From: "Vice-President, Research (Professor R. Paul Young)"
To: PDADC-L@listserv.utoronto.ca
Reply-To: "Vice-President, Research (Professor R. Paul Young)"
Subject: [PDADC-L] The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminars on The
Comparative Study of Cultures
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MEMORANDUM
TO: Principals, Deans, Academic Directors and Chairs
FROM: Professor R. Paul Young, Vice-President, Research
DATE: 4th December 2009
RE: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminars on The
Comparative Study of Cultures
The University of Toronto has been invited to submit two applications for the Mellon Foundation's Sawyer Seminars. The application process will be administered by the Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) on behalf of the Vice-President Research, with all proposals submitted through the JHI website (www.humanities.utoronto.ca
The process for submitting a proposal requires uploading through the JHI website a full draft proposal (including a budget) and the full cv's of the leader (s) of the seminar. In order to apply, you must register on the JHI website. Applications may be posted starting Thursday 10 December 2009. Proposals must be submitted by Wednesday 6 January 2010. A review committee, including senior faculty in both humanities and the social sciences, will select the two applications that will go forward to Mellon. That committee will also offer suggestions for revision and oversee the submission of the application to Mellon by 20 January 2010.
Purpose: The Mellon Foundation's Sawyer Seminars program was established in 1994 to provide support for comparative research on historical and contemporary topics of major scholarly significance. The seminars, named in honor of the Foundation's long-serving third president, John E. Sawyer, have brought together faculty, foreign visitors, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from a variety of fields mainly, but not exclusively, in the humanities and social sciences, for intensive study of subjects chosen by the participants. This program aims to engage productive scholars in multi-disciplinary and comparative inquiry that would (in ordinary university circumstances) be difficult to pursue, while at the same time avoiding the institutionalization of such work in new centers, departments, or programs.
Program Activities: To date, 112 seminars have been funded. Their subjects have ranged widely, and they can be viewed on our website www.mellon.org
The maximum grant award for each Sawyer Seminar is $175,000 (see budget section below for further details).
Each seminar normally meets for one year (though some have continued for longer periods). Faculty participants have largely come from the humanities and social sciences, although some of the most successful and provocative seminars have also drawn on faculty members from professional schools. Seminar leaders are encouraged also to invite participants from nearby institutions. As the Foundation reviews proposals, preference will be given to those that include concrete plans for engaging participants with diverse institutional and disciplinary affiliations.
Sawyer Seminar awards provide support for one postdoctoral fellow to be recruited through a national competition, and for the dissertation research of two graduate students. It is expected that the graduate students will be active participants in the seminars, and the seminars' contribution to graduate education in the humanities and social sciences will be carefully considered even though they are not intended to be organized as official credit-bearing courses.
Seminars are not expected to produce a written product, though many do.
Proposals should describe: (1) originality and significance of the central questions to be addressed; (2) the cases to be compared (e.g., nations, regions, social aggregates, time periods) and the rationale for the comparisons that are selected; (3) the thematic "threads" that will run through the seminar; (4) the institution's resources and suitability for the proposed seminar; and (5) the procedures to be used in selecting graduate and postdoctoral fellows. Additionally, proposals should include a budget and a well developed preliminary plan for the seminar that outlines the specific topics to be addressed in each session and provides the names and qualifications of the scholars who would ideally participate. Full cv's of the leader(s) should be uploaded on the website.
After they are submitted to the Foundation, proposals will be reviewed by an advisory committee of distinguished scholars. In recent competitions, approximately one-third of proposals have been recommended for funding with only minor revisions requested. Past experience suggests that it can take a year or more to organize the seminars.
Budget: Funding requests should not exceed $175,000 for each seminar. It is expected that each seminar's budget will provide for a postdoctoral fellowship to be awarded for the year the seminar meets, and two dissertation fellowships for graduate students to be awarded for the seminar year or the year that follows. The amount for postdoctoral fellowship awards and dissertation fellowship stipends should follow institutional practices. Travel and living expenses for short stays by visiting scholars and the costs of coordinating the seminar, including those incurred for speakers and their travel may be included. The grants may not, however, be used for the costs of released time for regular faculty participants, or for indirect costs.
Questions: Should you have any questions about this call for proposals, please contact Professor Robert Gibbs, Director, Jackman Humanities Institute (jhi.director@utoronto.ca 416-978-6085) or Ms Debbie Bilinski, Research Funding Manager, U.S. & International Programs, Research Services (debbie.bilinski@utoronto.ca 416-978-7118).
Professor R. Paul Young Ph.D., FRSC
Vice-President, Research
University of Toronto
Simcoe Hall, Room 109
27 King's College Circle
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
Telephone: 416-978-4984
Email: paul.young@utoronto.ca
Web: www.research.utoronto.ca
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