2009 Fellowship Competition

Online Application Form will be available: July 31,
Application Postmark deadline: October 1, 2008

The Princeton Society of Fellows, an interdisciplinary group of scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and selected natural sciences, invites applications for the 2009-2012 fellowship competition.

FOUR postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded this year. The stipend for 2009-10 will be approximately $69,500. Fellows are provided with a shared office, a personal computer, a research account of $5000 a year, and access to university grants, benefits and other resources. Fellows are expected to reside in or near Princeton during the academic year in order that they may participate fully in the intellectual life of the Society.

Interviews will take place in early February. All candidates will be informed of the status of their application by the end of January 2009. The Society will reimburse the cost of travel and lodging associated with the interview. Names of fellowship winners will be posted on the Society of Fellows' website in July 2009.

New Fellowships 2009-2012

Two Open Fellowships in the humanities and social sciences

Open to all disciplines represented in the Society of Fellows. In each of the first two years, the successful candidate pursues research half-time and teaches one course of his/her design each semester, either in the host department or an interdisciplinary Program. In addition, the fellow normally does some advising in his/her specialty. In the third year, the fellow teaches one course in the fall semester and devotes the final semester to full-time research.

Fellowship in Humanistic Studies

This fellowship is sponsored jointly by the Humanities Council and Society of Fellows. The position offers an exceptional opportunity to collaborate with faculty across many departments. For the first two years the Fellow joins faculty from different disciplines in teaching the interdisciplinary year-long sequence, Approaches to Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Modern Period, and pursues research half-time.  The fellow works closely with colleagues to plan the curriculum and coordinate the course, with administrative help. In addition to attending the lectures, the fellow delivers several lectures and leads a number of discussion sections each semester. In recognition of these organizational responsibilities, the fellow receives additional research funds in the first two years. In the third year, the Fellow teaches a course of his/her design for one semester, and spends the final semester on full-time research without teaching.  

Fellowship in East Asian Humanities

The Princeton Program in East Asian Studies and the Society of Fellows are co-sponsors of a three-year postdoctoral fellowship. The successful candidate pursues research half-time and collaborates with other East Asian Studies faculty to team-teach for two years in an interdisciplinary, year-long core course, East Asian Humanities: The Classical Traditions. The Fellow attends lectures, gives a small number of the lectures, and leads several discussions. In addition s/he assists faculty in coordinating the course, with administrative help. In the third year, the Fellow teaches a course of his/her own design for one semester, either in East Asian Studies or another department, and spends the final semester on full-time research, without teaching. The fellow is expected to pursue research that will make a significant contribution to the field of East Asian Studies in one or more selected disciplines in the humanities.

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Eligibility

  • Candidates must have received their Ph.D. degree between January 1, 2006 and October 1, 2008. (The receipt of the Ph.D. is determined by the date on which the candidate has fulfilled all requirements for the degree at his/her institution.)
    Exception: those candidates who will not meet the October 1, 2008 deadline for receipt of Ph.D. but are expected to have fulfilled all conditions for the degree by June 15, 2009, may apply for a postdoctoral fellowship with a letter of confirmation from their Department Chair or Director of Graduate Studies.
  • Recipients of doctorates in Education (Ed.D. or Ph.D. degrees), doctorates of Jurisprudence, and holders of Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University are not eligible to apply.
  • Fellowships will be awarded to candidates at the beginning of their academic career who have already demonstrated outstanding scholarly achievement and excellence in teaching. Their work should also show evidence of unusual promise. The Society has a particular interest in fostering innovative interdisciplinary approaches in the humanities and social sciences.
  • US citizens and non-citizens, regardless of race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability, are eligible to apply.
  • Fellows must reside in or near Princeton during the academic year of their fellowship term.

Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative action regulations

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Disciplines Represented in the Society of Fellows

The applicant should select an official host from the list of departments below. Please review the website and course offerings of Princeton's academic departments and programs and choose the one which seems most appropriate. It is not necessary to contact a potential host department before submitting your application. In addition to a departmental host, fellows frequently choose to be affiliated with one of the University's interdisciplinary Programs of Study.

Host departments (candidate must choose one)
African American Studies, Anthropology, Architecture, Art and Archaeology, Classics, Comparative Literature, East Asian Studies, English, French and Italian, German, History, *Music, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Sociology, Spanish and Portuguese

* Music. Ph.D. and DMA recipients or candidates in the following areas may apply: Musicology, Music Theory, Ethnomusicology. DMA recipients or candidates in Performance are also eligible if their degree includes a strong scholarly component or offers a specialized area of expertise related to performance.

Programs of Study (optional - candidate may choose one, two or none)
African Studies, American Studies, Contemporary European Politics and Society, European Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Hellenic Studies, Judaic Studies, Latin American Studies, Linguistics, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, South Asian Studies, Theater and Dance, Translation and Intercultural Communication, Urban Studies, Women and Gender

Natural sciences: Astrophysics only (Spitzer Fellowships)
For fellowships in this field only, candidates should apply directly to the relevant department. Please note that deadlines for this fellowship are later than those in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

For more details, please consult the following website: http://www.astro.princeton.edu

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Application Guidelines

Candidates should review carefully the following guidelines before completing the online application form and submitting the dossier materials.

