CALL FOR RESEARCH PROPOSALS
2010-2011

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.

 

 

 

CALL FOR RESEARCH PROPOSALS
2010-2011

SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINING COMMUNITIES

The 2010-2011 fellowship theme is designed to initiate conversations and research that deepen our understanding of the construction, perpetuation, and sustainability of American communities. 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 is the role of the humanities in creating and maintaining cultures and communities?
• How do the humanities enable us to explore connections between natural resources and community formation/deformation?
• 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 have green movements and initiatives impacted ways communities are conceptualized and lived?
• Is there an ethics of sustainability?  If so, of what does it consist? Has it changed over time?
• What are the rhetorics of sustainability? How are issues such as climate change and environmentalism represented and/or performed?
• What apparatuses and genres have emerged in the humanities to engage issues of the sustainability of resources and/or communities?
• How do sustainability issues reflect the changing status of the nation-state? Are we post-national?  How does such a question impact how we explore American identities?
• How do new media change the way American communities are maintained and/or fractured?
• What pedagogical interventions or innovations contribute to the study of American communities and identities?
• What are the intersections between scholarly knowledge, cultural performance, and civic engagement?

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, will be awarded to 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 $1,000 stipend for a student assistant or other project-related expenses. Fellows must present their research at the ACP's Spring 2011 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 of the research, and the integration of student involvement or community engagement. The submission deadline for the 2010-2011 fellowships is 5pm, Thursday, April 15, 2010.

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AMERICAN COMMUNITIES PROGRAM
CALL FOR RESEARCH PROPOSALS
2009-2010

AMERICAN EPISTEMOLOGIES:  CORPOREALITIES, BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE, AND COMMUNITIES

The 2009-2010 fellowship theme is designed to initiate conversations and research about the various knowledges produced in and by disciplines and methods in the humanities and how those knowledges participate in the formation, disruption, and/or perpetuation of American identities. Through research, teaching, and the sharing of insights, this program will analyze and assess the evolving nature of what it is to be an American. 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:

• How are certain types of bodies (individual and/or communal) known and represented in American cultures?
• How is knowledge of what constitutes Americanness produced from within and without?
• What sorts of knowledges are made available through particular genres and disciplines in the humanities?
• What is the value of the humanities in 21^st-century America?
• How and why have the content and cultural authority of certain knowledges and discourses (scientific, religious, economic, legal, etc.) shifted at particular historical moments? How do certain ways of knowing faciliate and/or foreclose other knowledges?
• How have notions of American exceptionalism impacted the ways particular bodies and communities have been known?
• What are the relationships between content and form?  Do certain knowledges or bodies challenge or resist representation?
• Are we post-national?  How does such a question impact how we explore American identities?
• How do new media change the way knowledge of Americanness and/or individual identity is constructed and/or disseminated?
• What pedagogical interventions or innovations contribute to the study of American communities and identities?
• What are the intersections between scholarly knowledge and community engagement?

The Fellowships

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 in innovative and meaningful ways. One of the three fellowships, the Bailey Fellowship, will be awarded to 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 $1,000 stipend for a student assistant or other project-related expenses. Fellows must present their research at the ACP's Spring 2010 symposium.

Application Materials

Please submit four hard copies of your application to
Dr. Maria Karafilis
Acting Director
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 of the research, and how students will participate as partners in the research. The submission deadline for the 2009-2010 fellowships is 5pm, April 10, 2009.