IHR supports two annual fellowship programs to encourage transdisciplinary activity at ASU.
One, the ASU Fellows program, is intended for ASU tenured and tenure-track faculty in the humanities. The other, the Visiting Fellows program, is for scholars from other institutions of higher education in the US and abroad to come to ASU for the spring semester-in-residence. The combined Fellows Programs bring together groups of scholars to pursue research and writing in an environment designed to be stimulating and supportive. Fellows will be asked to contribute to the general enrichment of humanities scholarship by giving seminars and public lectures on their research topics. ASU Fellows also are expected to apply for external grants to continue their research projects beyond the fellowship term.
The 2010-2011 theme is “The Humanities and Human Origins"
Humanities scholars have always investigated what it means to be human. Even in the wake of new scientific knowledge about the role of genetics/genomics, DNA, and the topography of the brain in making us human, humanistic inquiry into consciousness, curiosity, character, culture, creativity, love, language, spirituality, and the imagination—as well as into the human propensity for destruction, cruelty, and loyalty to tyrants (among other disheartening human characteristics)—remains crucial to a full understanding of “the human.”
The purpose of the 2010-11 Institute for Humanities Research Fellowship at Arizona State University is to engage humanities scholars from various disciplines in addressing and analyzing the role of the humanities in illuminating—and possibly enriching scientific inquiry into—human origins. One theme for the fellowship entails analysis of what it means to be human from a humanities perspective and what, if anything, comes closest to explaining human uniqueness. Is it language, consciousness, creativity, spirituality, or the imagination? Or is our species distinguished primarily by our particular forms of violence and cruelty? Or is it something else? By the same token, to what extent are humans not unique? How are we to understand the significance of the fact that we are human animals? Can the humanities offer models for cross-species inquiry?
A second theme entails analysis of humans as the source of origins and as beings who value origins and originals. Among the topics to be considered under this theme might be the origins of our species’ most compelling ideas—such as God, marriage, kinship, democracy, freedom, or the market—or on the role that such ideas or theories have had (or will have) in creating and shaping the planet, “the human,” and/or scientific inquiry into human origins. With regard to scientific inquiry, scholars might consider how humanities concepts, such as culture, consciousness, spirituality, and creativity, have affected and can further shape scientific investigations of human origins. Alternatively, scholars might analyze the concept of “the original” in cultural representation, by asking what originality means in that context and how it functions in the creation and valuation of cultural products and artifacts.
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2010-2011 ASU Fellows
The IHR ASU Fellows program provides funding for two research teams to engage in a year of research related to the annual theme, share their research with the academic community (via lectures, a conference or symposium), and produce a strong application for a large external grant.
Deadline: March 22, 2010
ASU Fellows Guidelines
ASU Fellows Application Form
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ASU Fellows Budget Template
SPRING 2011 Visiting Fellows
The Visiting Fellows program is for scholars from other institutions of higher education in the US and abroad to spend spring semester in residence at the Institute for Humanities Research (IHR), participating in the intellectual life of the IHR and the university community. The Visiting Fellowship provides the opportunity to conduct research, collaborate with ASU faculty, and write. The Visiting Fellowship also promotes an exchange of ideas among visitors and ASU Fellows also working on the annual theme, which in 2011 will be The Humanities and Human Origins. Visitors will participate in weekly fellows meetings and give public lectures and seminars on their research topics while in residence at the IHR.
Deadline: March 1, 2010
Visiting Fellows Guidelines
Visiting Fellows Application Form
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Visiting Fellows - Guidelines for Referees
View the Current and Previous IHR Fellows