Applicants for either of the two specialized fellowships may also apply for the Open fellowships by checking the relevant boxes on the Application Form. It is not necessary to submit separate applications for each fellowship.

Please submit the following dossier items in the order listed below. Number pages for each item, and include your name and title of the item at the top of each page. Do not use staples.

Checklist

Dossier items to be sent by referees
Confidential letters of recommendation to be emailed directly by three referees

Dossier items to be mailed by candidate

  1. Completed application form
  2. Curriculum vitae
  3. For ABD (All But Dissertation) candidates only: letter of confirmation from department chair or director of graduate studies
  4. Dissertation abstract
  5. Writing sample: one chapter of the dissertation or one published article
  6. Research proposal
  7. Two course proposals

Mail the complete dossier by October 1, 2008 (postmark deadline) to:

Search Committee, Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, 10 Joseph Henry House, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544


Details of Dossier Items

For referees:

  • Confidential letters of reference from three referees: to be emailed directly in Word or PDF format to sfrecs@princeton.edu (NB. email address for letters only; questions should be sent to: fellows@princeton.edu)
    • letterhead preferred
    • letter should be addressed to: Director, Leonard Barkan
    • subject line of the email should be: applicant's last name first name initial, in that order with no punctuation. Example: Smith Carolyn R
  • If a referee is unable to send a letter electronically, s/he should mail it, postmarked by October 1, 2008 to: Search Committee, Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, 10 Joseph Henry House, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

For candidates:

  1. Application form: hard copy mailed with dossier.

    Please wait until you have gathered all your application materials and are ready to mail them before filling out, submitting electronically, and then printing the application form for enclosure with your dossier. Submit your online application form only once.

  2. Curriculum vitae

  3. For ABD (all but dissertation) candidates only: letter of confirmation from department chair or director of graduate studies.

    4. Your department chair may write both the brief letter confirming the degree date and, if you wish, one of the three letters of recommendation in support of your candidacy, but these should be two separate documents. The "degree confirmation" letter need not contain an evaluation but should simply state that the candidate is expected to have completed all requirements for the Ph.D. by June 15, 2009. This confirmation letter should be sent by the candidate to the Society of Fellows, together with the full dossier.

  4. Dissertation abstract: no more than one page, single-spaced.

  5. Writing sample: one chapter of the dissertation OR one published article.

    6. No more than 40 double-spaced pages, including all footnotes, endnotes and images. If the chapter you wish to send is more than 40 pages long, please edit for length and summarize the deleted portions. We are not able to return any application materials.

  6. Research Proposal for the fellowship term: up to three double-spaced pages.

    7. This may take the form of a proposal for revising the dissertation in preparation for publication, and/or it may outline a new research project that will follow the dissertation revision.

  7. Two course proposals: to total up to three double-spaced pages.

    8. Briefly outline two sample courses you would be interested in teaching at Princeton. It is not necessary to include syllabi but a brief reading list for each course would be helpful. One proposed course should introduce first-year students to a topic of your choice in the form of a Freshman seminar. The other should be a more advanced and specialized seminar in your own field, designed for juniors and/or seniors in your host department. Both courses meet for 12 weeks, 3 hours a week.

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Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Application procedures

  • There is no application fee.
  • Only one set of dossier materials is necessary.
  • It is the candidate's responsibility to ensure that all materials, including online application form, full dossier and degree confirmation letter (for ABD candidates), are submitted by the October 1, 2008 postmark deadline. Only complete applications will be considered.
  • It is not necessary to send a transcript of graduate courses or grades.
  • Candidates who have applied for the Society of Fellows' postdoctoral fellowships before may re-apply but must submit a new application dossier.
  • The dates for completion of the Ph.D. degree - between Jan.1, 2006 and Oct. 1, 2008 (for ABDs: June 15, 2009) - are strictly observed, with no exceptions.

Mailing instructions

  • The "postmark deadline" is the date by which materials must be stamped by the Post Office. If you send your application by another mail service, please arrange for pick-up no later than the postmark deadline.
  • We strongly recommend that candidates, particularly those mailing from outside the US, use an expedited, trackable mail service.
  • Please note that we do not accept faxed or emailed applications.

Notification of candidates

  • Candidates will be notified by mail once their dossier has been processed, and by email if any letters of recommendation are missing. Note that this can take up to six weeks after the deadline, owing to the volume of mail we receive.
  • Please provide both surface mail and electronic addresses so that we can reach you easily. Advise us by email if either address changes before January 1, 2009.
  • We are not able to return any application materials.

Evaluation procedures

  • Applications will be read by faculty in both the Society of Fellows and the host departments.
  • All dossier materials and the selection committee's evaluations remain confidential. The committee is not able to provide feedback on individual applications or interviews.
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