Deadline: 7 January 2014
Open to: PhD in all fields of the humanities and social sciences
Fellowship: $26,500 – $46,500
Description
The Davis Center Fellows Program brings together scholars at early and later stages in their careers to consider a common theme spanning the social sciences and humanities. The program is coordinated by faculty from across Harvard University whose research interests include aspects of the selected theme.
Mapping Cultural Space: Sites, Systems, and Practices across Eurasia is the theme of the 2014–2015 Davis Center Fellows Program, coordinated by Professors Julie Buckler (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Eve Blau (Graduate School of Design), and Kelly O’Neill (History). The seminar for 2014-15 will explore the significance of cultural space as both an object and a tool of analysis, taking as its focus Eurasia, an area of the world where political and cultural boundaries have been repeatedly reconfigured.
The 2014–2015 program coordinators are looking to build an intellectual community for a project that may extend beyond 2014-15, in order to deepen understanding of the complex and enormous territory of Eurasia in both theory and practice, and to explore interdisciplinary discourse and methodologies, as well as collaborative, multimedia forms of scholarly output that serve multiple functions (research, pedagogy, etc.).
With “Mapping” as the central theme, participants will bring together their overlapping geographical-cultural interests, considering diverse practices of mapping cultural space in different disciplinary modes, and examining mapping practices more generally as forms of cultural politics. Not least, they will reflect on “mapping” as a revealing metaphor for their own scholarly practices and production.
Relevant project topics might include the following:
- SITES: Physical markers of cultural memory, such as UNESCO World Heritage sites, crisscrossed by the politics of preservation, restoration, and reclamation; spaces set apart, such as prisons and labor camps, environmental disaster areas and zones of ecological particularity; overlapping and contested areas including frontiers, borderlands, and war zones.
- SYSTEMS: Cultural networks and institutions such as economic markets, immigration policies, kinship networks, and imperial bureaucracies. The spaces these systems produce might take the form of diaspora communities, sovereign nations, legal systems, international organizations, or virtual worlds.
- PRACTICES: Generating, transmitting, and transforming cultural space via imperial conquest and expansion, modernization, war and terrorism, globalization and mass media. On a micro level, mechanisms relevant to this theme might include local commemorative practices, cartographical representations, the space of private life, and virtual community venues such as blogs.
Eligibility
The Fellows Program selection committee invites applications from all fields of the humanities and social sciences. They are looking for applicants whose projects are demonstrably engaged with the notion of cultural space, and welcome projects on a wide variety of specific regions, sites, or historical periods. In your application statement, please describe your past experiences working on cultural space, and the significance of this concept for your current work.
Applicants should be eager to participate in active yearlong conversations about interdisciplinary work and methodologies, and to work collaboratively, as well as independently on their proposed individual projects. Applicants should also have acquired a reasonable digital literacy and be willing to attend targeted workshops for training in skills and technologies relevant to the larger project and virtual community.
Fellowship
Types of Fellowships:
- Postdoctoral Fellowships: Junior scholars who will have completed a Ph.D. or equivalent by September 2014 and no earlier than September 2009. Stipend of up to $38,500.
- Senior Fellowships: Senior scholars who have made a significant contribution to the field and have completed a Ph.D. or equivalent by September 2009 and hold an academic appointment. Stipend of up to $26,500 to bring salary to full-time level.
- Regional Fellowships: Senior scholars who have completed a Ph.D. or equivalent by September 2007 or policy-makers, journalists, and specialists. Citizens of Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus may apply. Stipend of up to $46,500.
Scholars with outside or sabbatical funding who wish to be in residence at the Davis Center in 2014-15 should also apply using the fellowships application and indicate that they do not require Davis Center funding.
Fellows funded by the Davis Center receive a living stipend, shared office space, and borrowing privileges at the Harvard libraries. Stipends assume a 9-month stay from September through May and are pro-rated for shorter stays. If fellows take a research or personal trip lasting more than three weeks during their tenure, their stipend will be prorated for that period.
Fellows with outside funding receive borrowing privileges at the Harvard libraries and, in some cases, shared office space.
Application
The application deadline is January 7, 2014. Please read the application instructions AVAILABLE HERE carefully before beginning application. The application form HERE must be completed in one session; there is no option to save and return to it later. All materials must be submitted in English.
For general questions, please consult the Frequently Asked Questions HERE. If you need further information, contact the Fellows Program at dcpdoc@fas.harvard.edu.
Visit the official website HERE for further details.
