Faculty Theme Fellowship
2025-26 Faculty Theme Fellows
Can the Humanities Save Humanity?
The THEME
The Robert Penn Warren Center’s theme for 2025-26 is How Can the Humanities Save Humanity? Humanities as fields of study and in forms of creative expression are crucial to civic engagement, community, and personhood. But academic humanities have been losing favor on a climate of political, social, and economic polarization. How can the humanities support civic engagement? How can the humanities help us toward a more humane politics? How can the humanities have a reparative function with respect to inequality, partisanship, and violence?
2025-2026 Faculty Theme Fellows
- Ajay Batra (English)
- Matthew Congdon (Philosophy)
- Sasha Crawford Holland (Cinema & Media Arts/Communication Studies)
- Julia Phillips Cohen (Jewish Studies/History)
- ZZ Packer (History)
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.
ELIGIBILITY
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 one course release; faculty from other schools are encouraged to consult with their dean. 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
RPW will solicit applications for 2026-27 fellowships in early 2026. Applications will include a CV, projection description, and statement of interest in collaboration. All materials will be reviewed by the RPW 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). Applicants must secure permission from their department chair. Fellowships may be held only once every four years.
Questions
For all questions, please contact Katie Crawford, Director, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.