September 11, 2006

To: Department Chairs and Concentration Chairs
From: Jim Swartz
Re: Call for Proposals: Two-Year Mellon Postdoctoral Positions in Humanities

We invite applications from Humanities departments and concentrations for postdoctoral fellows. The postdoctoral Fellows program is supported by two grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for fellowships in the Humanities and Humanities-related Social Studies. We have funding in our current grant for two postdoctoral appointments.

Mellon fellows are appointed for two years and teach a total of two courses per year. Each postdoctoral fellow will establish a close mentoring relationship with one or two faculty members and collaborate with them as appropriate. At present, Grinnell College has the following Mellon postdoctoral fellows at Grinnell College three of whom are in their second year and one in the first year of appointment: Monica Hulsbus is CSMP/Mellon Fellow and Lecturer in Art, under the joint auspices of the CSMP Program and the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow program; Tim Newton is Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Music; Jimmy Casas Klausen is Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Political Science, and Newell Ann Van Auken is Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Chinese and Japanese..

Postdoctoral fellows help replace faculty members on research leave or who have accumulated a least one course's worth of MAP teaching credit (one course per year), to fill in for a Study Leave or to allow current faculty members to do new interdisciplinary teaching. They also provide release time for the faculty members who mentor them (one course per year). The courses taught must include at least one each year in the mainstream of liberal arts teaching in the discipline. The courses will not be additional courses for departments or concentrations

The Mellon postdoctoral search process will identify one or two departments in the fall and authorize them to commence searches. Department proposals should identify the faculty member(s) in the department who would use the course replacement and indicate whether the same person or another colleague would serve as the designated mentor for the postdoctoral fellow. To the extent possible, the department should identify the courses to be taught by the postdoctoral fellow. The Executive Council will review these proposals and recommend up to two of them for funding. The Mellon Foundation stipulates that Post-doctoral Fellows must be United States citizens.

Proposals are limited to two pages and are due (by email to MCKEEV@GRINNELL.EDU as attached WORD documents) in the Dean's office by Friday, October 6 (FIRST FRIDAY IN OCTOBER). The Executive Council will consider these proposals at its meeting on Wednesday, October 11 (MEETING FOLLOWING FIRST FRIDAY IN OCTOBER). Shortly thereafter, we will be in a position to begin advertising the positions. Please feel welcome to contact me with any questions about this process or the opportunities made possible by this grant from the Mellon Foundation.