The call for applications for the cohort entering August 2025 will open this later this year.

The Program

Vanderbilt University’s College of Arts and Science and Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities invites applications for the Collaborative Humanities Postdoctoral Program (CHPP).

CHPP fellows will bring their interests and expertise in the humanities to the most pressing problems of the present, from the local to the global. They will develop collaborative research projects, develop and teach a new undergraduate course in their track, and broadly hone their professional skills through programming and faculty mentoring.

The three-year fellowship period will support early career scholars’ efforts to transform and expand humanistic study and education in one or more of three tracks that inherently foreground issues of racial, gender, and social justice:

• Urban Humanities,
• Environmental Humanities, and
• Global Humanities.

Additional details about the scholarly aims of the tracks will be available later this year.

A total of six Collaborative Humanities Fellowships will be awarded to individuals who received a PhD in the humanities or the humanistic social sciences between August 1, 2023, and June 1, 2026. The three-year fellowships—which will extend from fall 2026 to the end of spring 2029—will provide a salary of at least $56,484, benefits, a $2,000 research fund, and $1,000 for one-time relocation bonus to Nashville when applicable.

Postdoctoral fellows’ duties will include:

• teaching an established course in the fall term while developing new undergraduate courses in their track to teach in the spring (0:1 course load in the first year; 1:1 in the second and third years);
• planning and participating in working groups and programming with their cohort in and across the three tracks;
• approaching their urban, environmental and/or global research questions with the spirit of innovation and collaboration;
• robust engagement with the intellectual life of the campus and Robert Penn Warren Center.

• Successful candidates will have received a PhD in the humanities or the humanistic social sciences between August 1, 2023 and June 1, 2026.
• Fellowships are up to three years, with annual renewals, and will begin August 16, 2026.
• Candidates must have a J-1 visa or equivalent and be eligible to work in the United States for the duration of the three-year fellowship. Vanderbilt does not offer visa sponsorship for this program; those without work eligibility will not be considered.

Application dossiers will include the following:

• Application narrative (up to 1,000 words) describing your suitability for this specific fellowship; your professional interest in one of the three tracks (environmental, global, or urban), and a three-year timeline outlining the scholarly projects you would pursue during the fellowship.
• CV (no more than 5 pages);
• Scholarly writing sample (up to 20 pages);
• Evidence of teaching effectiveness (such as course evaluations) and interest in innovative, interdisciplinary, and immersive approaches (up to 5 pages); and
• Three letters of recommendation.

Inquiries

Please direct all questions to Holly Tucker, Director, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities: rpwdirector@vanderbilt.edu.