The Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM), in conjunction with the Great Lakes College Association (GLCA), offers a semester-long fall seminar and a series of one month seminars during the winter and spring terms. Seminars are offered on a wide variety of topics, but all seminars are designed to allow students to create their own research project appropriate to the Newberry Library collections.
Call for Proposals
ACM and the Great Lakes Colleges Association, Inc. offer faculty members an opportunity to teach and do research at the Newberry Library. Teachers of the Newberry Seminar on the Humanities lead a small group of select students from ACM/GLCA colleges in an intellectual adventure, while doing their own research. Newberry Fellows can come from any of the colleges in ACM or GLCA, from any humanities discipline.
Two-member teams of faculty lead the seminar of approximately 20 students; they teach during the fall semester, and have the option of doing independent research during the spring semester. They are also have some administrative duties, including student life responsibilities.
The Library
One of the country's foremost research centers in the humanities, the Newberry Library in Chicago offers researchers rich resources. The Newberry collections focus on the history and literature of Europe and the Americas from the medieval period to the early 20th century. Specific strengths of the European collections include the Renaissance, the French Revolutionary era, Portuguese and Luso-Brazilian history, and British literature and history. Strong collections for Americanists cover the American West, European exploration and settlement of the New World, local history and genealogy, Native American history and literature, and the literature and history of the Midwest. The Newberry also has world-renowned collections in the history of cartography, the history and theory of music, the history of printing, and early philology and linguistics.
The Newberry is not just a library; it is also a thriving community of scholars who have the opportunity to reflect on one another's work through weekly colloquia and informal conversations. The six and eleven month fellows have the opportunity to establish valuable, long-term relationships with researchers in a variety of disciplines. For faculty outside the two consortia, similar immersion in the world of the Newberry Library is possible only through national competition for long-term Newberry fellowships. The experience provided by this program often strengthens faculty's ability to obtain NEH and other such grants.
The Seminar
The goal of the seminar is to give students the experience of collective exploration of a significant topic and guided independent research in a major humanities library located in an urban environment. It involves common class sessions and individual research projects, related to the selected topic and based largely on the Newberry collections. Since the seminar involves team-teaching, fellows draw on expertise in their own discipline as well as on their ability to exchange insights with students and specialists in other disciplines. (You can learn more about the seminar at www.acm.edu/newberry/.) The semester-long seminar provides intense involvement with a small and selected group of students. Since students are living off-campus, often for the first time, instructors often need to give them personal support as well as intellectual guidance.
Compensation
The eleven-month Fellow receives the equivalent of his or her annual base salary, and the six-month Fellow receives one-half the annual base salary. The program also provides subsidized housing, with ACM paying the cost of the usual Newberry apartments for the eleven-month and six-month Fellows. Faculty with children have generally had success placing their children in high quality public or private elementary schools. Fellows receive a travel allowance of 44.5¢ per mile, round-trip from the home campus to Chicago and up to $300 to cover additional moving costs. Fellows are expected to be in residence by August 1 at the latest, but many arrive as early as July 1. The extra time allows them to familiarize themselves with the library and prepare for the seminar which usually begins the first week of September.
The Proposal
Instructors for the Newberry Seminar are chosen through a competitive process. Applicants are encouraged to apply as a team, though individual applications are also welcome. The selection committee may suggest pairings between applicants in different disciplines but with related interests. Should two rounds of applications be necessary, we will select the director first. Although Fellows are drawn from a wide range of academic disciplines, the Newberry prefers to have one Fellow with an American specialization because the library has rich resources in that area and because many students want to do a project on an American topic.
The heart of the application is a substantive proposal for the seminar. Such a proposal should include a description of the topic, as well as a tentative reading list and schedule of discussions. The proposed seminar topic should provide sufficient focus to encourage productive dialogue, but should also cut across different disciplines, time periods, and national boundaries so as to encourage a variety of research projects. The strongest topics have been those that were strongly connected to the Newberry's holdings and that accommodated the range of scholarly interests students bring to the seminar. As you prepare your proposal, we strongly encourage a close examination of the Newberry's collection through its Web site or, even better, a visit to the library in preparation for submission of a proposal. Previous seminars have focused on such subjects as "Landscape and Culture," "The Contested Past: Histories and Fictions of Human Conflict," "Unmasking Gender," "Art and Culture," "Enlightenment Dreams/Enlightenment Realities," and "Religion and Secularism." Daniel Sack, a program officer in the ACM office, is available to discuss possible topics and to review draft proposals.
Applications should include the following:
Applications for the 2008-09 Program are due by March 1, 2007 and should be mailed to Daniel Sack, Program Officer, Associated Colleges of the Midwest, 205 W. Wacker, Suite 1300, Chicago IL 60606 (312-263-5000) or dsack@acm.edu.