The RPW Center offers a residential, one-year interdisciplinary faculty seminar fellowship related to that year’s keyword theme.

2024-25 Theme: Emerging Technologies and the Human Experience

Application deadline: January 16, 2024

The Topic

The Robert Penn Warren Center’s theme for AY 2024-25 is Emerging Technologies and the Human Experience.

Emerging Technologies and the Human Experience will explore technological innovation and its impacts on human flourishing and futures across time.  From the printing press to the internet, electricity to quantum mechanics, steam engines to AI:  what can humanistic inquiry tell us about the meanings and legacies of these and other technologies?  What do emerging technologies reveal about who we are–and what and who we value (and don’t)?

The RPW Humanities Center welcomes Humanities-oriented proposals from researchers working across all fields, time periods, and technologies.

Fellows will convene on a regular basis to discuss works-in-progress. The schedule and nature of the meetings will be established collectively by the Fellows, in consultation with the Center Director. At the end of the appointment, Fellows will be expected to have completed a significant research project (such as an article, book chapter, or, for more advanced projects, a book manuscript), a creative/artistic project, or a scholarly public engagement project.  Each Fellow will also give a public talk or organize a public event related to their work.

Who Can Apply

Tenured and tenure-track faculty in Arts & Science are invited to apply. Tenured and tenure-track faculty in A&S are eligible for a 1-1 course release.  Faculty members with a 1-1 teaching load are not eligible for a course buyout. Faculty members with a 2-1 courseload may only buy out a course in a semester that they would be teaching two courses. Faculty from other Vanderbilt schools are also encouraged to apply, but should consult with their Dean regarding course release consideration.

Applicants must also have prior approval from department chairs or program directors.

*Note: This is a residential fellowship. All Fellows, including those on leave, are expected to participate fully, in person, in the collaborative work and scheduled meetings of the group.

To Apply

Applicants should include the following in their materials (1250 words maximum, excluding CV):

1. Project description, its relevance to the fellowship theme, the specific work to be completed over the course of the fellowship, and its significance to the research and teaching mission of the university.
2. Statement on how the applicant’s work would benefit directly from collaborative, interdisciplinary engagement with other colleagues, along with evidence of previous, effective collaborative work (at the RPW Center or elsewhere).
3. A shortened version of their curriculum vitae (5 pages maximum).
4. Approval from Department Chair, either in a letter or by email to the applicant.  A copy of this approval should be included in the application PDF materials.

All materials will be reviewed by the Center Director and the RPWC Faculty Advisory Committee.  Final selection of applicants will be made by the A&S Dean’s Office, following review of the Committee’s recommendations.  Fellowships may be held only once every four years.

Send all application materials as a single PDF with “Faculty Fellowship” in the subject line to Constance Priddy (Constance.T.Priddy@Vanderbilt.edu) by January 16, 2024. 

For all questions, please contact Holly Tucker, Director, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.