/

Harvard University

https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/

The National Humanities Center

https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/become-a-fellow/uncf-mellon-program/

University of Chicago Residency Sites

https://humanrights.uchicago.edu/

https://gendersexuality.uchicago.edu/

https://csrpc.uchicago.edu/

University of the Western Cape, South Africa

https://www.uwc.ac.za/

The Steve Biko Center, Bahia, Brazil

https://www.devex.com/organizations/instituto-cultural-steve-biko-96036

FACULTY RESIDENCY APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

Please make sure the following items are completed and submitted by January 31.

☐ Letter of Interest

☐ Curriculum Vitae

☐ 1 - 3 page typed proposal describing how the residency period will be spent, including a justification of the selected site, verification of established contacts at the site and a proposed work plan

☐ Itemized Budget

☐ Letter of Recommendation from the Chief Academic Officer which includes verification of the home institution’s support

☐ Letter of Recommendation from Departmental Chair

☐ Letter of Recommendation from Residency Site Director (if the residential site is one other than those affiliated with the UNCF/Mellon Programs)

☐ If the residency will be used to complete a book manuscript, a Letter of Verification from the publisher must be provided. If the residency will be used to complete a peer reviewed journal article, the Call for Papers and any correspondence concerning revisions must be provided.

Only faculty representing Mellon designated disciplinary areas are eligible to apply for the Faculty Residency Program. Please find the Mellon designated fields below.

• Anthropology and Archaeology
• Area/Cultural/Ethnic/Gender Studies
• Art History
• Classics
• Geography and Population Studies
• English
• Film, Cinema and Media Studies (theoretical focus)
• Musicology, Ethnomusicology and Music Theory
  
• Foreign Languages and Literatures
• History
• Linguistics
• Literature
• Performance Studies (theoretical focus)
• Philosophy and Political Theory
• Religion and Theology
• Sociology
• Theater (non-performance focus)
• Interdisciplinary Studies: Interdisciplinary areas of study may be eligible if they have one or more Mellon fields at their core, but must be approved on a case-by-case basis.
  

Complete the below online application below or mail by January 31.

Dr. Cynthia Neal Spence, Director
UNCF/Mellon Programs
350 Spelman Lane
Box 333
Atlanta, GA 30314

For further information, please contact our programs office at 404.270.5685.