Competition for Graduate Research Fellowship in “Global Language Justice”

April 21, 2017 – Call for Papers

April 20, 2017

2017-2018 Andrew W. Mellon (Sawyer Seminar)

Graduate Research Fellowship in “Global Language Justice”

The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society (ICLS) at Columbia University will award up to three Andrew W. Mellon (Sawyer Seminar) Research Fellowships to post-MPhil graduate students for a one-year appointment, beginning September 1, 2017. The Fellow will receive a salary of $8,000 for the academic year 2017-18. Please note that this award does not include a fellowship for tuition or fees.

The ICLS Sawyer Seminar is focused on all questions relating to language justice. We will explore, for example, the correlation of linguistic diversity and biodiversity, the social effects of English monolingualism, endangered languages, the relationship of language and technology; the question of translation across disciplinary divides, machine translation; and new possibilities for revivifying language communities at the interface of arts activism, legal redress, and digital technologies. This initiative promotes research and pedagogical innovation at the interface of science, humanities, and big data to ask about the life and death of languages and language communities on planetary scale.

The Seminar will include public lectures and workshops, which will be linked to the development of undergraduate and graduate courses. The Graduate Student Fellow is therefore required to attend the events and assist Faculty committee members with research and programming. As such, this fellowship requires 5-10 hours of weekly service which must be coordinated with any service hours related to one’s teaching fellowships. This fellowship is an opportunity to be embedded with, and help build scholarly community around an exciting new intellectual project.

Eligibility:

This fellowship is open to Columbia University PhD candidates. Students must have their MPhil in hand by May 31, 2017. As this fellowship requires service, recipients of this fellowship must notify their department of the service requirement when accepting teaching fellowships.

Application process:

The following materials should be submitted via e-mail to icls@columbia.edu with “Mellon Graduate Fellowship” in the subject line by midnight EST on May 22, 2017. PDF format is preferred:

  • Curriculum vitae. Save the file name as your last name and “CV”.
  • A 250-word statement outlining your dissertation project and your research interests, and how they relate to the research areas of ICLS’s Sawyer Seminar series. Save the file name as your last name and “Statement”.

All application materials should be submitted electronically on or before May 22, 2017. All evaluations made in connection with applications received are confidential. Selected applicants will be notified by July 1, 2017.

Columbia University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. There is no citizenship requirement or restriction for this fellowship. Employment eligibility verifications requested upon hire.

For more information about the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society and the Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar Series in “Global Language Justice”, please visit icls.columbia.edu.



 The Heyman Center for the Humanities, Room B-101
74 Morningside Drive
New York, NY, 10027
  (212) 854-4541
  (212) 854-3099