Fisher Center Predoctoral Fellowship

Description In keeping with the Fisher Center's mission of supporting research and dialogue about gender and justice through curricular, programmatic, and scholarly projects, the Fisher Center Steering Committee announces a call for applications for our Pre-doctoral Fellowship. We seek dissertation scholars and advanced candidates for the MFA whose work critically engages the terms of our research theme for the year, "Walls." We are especially interested in candidates who would contribute to the diversity of the HWS campus. Theme: Walls Walls are most often thought of as marking off divisions between worlds. Conversely, walls, when thought of as thresholds, are boundaries that one crosses into new realms, whether literal, perceptual, or spiritual. Walls are invoked by powerful politicians to assert control over national boundaries. Historian Greg Grandin argues that the border wall has become a new symbol of the United States, replacing the image of the ever-expanding frontier. In turn, walls are challenged by caravans of people fleeing poverty, climate-induced famine, and war. Walls can also mark the boundaries of domesticity, the ambiguities of home and belonging. Who belongs? Who is left out? In the age of internet-mediated communication and surveillance, the walls of our homes have become permeable, ceasing to have the protective (or restrictive) significance they once did. And yet, digital technology, while dismantling many barriers, contributes to building others. Digital walls, such as paywalls, prevent access to information introducing new restrictions and fragmentation of digital space. Walls monetize space; borders spatialize and protect wealth. Furthermore, walls manifest in social media as filter bubbles and echo chambers, and in the virulent amplification of the "inside/outside" mentality. Walls are contested places, sites of cultural, political, and social instability. They can function as spaces for exhibition and expression where the boundaries between art and life, graffiti and vandalism, activism and exhibitionism are drawn and redrawn. They can serve as the main site for expressions of written protest; activists use the walls of public space to garner support or raise awareness for their projects. And while we are used to thinking about walls as divisions, they can also figure as habitats-porous, permeable environments teeming with life. Walls can serve as interfaces and scaffolds as they provide structure and shelter. They are often artifacts of prior life, human and nonhuman histories, their potential inexhaustible. Endowed to further the study of gender and justice in the liberal arts, the Fisher Center welcomes applications from researchers in the humanities, arts, sciences, social sciences, languages, and performing arts that demonstrate commitment to interdisciplinary discussion and collective inquiry. We are interested in proposals that explore how walls of all kinds figure in scholarly, artistic, and scientific pursuits. Proposals can be broad or specific, disciplinary or interdisciplinary. They can examine particular configurations, e.g., borders and migration, boundaries between the sacred and profane, the carceral state, exhibition space, racial and gender effects of walls and borders, the new contours of domesticity and gender in the digital age, disputed areas and human rights. Alternatively, they can address broader questions, interrogating walls and walling as a metaphor or as a figure of crisis and contestation. How do walls index practices of division, exclusion, conflict, and separation or, alternatively, resistance and insubordination? What does it mean to imagine a world without walls? What does it mean to be locked in/locked out? How does one represent borders and lines of demarcations visually or via choreography? Pre-doctoral Fellowship : The Fisher Center Pre-doctoral Fellowship offers an opportunity to gain experience teaching in a small, private, residential college while completing thesis work. It carries a stipend of $35,000. Fellows teach one course per semester related to their research and the theme, actively participate in the Fisher Center lectures and meetings, make a public presentation, and assist the Director with administration of Fisher Center programming. The pre-doctoral fellow participates in the Faculty Fellows Research Group. This group of interdisciplinary scholars meet twice a month to discuss their research as related to the year's theme. The fellow takes part in the work of the Fisher Center Steering Committee that meets approximately once a month. Pre-doctoral candidates nearing completion of the dissertation and MFA candidates who have completed their coursework and are beginning work on their thesis are encouraged to apply. The Fisher Center Steering Committee will evaluate applications with regard to the quality of the research proposal, the proposal's likelihood of success, the relevance of the proposal to the theme, and the "fit" with other proposals. We will prioritize creating an interdisciplinary research group. Applications for are due by April 1, 2024. Applications should be submitted via Interfolio. Each application should include: 1. Name, field, contact information, copy of current c.v. 2. A project description (not to exceed two pages). Include a description of background and preparatory work; a description of the proposed research (scope, method, timeline); and a description of the proposed outcome (dissertation, article, chapter, workshop, presentation, exhibition, performance, etc.). 3. An account of the relation of the project to the theme, "Walls." 4. Proposals for two undergraduate courses (one for each semester) related to the theme. 5. Two confidential recommendations. 6. A statement describing how you create an inclusive classroom. Please contact Professor Alla Ivanchikova with any questions. If you have a question or need help on uploading your application materials, please contact Interfolio's support team at or call 1- between the hours of 9:00 a.m. through 6 p.m., EST, Monday through Friday. Hobart and William Smith Colleges are committed to providing a non-discriminatory and harassment-free educational, living and working environment for all members of the HWS community, including students, faculty, staff, volunteers, and visitors. HWS prohibits discrimination and harassment in their programs and activities on the basis of age, color, disability, domestic violence victim status, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other status protected under the law. Discrimination on the basis of sex includes sexual harassment, sexual violence, sexual assault, and other forms of sexual misconduct including stalking and intimate partner violence, and gender-based harassment that does not involve conduct of a sexual nature.