utopic/dystopic imaginings
 

The 2011-2012 fellowship theme, “Utopic/Dystopic Imaginings,” is designed to initiate conversations and research that deepen our understanding of the construction and perpetuation of American identities, cultures, and communities. We are interested in investigations of the forms, practices, and discourses that facilitate the imagining of utopian and dystopian potentials and possibilities. We invite proposals from tenured and tenure-track faculty at CSULA that discuss historical and/or contemporary manifestations of issues including, but not limited to, the following:

·         What are the rhetorics and aesthetics of utopic/dystopic imaginings? What are the conventions, structures, and texts through which such conceptualizations are represented and/or performed?

·         How are communities, their inhabitants, and their geographies performed and endowed with meaning, whether idealized or degraded?

·         What conditions have enabled historical and contemporary communities to emerge, evolve, and/or disintegrate? What are the repercussions of these transformations for subjectivity and lived experience?

·         How are fantasies of Americanness produced and/or challenged from outside the US?

·         How do the global realities of a particular historical moment impact the construction of utopic/dystopic national imaginaries?

·         How and to what ends do new media change our notions and/or representation of idealized or pathologized communities?

·         What intersections between scholarly knowledge, cultural performance, and civic engagement contribute to utopic/dystopic imaginings? 

·         What pedagogical interventions or innovations contribute to the study of such American communities and identities?

The Fellowships

Up to three fellowships will be awarded to applicants who engage in humanities-based inquiry. Preference will be given to proposals that best explore the theme and incorporate student research or community engagement in innovative and meaningful ways. One of the three fellowships, the Bailey Fellowship, is for an original project that applies this year's research theme to African American communities and/or individuals and preferably involves archival materials.

The program welcomes proposals from the arts that can be presented in a lecture/recital. All proposals, however, must include a research or analytical component based in the humanities. Each fellowship awards 8 units of release time and a $750 stipend for a student assistant or other project-related expenses. Fellows must present their research at the ACP's Spring 2012 symposium.

Application Materials

Please submit four hard copies of your application to
Maria Karafilis
Joseph A. Bailey II, MD Endowed Chair
American Communities Program
Dean’s Office
College of Arts and Letters
MUS 228

Application materials consist of a two-page curriculum vitae and a 500-word research proposal. Proposals should explain the relevance of the proposed project to this year's research theme, the originality and significance of the research, and the integration of student involvement or community engagement. The submission deadline for the 2011-2012 fellowships is 5pm, Friday, April 8, 2011.