Given the challenges faculty face in the pandemic, the Simpson Center will pilot support in two categories: First Book Fellowships and Faculty Summer Reading Groups.
Given the challenges faculty face in the pandemic, the Simpson Center will pilot support in two categories: First Book Fellowships and Faculty Summer Reading Groups.
Through a pilot program of First Book Fellowships, we will offer funding for assistant professors to give intensive attention to first book manuscripts that are near completion. Applicants may propose, for example, to finish revisions before submitting the entire manuscript to a press for the first time, to undertake late-stage revisions in response to peer-review feedback, and/or to prepare the final accepted manuscript for publication, including responding to copy-editing, selecting illustrations, obtaining permissions, etc. The deadline for proposals is Monday, March 15, 2021. At a minimum, we expect to award support to four faculty members.
We also recognize that the Covid-19 pandemic and its resultant closures have disrupted and constrained traditional scholarly practices, from archival research to conference travel. At the same time, in this moment of transformation, new forms of scholarly engagement are emerging and accelerating—virtual conferences, for example—and established practices are being reimagined. As a pilot program, Faculty Summer Reading Groups will bring UW faculty together in conversation on an area of shared intellectual interest, and serve to deepen the knowledge of the topic among participants. These groups may lead to larger-scale collaborations among faculty in future years, but should initially be conceptualized as focused on reading and discussing recent research in an area of mutual interest.
The deadline for proposals is Monday, March 15, 2021. The size of each group is limited to 5-6 participants to ensure focused discussion of the shared readings. Groups must draw participants from at least 2 different departments.