Graduate Fellowships

A CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The dean of the Graduate School and the dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame jointly sponsor a competitive program of fellowship support for advanced graduate students in the humanities and social sciences. These awards are intended to encourage doctoral candidates to expedite completion of their dissertations while offering valuable teaching experience.

Five Graduate Teaching Fellowships will be awarded in the University Writing Program.* Candidates selected as fellows will teach one section of Writing and Rhetoric (WR) in the fall 2012 semester and one section of WR in the spring 2013 semester.

TERMS
The fellowships provide a tuition scholarship and an academic-year stipend of $17,500. Fellows cannot accept other teaching or research responsibilities during the fellowship year.

QUALIFICATIONS
Applicants must be full-time graduate students in good standing in the College of Arts and Letters. At the time of application, applicants should have passed all departmental Ph.D. candidacy examinations, have a committee-approved dissertation topic, and be writing the dissertation. Applicants who have been enrolled for six years or less at the start of the academic year are preferred. Students at or beyond eight years of enrollment will not be considered.

DEADLINE
The applicant must submit hard copies of all documents to Terri O’Bryan of the University Writing Program, 205 Coleman-Morse, by December 1, 2011. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the recommendations are submitted by the deadline.

SELECTION CRITERIA
The selection committee will consider the candidate’s overall academic performance, whether or not the applicant has completed his or her exams, and prior teaching experience.

ACCEPTANCE
Decisions will be announced no later than early January 2012. Candidates chosen as fellows are required to enroll in a one-credit, pass-fail practicum on the teaching of writing in the spring 2012 term, to attend all University Writing Program faculty meetings during the academic year, and to fulfill other responsibilities consistent with good teaching practices. These requirements are in keeping with the mission of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Program to provide support of teaching in preparation for an academic career.

APPLICATION
Applications should include

(1) a cover letter that addresses

a. candidate's dissertation topic and progress
b. relevance of the candidate's scholarly interests to the teaching of writing and rhetoric
c. candidate's teaching experience
d. candidate's teaching philosophy

(2) a separate page listing

a. name of the applicant’s graduate adviser
b. semester and year of entry into graduate studies at Notre Dame
c. a brief history of stipend support as a graduate student
d. a statement of whether or not the applicant has passed candidacy exams and has had the dissertation proposal approved

(3) a letter from the director of graduate studies confirming that

a. the applicant has passed candidacy exams
b. the applicant has had the dissertation proposal approved

(4) two recommendations from faculty members that address the applicant’s strengths as a scholar and teacher

(5) copies of existing teaching evaluations (TCEs or CIFs)

(6) a current, abbreviated CV (no more than two pages)

 

205 Coleman-Morse, Notre Dame, IN 46556 p: 574.631.5427 e: fwriting@nd.edu