Public Scholars Fellowship Program

Professors increasingly need to communicate what they are doing and why it matters to a number of different “publics.” Major granting organizations often require public dissemination of research. Academic publishers seek broader audiences. And collaborations with non-academic organizations demand meaningful translation of research for more diverse audiences. Even the pace of cultural change may offer an opportunity for reaching audiences searching for anchors of meaning in fields from history to medicine, religion to law, and political science to public health.

Developing a public voice, though, rarely figures in graduate or professional training. Questions loom about what “counts” for professional advancement and time is scarce to discover ways to overcome such challenges. Thus, the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE) is pleased to announce a pilot program.

Building on the legacy of the Center for the Study of Public Scholarship (CSPS), the CFDE, in partnership with Academic and Strategic partnerships, is sponsoring one University Fellow in Public Scholarship for 2010–2011. A call for applicants will go out in the spring of 2010. The nomination is open to writers in any discipline or school at the university, with the understanding that writing projects are likely to speak across disciplines. Such a fellow would be chosen on the basis of the public significance of their project, whether it be book manuscript, a scientific study, a social scientific study. These works could involve many different venues for public dissemination: 1) the translation of traditional scholarship into a new media format; 2) the writing of a “trade” rather “specialized” book; 3) the writing in more publicly accessible venues, such as blogs, op-ed pieces, and popular articles in non-academic forums.

The fellowship provides a stipend of $5,000, which can be applied to free-up time for public scholarship work or defray research costs. Beyond this capital to fund teaching, travel, or research assistance, the CFDE aims to connect the fellow to the human capital already available on our campus. Like many large institutions, Emory sometimes suffers from a lack of coherence of resources available to faculty. This pilot program hopes to embed the fellow in a network of existing resources in editing, public relations, and digital technology, so that she or he can more easily work with them to accomplish the difficult work of developing a more public voice. This is in line with the CFDE’s mission to weave together disparate threads of programmatic and staff resources to strengthen faculty development at Emory.

Your Name:(required)
Email Address:(valid email required)
Phone Number:(required)
Department:(required)
Please submit a two-page statement about your scholarship as it is today and your plans for making your scholarship more public in nature:(required)
List two recommenders who can speak to your scholarship as well as the capacity for public outreach:(required)
Please write a paragraph describing your interest in public scholarship. We would in particular like to know about your research, and how you see that research being translated into the public sphere. Public scholars will be judged by CFDE faculty committee based on the following criteria: quality and relevance of research; suitability of research for public translation; and readiness of candidate to work in public realm.(required)

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