Modeling Interdisciplinary Inquiry Postdoctoral Fellowship
Washington University in St. Louis announces the eighteenth year of Modeling Interdisciplinary Inquiry, a postdoctoral fellowship program endowed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, designed to encourage interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching across the humanities and social sciences. A select group of newly qualified Ph.D.s enrich their training through this program that offers highly developed expectations of trans-disciplinary research and teaching.
The fellowship in Interdisciplinary Inquiry was established to build on several long-standing commitments at Washington University: to the conjoint study of literature and history; to interdisciplinary, but period-specific inquiry; to intellectual history; and to the study of interaction of politics and cultural activity. The participants in these interdisciplinary activities came to feel the importance of enabling young scholars to supplement their doctoral training in a traditional discipline with sustained engagement with the theory, methods, and canons of inquiry of another discipline or disciplines. Modeling Interdisciplinary Inquiry seeks to address the cultural and institutional nature of interdisciplinarity itself and to create conditions in which interdisciplinary approaches in the humanities and social sciences can more easily flourish both within and outside the departmental traditions of a research university.
The means to these ends are found in the framework of Modeling Interdisciplinary Inquiry with its mentorships, its seminar in Theory and Methods, the integration of postdoctoral fellows within our undergraduate curriculum, and the involvement of a Steering Committee of senior faculty drawn from across the humanities and social sciences who have shown commitment to interdisciplinary work. Thus, the two-year fellowship allows fellows to confirm their bona fides in an “aspirational” discipline, and to devise courses and pursue scholarship that models deep, answerable interdisciplinary engagement.
Since its inception, Modeling Interdisciplinary Inquiry has supported twenty eight fellows. In recent years, the number of applications has averaged 450 annually; these come to us from a wide range of institutions from all over the world. The interests of current and former fellows include history of science and medicine, intellectual history, the visual arts, East Asian studies, and political theory.
We invite applications from recent Ph.D.s, D.Phil.s, or D.F.As (in hand by June 30, 2018, and, no earlier than June 30, 2013) to apply. In September 2018, the newly selected Fellow will join the University’s ongoing interdisciplinary programs and seminars. The Fellow will receive a two-year appointment with a nine-month academic year salary. Postdoctoral Fellows pursue their own research in association with a senior faculty mentor at Washington University. During the two years, they will teach three undergraduate courses and collaborate in leading an interdisciplinary seminar on theory and methods for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.
Applicants should submit, through Interfolio, a cover letter, a description of their research program (no more than 1800 words and accessible to those in other fields), a brief proposal for an interdisciplinary seminar in theory and methods, and a curriculum vitae. Those who have not completed their doctoral work should indicate, in their cover letter, how many chapters of their dissertation are complete and how complete the remaining chapters are. Applicants should also arrange for the submission of three confidential letters of recommendation via Interfolio. Please email us at mii@wustl.edu with additional questions.
All materials, including letters of recommendation, should be submitted by December 4, 2017 at apply.interfolio.com/42295 . (The application portal will open September 1, 2017.)
Washington University in St. Louis is committed to the principles and practices of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action. It is the University’s policy to recruit, hire, train, and promote persons in all job titles without regard to race, color, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, veteran status, disability, or genetic information.
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This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
https://mii.wustl.edu/home/about-the-program/