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Faculty Fellowships

The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study awards 10-15 residential Faculty Fellowships annually to researchers whose work addresses the Institute’s yearly Research Theme.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study is sponsoring research projects that investigate the concept of The Public from many disciplines and applications. The project will bring together humanists, scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and artists to examine how we organize individuals, political and scientific institutions, cultural resources, and informational structures into public, private, and expert domains.

The application period for 2022-2023 Faculty Fellowships on The Public is now closed. Applications for 2023-2024 Faculty Fellowships will open in Summer 2022.

Faculty Fellowship Application

Research Topics

Potential research proposal topics on The Public may address, but are not limited to:

  • Public Health: How can we make health systems that better reflect the diversity of the populations they are meant to serve? How can scientists better inform debates about what governments mandate from a public health perspective? What research trends now will inform the future of public-facing sciences?
  • Environmental Science and Humanities: What role can public institutions play in addressing large-scale collective action problems involving the natural world? Taking into account our best science, what detrimental environmental trends are best addressed by public interventions vs. private or individual interventions?
  • Technology and Engineering: How has the emergence and spread of social media transformed the conception of the public sphere? How might developments in data analysis and surveillance challenge individuals’ relationships with governments and private entities? As engineering gets more and more advanced, what role do engineers have in helping the public understand the products they create? What can research show us about the future of digital public life?
  • Political Science and Law: What is “the public” and how many publics are there? What are the barriers to enter/exit a public sphere? What moral obligations do political institutions have to create or remove such barriers? What can research show us about the future of civic life in different regional contexts and the future of public service careers?
  • Architecture / Urban Planning: What public spaces belong in modern cities and how should they be designed and maintained? How should we understand infrastructure in the 21st century?
  • Philosophy and Social Theory: Do large groups have rights, or are rights only held by individuals? What does it mean for evidence or reasons to be public? Does it matter for standards of rationality if we have reasons that cannot be widely shared? How should political, educational, and economic institutions balance meritocratic, egalitarian, and democratic values?
  • History and Literature: How have our concepts of what characterizes the public realm developed over time or changed in light of recent disruptions? What role have public intellectuals had in the past, and how do they compare to public-facing intellectuals of the present? How do literature and history shed light on the difficulties individuals face entering or exiting public life?
  • Religion: How should we understand institutional disaffiliation trends among religions, accelerated by recent crises? What duties do we have to create or limit religious ideas in the public sphere? To what extent is religion a common good, and how does it compete with other common goods? What should public theology look like going forward?
  • Arts and Culture: How do arts and culture help us understand what it is to be a unified or disunified public, or help us understand the extent to which arts and culture have duties to the public? The NDIAS is also interested in supporting creative works—fiction writing, visual arts, musical composition, etc.—that explore or address issues related to our theme.

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of their potential for research impact, fit with the theme, and fit with the Institute’s mission.


Research Support

Faculty Fellows receive half their salary per academic year (up to $75,000), subsidized housing (for those who currently reside outside of the South Bend area), a research allowance of up to $500 per semester, and a private office at the NDIAS. Fellows' home institutions provide the remainder of their salaries as well as all benefits, including health insurance.

The Faculty Fellows will be joined by a cohort of graduate and undergraduate researchers from Notre Dame who are pursuing their own public-related research projects. The graduate and undergraduate students will collaborate with the faculty fellows, with the undergraduates serving as research assistants as the need arises.

Throughout the year, the NDIAS will organize robust programming to further explore the theme and cultivate collaboration, such as work-in-progress seminars, guest lectures, book clubs, film viewings, and social events.

Eligibility

Faculty Fellowships are open to scholars, scientists, social scientists, and artists in all disciplines who are conducting research related to The Public. Faculty fellows typically have a faculty appointment at their home institution, but the fellowships are also open to independent researchers, public practitioners, postdoctoral scholars, and those who have recently received their Ph.D. (or equivalent terminal) degree.

Scholars from outside the U.S., researchers at national laboratories, fellows from other centers and institutes, as well as faculty from Notre Dame, are invited to apply. There are no citizenship requirements for these fellowships.

Current graduate students are eligible to apply only if they will receive their terminal degree by August 1, 2022. 

One goal of the fellowship selection process is the creation of a diverse and collaborative community of scholars with a range of disciplines and academic ranks. Applicants who are members of traditionally under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.

Some preference is given to those who can join the NDIAS for the entire academic year (August - May), but fellowships for shorter periods of time may be possible.

Fellowship Expectations

Fellows are expected to be free of their regular commitments and to have their primary office at the Institute so they may devote themselves full time to the work outlined in their research proposal and participate fully in the engaging and cooperative community of scholars at the Institute.

All NDIAS Fellows are expected to reside in the South Bend area and to remain in residence at the University of Notre Dame during the period of their fellowship (except for vacation periods, holidays, and University breaks). To facilitate productivity and collaboration, Fellows are expected to attend weekly seminars, present their research twice during these seminars, and attend NDIAS retreats, communications workshops, and other special events.

Application Requirements

Applications for Faculty Fellowships must be submitted through Interfolio and should include the following: 

  1. Completed online application form;
  2. Cover letter;
  3. Curriculum vitae (no more than four pages, single-spaced);
  4. Proposal abstract (no more than 400 words);
  5. Fellowship research proposal (no more than six pages double-spaced, not including the works-cited or bibliography page);
  6. Two letters of reference (though applicants are welcome to submit up to three). Please see FAQ document for common questions about reference letters;
  7. (Optional) up to two pages of non-text materials supporting the research proposal.

In the research proposal, applicants should provide an explanation of the project they intend to pursue at the NDIAS, including:

  1. How the proposed research aligns with the research theme and mission of the Institute (see ndias.nd.edu/about);
  2. Preliminary objectives for the research to be conducted (i.e., whether the research might result in a book, journal article, art work, etc.);
  3. The proposed work plan (including what research or work has already been accomplished, what will be done during the fellowship period, the methodology to be employed, and the organization of the scholarly project, book, or other work).

Research proposals may include a works-cited or bibliography page, which does not count toward the 6-page limit.

Because our application reviewers are scholars from a wide range of disciplines, applicants should ensure that the significance and originality of their project and explanations of relevant methodologies and project objectives are stated clearly for specialists outside of the applicant’s field.

Faculty Fellowship Application

The application period for 2022-2023 Faculty Fellowships on The Public is now closed. Applications for 2023-2024 Faculty Fellowships will open in Summer 2022.

If you have questions about the application process for our Faculty Fellowships, please visit our FAQ page. Additional questions may be directed to Kristian Olsen, NDIAS Fellowships Program Manager, at kolsen1@nd.edu.