HRI Summer Faculty Fellowships

HRI’s Summer Faculty Fellowships are designed to help faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign maximize the summer in service of their ongoing professional development. They provide an infusion of resources designed to jumpstart or fuel an ongoing research project, undertake course development, or pursue a professional training opportunity over the summer months.

Making funds available for several kinds of summer Fellowship support acknowledges a range of options that might be useful for faculty at various stages of their career, and may help support the tenure and promotion requirements laid out in the newly revised Provost Communication No. 9.

We are currently accepting applications for work to be undertaken in summer 2024. Up to 6 fellows will be chosen by an ad hoc committee organized by the HRI Director. Both tenureline/tenured and specialized faculty may apply.

The deadline for applications is February 2, 2024 by 5:00 p.m. 

Application Deadline Date

Eligibility

This opportunity is open to Urbana campus specialized and tenure-line faculty at all ranks in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Only faculty who will be employed by the University of Illinois’s Urbana campus in the 2024–25 academic year are eligible to receive these summer 2024 fellowships.

Terms

Applicants must choose one from among the following three opportunities and should thus indicate which type of support they seek.

  • Research support: $3000 in research funds will be deposited in the recipient’s departmental research account (to be used according to university policy). These funds may be used for travel and accommodation connected to research trips, for materials and equipment, and/or for research assistance.
  • Course development: $2000 in course development funds will be deposited in the recipient’s departmental research account (to be used according to university policy).
  • Training: $2000 toward a professional development training opportunity funds will be deposited in the recipient’s departmental research account (to be used according to university policy).

The intent of the fellowship is to make these monies available for concentrated use during the summer months; however, fellows will have until June 1 of the year following the initial period of summer activity to expend their allocated funds. Any funds remaining at that time must be returned to HRI.

None of these monies may be taken as summer salary. No portion of these funds may be used directly for food and drink, though travel-status per diem is allowed. HRI must be prominently credited as a sponsor in any publication materials resulting from the HRI Summer Fellowship.

A report of activities undertaken with support of the fellowship, as well as a financial report of funds expended and for what purpose, will be due by June 15th of the summer following the initial period of summer activity. (For example, for a summer 2024 fellowship, the activity and financial reports would be due June 15, 2025, and all monies that had not been used by June 1, 2025 would have to be returned to HRI.)

Application Guidelines

The following documents are to be sent in PDF form to apply-hri@illinois.edu by 5 p.m. on the day of the deadline:

For Research Support

  1. Cover sheet (open fillable PDF);
  2. 2-page cv;
  3. 3-page statement of research that addresses the scope of the project, including the research topic and/or problem; the nature of the research to be carried out; and the contribution of the work to the relevant field(s) (single-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-point font);
  4. 1-page work plan

For Course Development

  1. Cover sheet (open fillable PDF);
  2. 2-page cv;
  3. 3-page statement that addresses the course development project, including name and number of the course, what the revisions entail, and how the newly designed course will contribute both to your development as a scholar-teacher and to your unit’s (or units’) curricular landscape (single-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-point font)

For Training Opportunity

  1. Cover sheet (open fillable PDF);
  2. 2-page cv;
  3. 3-page statement that addresses what the training opportunity is, why you are seeking it at this stage in your career, how you see it enhancing your research and/or teaching, and how you plan to bring what you learn back to department, colleagues and/or students (single-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-point font);
  4. A 1-page budget

Application Deadline Details

The deadline for applications is February 2, 2024 by 5:00 p.m.

Selection Criteria

The applications will be reviewed by the ad hoc committee, which will make its recommendations to the HRI Director. The Deputy Director will serve on the committee in an ex officio capacity. Submissions will be evaluated on the following criteria: the scholarly promise of the project and the applicant’s preparation to undertake the proposed project; the quality of the narrative proposal, including the case it makes for the contributions of the project to debates in either the relevant scholarly or pedagogical field(s); and the feasibility of the work proposed for the period of work projected.

Contact

Questions about this fellowship may be addressed to Dr. Nancy Castro, Deputy Director of HRI, at ncastro@illinois.edu or (217) 244-7913.