The Faculty Fellowship Program provides on-campus, semester-long leaves for faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences to pursue research and creative work that leads to publication, exhibition, composition, and performance.

The Fellowship supports a weekly seminar at which up to 10 colleagues gather over a meal to discuss projects as well as broader topics of relevance to Carolina faculty. The Program Director—a faculty member and former Fellow—facilitates the weekly meetings.

As part of a special focus on race, memory, and reckoning, the IAH will also award two additional fellowships dedicated specifically to faculty research, publication, support, education, and outreach on race, reckoning, and memory. IAH Race, Memory, and Reckoning Initiative, which supports these fellowships, aims to contribute to a broader campus effort to place inclusion, diversity, equity, and historical accuracy at the top of the University’s agenda. Faculty may apply to either or both of the regular Fellows program and the Race, Memory, and Reckoning fellowships during this cycle.

Meet our current Faculty Fellows or search our database of past Faculty Fellows.

Program Director

Michelle Robinson serves as the Interim Director for the Faculty Fellowship Program for 2024-2025.

Michelle Robinson is an Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies. She received her B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard University, a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and her doctoral degree from the Program in New England and American Studies at Boston University. Her courses include: AMST225: The Ethics of Stand-up Comedy, AMST256: Anti-’50s: Voices of A Counter Decade; AMST371: LGBTQ Fiction and Film from 1950 to the present, and AMST392: Radical Religious Communities in 20th Century U.S. History. Her book Dreams for Dead Bodies: Blackness, Labor and the Corpus of Detective Fiction was published by University of Michigan Press in 2016. Her current project, “Come Tell Us How To Go To Heaven,” uses correspondence from Christian evangelicals to identify how epistolary intimacies and ideas about Christian fellowship shaped the career and social impact of the Reverend Billy Graham.

Fellowship Year

Requirements for the fellowship include:

• Weekly attendance at the lunchtime seminar in Hyde Hall, except during weeks when classes are not held. 
• A presentation on your research project. 
• A willingness to contribute to future fellowship proposal workshops hosted by the IAH. 

Fellowship funds

Faculty Fellows receive an IAH-sponsored semester leave and a $5,000 research stipend, available on July 1. Funds can only be used for allowable professional expenses (see below).

Fellows’ departments will receive a salary contribution for two course release according to the following salary-based course buyout rate schedule:

• 4+ course annual teaching load: 15% of salary with a maximum amount of $22,500 per Fellow
• 3 course annual teaching load: 20% of salary with a maximum amount of $30,000 per Fellow
• 2 course annual teaching load: 30% of salary with a maximum amount of $40,000 per Fellow

The maximum amount listed is for one course release and does not consider fringe. The IAH Faculty Fellowship provides two course releases, including fringe.

Appropriate use of funds

• Research-related travel (that does not interfere with the seminar meeting schedule).
• Conferences or other professional development activities.
• Summer salary (inclusive of fringe; excludes regular or base salary, or any related administrative supplements).
• Work equipment.
• Graduate and/or undergraduate research assistants.
• Research materials/books.
• Catering for research-related seminars and workshops.
• Contributions to campus departments (e.g. research collaborations).

Post-Fellowship

Reporting requirement: Each IAH Faculty Fellow receives a named fellowship. At the end of the fellowship semester, fellows are expected to submit a stewardship letter addressed to the donor or the donor’s family. The IAH collects these letters and distributes them to each corresponding donor as part of their stewardship. This stewardship process helps to engage donors who care deeply about faculty support and success at UNC, and it assists the IAH in securing future and ongoing support for faculty programs and fellowships. 

Fellows are also asked to submit monographs and/or other major works that were supported by the fellowship to the IAH once they are completed.

Eligibility

• IAH Faculty Fellowships support work in which the arts or humanities play a central role. We welcome proposals from faculty in the natural and social sciences if the proposed project focuses on the arts or humanities.
• Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences in tenure-track positions of all ranks in or beyond their second year at UNC-Chapel Hill are eligible to apply.
• Fixed-term faculty in or after their fourth year are also eligible if they will be returning to their department the following semester.
• We encourage applications from faculty at all ranks.
• The Institute seeks a blend of ranks and disciplines for each class of Fellows.
• Past Fellows may apply for an IAH fellowship five or more years after their previous award.
• Due to the number of applications received, preference may be given to applicants who have not previously received a fellowship. 
• Joint proposals from two faculty members are accepted.

Application Process

The application process begins in the fall of each year for the next academic year. Applicants may apply for either the fall or spring semester of the following academic year. The Faculty Fellowship application process is online. All supplemental forms are uploaded as part of the online application.

The application includes:

• An online application via Interfolio (sign-in with your UNC email address).
• A current curriculum vitae abbreviated to five pages (please review the application guidelines), to be uploaded in the application (.docx or .pdf)
• A project statement no more than four pages (please review the application guidelines), to be uploaded in the application (.docx or .pdf).

The IAH now uses Interfolio for application-based opportunities, including the Faculty Fellowship Program. Learn more about this transition to Interfolio.

Selection Process

The Faculty Advisory Board’s Fellows Selection Committee will review the application materials and make recommendations based on a rating rubric. A copy of the 2022-2023 Rating Rubric is linked below as a helpful guide for your application.

IAH Faculty Fellowship Rating Rubric (pdf)

For more information, contact:

Silas Webb
Program Administrator
919-843-2651
slwebb@email.unc.edu