Junior Faculty Fellowships in the Humanities

The Center defines the humanities both as designated departments and as an expansive and flexible mode of inquiry. In keeping with the Congressional Act that created the NEH, the humanities include the study and interpretation of the following: linguistics; literature; history; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of social sciences that have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of life. We understand humanities methods as primarily critical or speculative, as distinguished from the empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences. We welcome faculty who share an interest in issues of interpretation and value that are central to humanities work.

Any junior (tenure-track) faculty member who has not previously held a JFF is eligible to apply, though most applicants have completed at least two years of their appointment before holding a fellowship. Each applicant’s chair must approve of their application. Tenure-track faculty are eligible to apply to their deans for one semester of paid Junior Scholar Leave after completion of six semesters of full-time service and a successful mid-tenure review. For more information, please see the Faculty Handbook. Applicants now have the option of combining University leave with a BUCH fellowship in order to spend a continuous year on a project. No individual may hold a JFF more than once.

Status While Holding a JFF:
We have redefined the JFF as a “research leave” rather than “release from teaching.” This has the critical advantage of making our fellowships symmetrical to the research leaves now offered by the University. Awardees now have no obligation of service to the department and a more flexible residency requirement, thus enabling a Junior Fellow to use the BUCH fellowship for work abroad and participate in the seminar after returning to Boston. All junior faculty research semesters, whether funded by BUCH, the University, or an external agency, are now subject to the same rules. Like the new leaves granted by the University, this research leave does not stop the tenure clock, nor does it count toward the 12 semesters of full-time teaching required to be eligible for a sabbatical. Note that the Center for the Humanities provides each department with course replacement funds for two courses per faculty member holding a fellowship.

Participation in the Community:
The BUCH Fellows Seminar, which brings together Henderson Senior Research Fellows, Junior Faculty Fellows, and Graduate Dissertation Fellows supported by the Center, forms the core of our intellectual community and allows for a more formal exchange of ideas. We require all fellows to participate in the Fellows Seminar for one semester, normally the semester in which the fellowship is held. Fellows whose research requires them to be abroad usually participate in the seminar during their first year back from leave. In recent years, each semester has featured between six and eight seminars, depending on the number of fellows. We also strongly encourage fellows to use the individual offices provided for them at the Center, which allow them to interact with other members of the cohort.

External Funding:
Applicants should make at least one good faith application for outside funding. BUCH is happy to offer assistance to junior faculty preparing proposals for external grant funding.

If you are chosen as a Junior Faculty Fellow and your application for outside funding is also successful, our normal expectation is that you will accept the outside award. Your doing so will allow the Center to fund one of your colleagues previously named as an alternate. In terms of external applications, note that the NEH deadline is roughly 4-6 months earlier (April of the prior academic year) than other deadlines.

Please note that the faculty member is responsible for determining that the external funding for which they apply can provide an adequate salary replacement during the requested leave time. For this reason, faculty are advised to pay close attention to the CAS Salary Gap Compensation policy available on the relevant page of the CAS faculty-staff handbook. In particular, the Suzy Newhouse Fellowship at Wellesley College is a program for which CAS no longer provides full top-off due to the small amount of funding this program provides.

CAS Paperwork:
Each tenure-track faculty member applying for a JFF must also submit Leave of Absence paperwork to CAS. The deadline for submission of CAS LOA paperwork to the Faculty Actions Office is December 2; your department, which submits all such applications as a group, will want your materials earlier.

Application Timeframe:
The annual JFF application deadline is October 15.

Application:
Applications must be submitted online via InfoReady Review and must include the following:

The JFF application requires the following:

• Completed online application. Please create a draft form of your application as early as possible by filling in your name and the title of your project (application title); this will allow you to request two letters of recommendation (see below).
• A description of your research project modeled on what you will be submitting to external funding agencies, double-spaced, with page numbers, and no longer than 3,000 words. This project description will be assessed by senior faculty from many different fields in the humanities and should include a realistic estimate of what aspect or stage of the project you would work on or complete during the award period. You should also comment on how your project contributes to your specific field and to ongoing discussions in the humanities more generally. You must include a select bibliography, which does not factor into the word count.
• Current CV (4-page maximum). Be sure to indicate all supported leaves.
• Confidential letter from your department chair endorsing your proposal
• Confidential letter from a senior faculty member in your department familiar with your area of specialization

Please Note:
Once you input your recommenders’ email addresses and click “Send Request,” InfoReady Review will generate and send an individual link to each recommender. Each recommender will then submit their confidential letter via their individual link. Please send these requests to your recommenders well in advance of the deadline.

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Updated Sept 3, 2024