Townsend Fellowship for Assistant Professors

Our longest-running program, the Townsend Fellowships support the research of graduate students and assistant professors at UC Berkeley. Throughout the year the fellows meet for regular discussions with several tenured faculty and other invited guests. These discussions allow for interdisciplinary peer review of work in progress in a weekly discussion format.

Townsend Fellowships are awarded to Assistant Professors whose research projects significantly involve humanistic material or problems which have a significant bearing on the humanities, and who will not be under consideration for tenure in 2010-2011. Faculty Fellows receive a 50% research leave from teaching responsibilities. Individual faculty members do not normally receive funding under more than one Townsend Center research program per year. Replacement funds are transferred directly to the awardee’s department. Information on the Townsend Center replacement funds policy can be found here.

The purpose of the Fellowship is to further the research of the individual recipients and to promote interdepartmental exchange: i.e., to enable faculty and graduate students within the humanities to meet and work with their colleagues in other departments. However, the project need not be "interdisciplinary" by definition. Awards are based on the scholarly merit of the individual applications. The selection committee will also take into consideration the research project's potential interest to scholars in different fields of the humanities and the likelihood of the applicant’s contribution to interdisciplinary discussion. The Fellows, together with several tenured faculty appointed by the director of the Townsend Center, form a Fellowship group that meets over lunch every Tuesday to discuss work in progress. The award of a fellowship carries with it the understanding that the recipient will attend the weekly meetings of the Fellowship group and participate actively.

Download the 2010-2011 Assistant Professor Fellowships guidelines and application:
PDF (200kb)
Microsoft Word (64kb)

The Extended application deadline for 2010-2011 Fellowships is Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 5:00pm.

For information about the 2009-2010 Fellows, click here.

For questions about the program, please contact Fellowships Coordinator Bridgette Lehrer at blehrer@berkeley.edu.