The Humanities Center at Texas Tech invites applications for a Spring, 2018, Fellowship. The selected Fellow will ideally hold the Ph.D., but an exceptional ABD would be considered. The 2017-2018 theme is "Food and...." Fellowship applicants should be involved in projects that address the theme, broadly construed. Applications are due no later than February 27, 2017.The Fellowship carries a stipend of $12,000, which can be used for any purpose. No additional allowances beyond the stipend will be available. The Fellow will be provided with an office and full library privileges, including access to online databases and interlibrary loan services. Housing is not included but the Humanities Center will assist with finding housing. The dates for the Fellow's term will be January 15th through May 15th.
"Food and..." crosses disciplines and invites many kinds of thinkers and critical conversations. The explosion of food studies at the end of the twentieth century was an institutional response to the myriad ways in which food might be approached by scholars, and the field has only expanded in the intervening years. As the introduction to a recent anthology of essays on food and theatre notes, food carries "symbolic and material unwieldiness," showing "comestibles and their consumption to be both bedrock and flashpoints of cultural identity." Indeed, the very question of what counts as food differs across cultures but also yields sometimes startling answers in the face of deprivation.
Ways into the "what" following the ellipsis in "Food and..." may fall under several broad thematic categories: culture, literature, politics, environment, health. Topics under these large rubrics include malnutrition, access, education, inequities, media representations, depictions in fine art, sustainability, ecology, local food, small scale agriculture, agribusiness, and gastronomy. This list is not exhaustive. Humanistic ways of looking at food run the gamut from "primary source in material culture to semiotic tool; from literary trope to exchangeable commodity; from colonial weapon to method of cultural resistance; from obsession either due to absence or to fetish; from comfort, reassurance, and sustenance to oddity or source of disgust; from sin to salvation," and, in addition, from welcoming gesture to coercive faux hospitality; and from political bribe to political rallying point.
The Humanities Center's 2017-2018 themed events will be realized across several platforms, including a guest lecture series, an interactive kiosk exhibit, a museum exhibit, a film series, a reading colloquium, the presence of a visiting scholar, and an anticipated interdisciplinary conference. All iterations are open to addressing food as nourishment, metaphor, global challenge, cultural system, and marker of identity, across and between the disciplines: "Food and..." opens doors to exploring ways of knowing, nourishing, and conceiving oneself and others; and to experiencing and reimagining relationships between food sources and sourcers, food purveyors and consumers, food shapers and food thinkers. The myriad conceptualizations and human experiences of food offer the critic, the thinker, and the eater a prime node of analysis—a "place at the table" of intellectual and public discourse.
In submitting an application for the program, the applicant does not incur an obligation to accept the award if selected.
The Fellow will be expected:
- to work in residence at TTU on a full-time basis during the award tenure;
- to devote full-time effort to the research proposed;
- to draft a brief written report (800-1,000 words) describing their experiences and their results, to be submitted no later than thirty days following the award period;
- to prepare and deliver to the TTU community a 45-minute presentation detailing the results of their research;
- to include appropriate credit to Humanities Center at Texas Tech in any presentation or publication based on research performed during the award tenure.
To apply, please send the following as a single PDF:
- An abstract of no more than 80 words describing your project.
- A narrative of no more than 750 words describing both your project, how it meshes with the "Food and ..." theme, and how, specifically, you propose to use your time next spring if selected for the Fellowship.
- A redacted C.V. of no more than 3 pages with an emphasis on work showing your suitability for undertaking the project you propose.
- The names of four people whom we may contact for recommendations. Brief descriptions of their work/discipline and relationship to the candidate would be appreciated.
Upon request, the TTU Humanities Center will help arrange for appropriate visa documents for foreign nationals. Likely a visiting Fellow would be granted the status of "Foreign Exchange Visitor" (J-visa). A spouse and minor children may travel on the same visa as the scholar. The Humanities Center encourages foreign scholars to apply for the J-1 visa as per the standard procedures for visiting research scholars visiting the United States. We do not encourage scholars to apply for B or H visas.
Send your application to humanitiescenter@ttu.edu. In the subject line, put your last name Sp 2018 external fellow app (e.g., Washburn Sp 2018 external fellow app). Deadline is February 27th, 2017. We hope to have our selection made by May 10th, 2017.
For a fuller description of "Food and..." and information about the Humanities Center, please visit our website: humanitiescenter.ttu.edu.