New Directions Fellowships
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Purpose
New Directions Fellowships assist faculty members in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are between 5 and 15 years from receiving their PhDs and who wish to acquire systematic training outside their own disciplines. Scholarship that crosses disciplinary boundaries holds great potential, but in practice it often requires formal substantive and methodological training in addition to the Ph.D. This program is intended to enable excellent scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to work on problems that interest them most, but to do so at an appropriate level of sophistication. In addition to facilitating the work of individual faculty members, these awards should benefit humanistic scholarship more generally by encouraging the highest standards in cross-disciplinary research.
The university and the recipient's department should understand that New Directions Fellowships are primarily for advanced training in pursuit of a specific research agenda. Unlike other fellowship awards, this program does not aim to facilitate short-term outcomes, such as completion of a book. Rather, New Directions Fellowships are meant to be viewed as longer-term investments in scholars' intellectual range and productivity.
Terms of the Awards
Candidates will be faculty members in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who were awarded doctorates within the last 5 to 15 years and whose research interests call for formal training in a discipline other than the one in which they are expert. Such training may consist of coursework or other programs of organized study. It may take place either at fellows' home institutions, or elsewhere as appropriate. Although it is anticipated that most fellows will seek to acquire deeper knowledge of other fields in the humanities or social sciences, proposals to study disciplines farther afield will also be eligible. The principal criteria for selection are: (1) the overall significance of the research, (2) the case for the importance of extra-disciplinary training for furthering the research, (3) the likely ability of the candidate to derive satisfactory results from the training program proposed; and (4) a well-developed plan for acquiring the necessary training within a reasonable period of time.
Fellows will receive: (1) the equivalent of one academic year's salary; (2) two summers of additional support, each at the equivalent two-ninths of the previous academic year salary; and (3) tuition and other reasonable costs associated with the fellows' training programs. To permit flexibility in meeting individual scholars' needs, these funds may be expended over a period not to exceed three full academic years following the date of the award. In addition to the awards for individual recipients, a subvention of up to $10,000 will be provided to their home institutions to assist in accommodating the fellows' plans. The Foundation also asks that any budgetary relief resulting from the award be used for academic purposes, preferably in the fellow's department.
Fellows who have completed their programs of study and submitted their final reports are eligible to apply for a supplemental award, not to exceed $50,000, to permit them to make appropriate scholarly use of their newly acquired training. These funds may be used for leave time (or summer support) in order to complete additional research, further training, writing projects, or course development associated with their New Directions programs. Other related uses will be considered. Funds must be spent within three full academic years following submission of the final report on the original award.
Selection Process and the Making of Grants
Institutions will be invited to participate in this program and will be asked to solicit proposals from eligible faculty members in the humanities and humanistic social sciences wishing to further their research through engaging in programs of study in fields other than their own.
It is expected that institutions will communicate the particulars of both the program and the application process throughout the relevant departments. Following an internal competition to be overseen by a committee of senior faculty members in the relevant disciplines, each institution will forward the proposals it has selected to the Foundation. Universities may submit as many as two nominations, four-year liberal arts colleges may submit one. The Foundation convenes a panel of distinguished scholars which chooses approximately ten finalists to present to the Foundation's Trustees. Institutions and individual recipients will be notified and asked to provide budgets. Once the Trustees have given their final approval, grants will be awarded to, and administered by, the fellows' home institutions.
Recipients
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
- Alan R. Baker (Philosophy), Swarthmore College
- Barbara Cooper (African Studies), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Brian T. Edwards (English), Northwestern University
- Laura J. Mitchell (History), University of California at Irvine
- Kathleen D. Morrison (Anthropology), University of Chicago
- Roumyana Ivanova Pancheva (Linguistics), University of Southern California
- Larry Polansky (Music), Dartmouth College
- Eric Rebillard (Classics), Cornell University
- Anna Marie Smith (Government), Cornell University
- Elliott Visconsi (English), Yale University
- Gregory W. White (Government), Smith College
- Yongming Zhou (Anthropology), University of Wisconsin at Madison
2007
- David Atwill (History), Pennsylvania State University
- Paul Eiss (Anthropology and History), Carnegie Mellon University
- Hans Halvorson (Philosophy), Princeton University
- Jennifer Light (Communication Studies, History and Sociology), Northwestern University
- Marc Perlman (Musicology), Brown University
- Susan Short (Sociology), Brown University
- Heather Williams (Politics), Pomona College
- Carol Bakhos (Jewish Studies), University of California at Los Angeles
- Timothy Billings (English), Middlebury College
- Bettine Birge (East Asian Languages and Cultures), University of Southern California
- Hannah Brückner (Sociology), Yale University
- Berthold Hoeckner (Music), University of Chicago
- Jane Kamensky (History), Brandeis University
- Michael McNally (Religion), Carleton College
- Benjamin Nathans (History), University of Pennsylvania
- Shawkat Toorawa (Near Eastern Studies), Cornell University
- Gary Wilder (History), Pomona College
- Katherine Hagedorn (Musicology), Pomona College
- Dana Leibsohn (Art History), Smith College
- Alex London (Philosophy), Carnegie Mellon University
- Tina Lu (East Asian Languages and Civilizations), University of Pennsylvania
- Cecelia Lynch (Political Science), University of California at Irvine
- Rebecca Messbarger (Romance Languages), Washington University
- Mark Pegg (History), Washington University
- Katherine Rowe (English), Bryn Mawr College
- Xiaobing Tang (East Asian Languages and Civilizations), University of Chicago
- Alison Winter (History), University of Chicago
- Leora Batnitzky (Religion), Princeton University
- Elliott Colla (Comparative Literature), Brown University
- Fiona Cowie (Philosophy), California Institute of Technology
- Nicole Huang (East Asian Languages and Literature), University of Wisconsin at Madison
- David Hughes (Human Ecology), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Lynn Meskell (Anthropology and Archaeology), Columbia University
- Sara Rappe (Classical Studies), University of Michigan
- Walter Scheidel (Classics), Stanford University
- Julia Thomas (History), University of Notre Dame
2003
- Jeremy Avigad (Philosophy), Carnegie Mellon University
- Christine Chism (English), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Rachel Fulton (History), University of Chicago
- Maria Georgopoulou (Art History), Yale University
- Cristle Judd (Musicology), University of Pennsylvania
- Christine Hayes (Religion), Yale University
- Jacob Levy (Political Science), University of Chicago
- Sophia Rosenfeld (History), University of Virginia
- Gabrielle Starr (English), New York University
2002
- Ann Blair (History), Harvard University
- Cathryn Carson (History), University of California at Berkeley
- Delia Graff (Philosophy), Cornell University
- Darcy Grigsby (Art History), University of California at Berkeley
- Daniel Heller-Roazen (Comparative Literature), Princeton University
- Annette Richards (Musicology), Cornell University
- Gideon Rosen (Philosophy), Princeton University
- Pamela Smith (History), Pomona College
