Princeton University Society of Fellows

The Competition is now closed

2010-2013 Fellowship Competition

Online Application Form will be available August 14, 2009

Application Postmark deadline: October 1, 2009

The Princeton Society of Fellows, an interdisciplinary group of scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and selected natural sciences, invites applications for the 2010-2013 fellowship competition.

THREE three-year postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded this year. The stipend for academic year 2010-11 will be approximately $72,000. 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 2010. All candidates will be informed of the status of their application by the end of January. 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 2010.

Application New Fellowships Eligibility Disciplines Represented Application Guidelines Frequently Asked Questions

New Fellowships 2010-2013

Open Fellowship 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 the equivalent of two courses per year, either team-taught or self-designed, in the host department or in 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, and is open to candidates in all relevant disciplines represented in the Society of Fellows. For one semester in each of the first two years, the Fellow joins faculty from different disciplines to teach the interdisciplinary year-long sequence Approaches to Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Modern Period, delivering lectures and leading discussion sections. The Fellow also pursues research half-time. For the other semester of the fellow’s first two years and one semester of the third year, the Fellow teaches a self-designed course in his/her host department. The final semester is devoted to full-time research without teaching.

Fellowship in Latin American Studies

Princeton University's Program in Latin American Studies and the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts are co-sponsors of a new three-year postdoctoral fellowship in Latin American Studies. Candidates in the humanities and allied social sciences whose research interests focus on Latin America are invited to apply. The selection committee particularly welcomes applications from candidates working in the fields of art history, architecture, visual studies and cultural studies, who have demonstrated an interest in interdisciplinary methodologies. The Fellow will teach half-time in the Program in Latin American Studies or in a host department, pursue research, and contribute to the Program's activities.

Applicants for either of the two specialized fellowships may also apply for the Open fellowship by checking the relevant boxes on the Application Form. It is not necessary to submit separate application forms, separate dossiers, or separate letters for each fellowship. One complete application is sufficient.

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Eligibility

Candidates must have received their Ph.D. degree after January 1, 2007

NB. The receipt of the Ph.D. is determined by the date on which the candidate fulfills all requirements for the degree at his/her institution, including filing of dissertation with the Graduate School or Registrar of the home institution.

Those candidates who will not have their Ph.D. by the time they apply but are expected to have fulfilled all conditions for the degree by June 15, 2010, may apply for a postdoctoral fellowship with a letter of degree 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, candidates may 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, Visual Arts, Women and Gender

Natural sciences: Astrophysics only (Spitzer and Russell Fellowships)
For fellowships in this field only, candidates should apply directly to the Astrophysical Sciences 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 mailing the dossier materials.

Please submit the following dossier items in the order listed below. Number and staple pages for each item, and include your name and title of the item at the top of the first page of each. Please submit only the requested items (without binders or folders). Transcripts of courses and grades are not necessary.

Checklist

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

Dossier items to be mailed by candidate:

Completed application form
Curriculum vitae
For ABD (All But Dissertation) candidates only: letter of degree confirmation from either department chair or director of graduate studies
Dissertation abstract
Writing sample: one chapter of the dissertation or one published article
Research proposal
Two course proposals

Mail the complete dossier by October 1, 2009 (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 no more than three referees: to be emailed directly in Word or PDF format to sfrecs@princeton.edu (NB. This email address for letters only; all questions should be sent to fellows@princeton.edu)

letterhead preferred
letter should be addressed to: Director, Scott Burnham
subject line of the email should be applicant's last name, first name
if reference letter is emailed, it is not necessary to mail a hard copy of the letter
candidates may have letters sent by a dossier service

If a referee is unable to send a letter electronically, s/he should mail it, postmarked by October 1, 2009 to:

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

For candidates:

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.
Curriculum vitae
For ABD (all but dissertation) candidates only: letter of degree confirmation from department chair or director of graduate studies.
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, 2010. This confirmation letter should be sent by the candidate to the Society of Fellows, together with the full dossier. If it is not possible to send the letter with the dossier, the chair or graduate director may email the letter separately to sfrecs@princeton.edu
Dissertation abstract: no more than one page, single-spaced.
Writing sample: one chapter of the dissertation OR one published article.

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.

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

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. If you wish to add a short bibliography (optional), this should still fall within the three-page limit.

Two Course Proposals: to total up to three double-spaced pages.

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.

If you are applying for multiple fellowships, you may opt to include a third sample course that addresses an additional topic of relevance to the targeted fellowship.

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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, three referee letters, and degree confirmation letter (for ABD candidates), are submitted by the October 1, 2009 postmark deadline. Only complete applications will be considered.
It is not necessary to send a transcript of graduate courses or grades.
Please send only the items we have requested.
Candidates who have previously applied for the Society of Fellows' postdoctoral fellowships may re-apply but must submit a new application dossier.
The dates for completion of the Ph.D. degree - between Jan. 1, 2007 and June 15, 2010 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. A postcard acknowledging receipt of your application will be mailed by the end of October, to the address you have provided on your application.
We strongly recommend that candidates, particularly those mailing from outside the US, use an expedited, trackable mail service to send their dossier.
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, 2010.
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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