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

2023-24 Theme: The Place of Memory

Application deadline: February 1, 2023

The Topic

The Robert Penn Warren Center’s theme for AY 2023-24 is The Place of Memory. With equal emphasis on “place” and “memory,” we invite you to create, research, and (re)think what it means to navigate remembering and forgetting in our post-COVID, algorithmic world. Where does memory live in the body and how is it communicated through our actions in the world? How do places—geographical, corporeal, conceptual—inform memory? How do memory and place(s)—individual, collective, or historical—influence and shape each other? How do we memorialize so as to preserve, do justice, heal, and move forward? And when is it necessary to forget?

The Program

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, a scholarly public engagement project, or a high-impact teaching initiative. Each Fellow will also give a public talk or organize a public event related to their work.

Who Can Apply

Faculty from all ranks in Arts & Science, Blair, Peabody, and Divinity are invited to apply. Tenured and tenure-track faculty in A&S are eligible for a 1-1 course release; non-tenure-track faculty are eligible for a one-course reduction. Faculty from other schools are encouraged to consult with their dean.

*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.  Note: Non-tenure-track projects should emphasize the ways in which their engagement in the program will support their teaching. 
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).  

All materials will be reviewed by the RPWC Director and the center’s Faculty Advisory Committee, and will be forwarded to the relevant dean of the applicant’s school (A&S, Blair, Peabody, and Divinity). 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 Phoebe Thompson (Phoebe.J.Thompson@Vanderbilt.edu) by February 1, 2023.      

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