Programs for Faculty and Staff

HUM Teaching Opportunities

We invite applications from faculty members at every career stage to teach three new divisional courses: HUM R1A “Global Humanities I”; HUM R1B “Global Humanities II”; and HUM 50 “Our Times.” These large-enrollment, lower-division courses were devised to provide opportunities for lower-division students who are exploring the arts and humanities to have deep engagement with our faculty. HUM R1A and HUM R1B are large lecture courses that fulfill the R&C requirements, with faculty-led lectures and GSI-led small, writing-intensive sections. The theme of these courses is “Global Humanities.” HUM 50 is concerned with the impact of the arts and humanities upon crucial questions of our times: the environment, technology, and social and racial justice. Topics and course materials are wholly open to faculty development.  Each course will be provided with a grant of $1,000 for course development.

President's Research Fellowships in the Humanities

President's Research Fellowships in the Humanities are intended to increase the support for research available to individual faculty members in the humanities by providing a new source of funds and, where appropriate, augmenting funds from extramural agencies and campus grants.

The Humanities Research Fellowship and Mellon Project Grant Programs

The Humanities Research Fellowship Program provides funds to supplement the sabbatical salary for faculty members engaged in research in the humanistic disciplines or working in the creative arts. The Mellon Project Grant program is intended to support research costs for associate professors who are engaged in research in humanistic disciplines or who work in the creative arts.  Application forms are available each fall for the following Academic Year.

The Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities

Since its establishment in 1987, the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities has encouraged an interdisciplinary approach to scholarship, fostered innovation in research, and promoted intellectual conversation among individuals from the humanities and related academic disciplines.

The center offers numerous fellowships and grants that support all levels of the university community. Fellowship opportunities for UC Berkeley faculty include the Townsend Fellowship for Assistant Professors, Associate Professor Fellowships, and the Course Threads program for undergraduates. Please visit the Townsend Center website for more information on the various grant and fellowship programs.

Mellon New Strategies for the Humanities at Berkeley

Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New Strategies for the Humanities at Berkeley offers generous awards that support the integration of the humanities with the University's strategic plan(link is external), which emphasizes the need for UC Berkeley to model “the university of the future” in the context of its role as a public research university. The Division of Arts & Humanities is seeking course proposals from faculty members for three interlinked programs: (1) Collaborative Research Seminars that bring together faculty teams and graduate students from across the university to focus on a multidisciplinary research theme or a new academic cluster; (2) undergraduate Mentored-Research Labs that offer topical instructions, mentorship, and research opportunities, and which result in conferences, exhibits, or other presentations; and, (3) team-taught Compass Courses, in which three professors introduce first-year students to the riches of the Arts & Humanities through a central topic.

UCB-LMU Partnership

In 2007, the University of California, Berkeley and LMU Munich established a joint program to pursue innovative, collaborative research in the Humanities. The program facilitates academic exchange of faculty members, graduate students and postdocs in the areas of the Humanities. Opportunities include Visiting Professorships to LMU Munich, financial support for conferences and workshops in Berkeley conducted jointly by researchers from LMU and UCB, as well as funding for “Mini Workshops” (small-scale, bilateral research workshops) conducted by researchers from LMU and UC Berkeley.