Amherst College Center for Humanistic Inquiry Fellows/ Visiting Lecturers (EXPIRED)

Amherst College Center for Humanistic Inquiry Fellows/ Visiting Lecturers

The Center for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI) at Amherst College seeks scholars from across the disciplines for full-time, two-year appointments as CHI Fellows and visiting lecturers.  In colloquy with one another and the Amherst community, CHI Fellows will explore the theme of Political Imagination. We invite applications from scholars whose research and/or creative work takes up some aspect of our theme (described in more detail below).

Amherst College is one of the most diverse liberal arts colleges in the country. Nearly half of our students identify as domestic students of color, and another 11 percent are international, with non-U.S. citizenship; 16 percent are the first members of their families to attend college. Amherst is committed to providing financial aid that meets 100 percent of every student’s demonstrated need, and nearly 60 percent of our students receive financial aid. Our expectation is that the successful candidate will excel at teaching and mentoring students who are broadly diverse with regard to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, nationality, sexual identity, disability/ability, and religion.

Fellowships include an annual salary of $60,000, an annual $3,000 allowance for professional research support, an office in the center, and additional support for moving expenses.  CHI Fellows are expected to be fully in residence during the 2023–2025 academic years and to participate in seminars, conferences, and other programming organized to explore the theme. Fellows will teach at least one course during the period of the fellowship.

Candidates are asked to submit electronically to > a cover letter that addresses the connection between the candidate’s scholarship and the center’s theme, a CV, a one-page research statement, an article- or chapter-length writing sample, and three confidential letters of recommendation addressed to Darryl Harper, director of the CHI.  A Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree is required.  Review of applications will begin on April 24, 2023, and continue until the positions are filled. Applications received by this date will be assured of full consideration.

Political Imagination

Before people can build worlds through political action, they must first imagine those worlds, then help others to do the same. Perhaps they dream of a future utopia, then recruit others into the work of making it real; or maybe they conjure a paradise lost, convincing others to help them restore it. Even people who want society to stay the same must create (and share with others) a compelling vision of the status quo–what it is, what it means, and why we need it. Then, they take action, which must itself be imaginative and compelling.

We invite applications from emerging humanities scholars who study such world-making acts of imagination, and who consider the relationship between such imaginings and political action. Their research might focus on the past, present, or future—and on societies of any kind throughout the world. We welcome projects with interdisciplinary range (e.g., connecting the arts to political theory) and comparative scope (e.g., across periods or subcultures in one society, or between societies), but we also encourage applications from scholars whose goal is to establish the special significance of tools from one academic field—or one era, culture, or social order—to understanding how the political imagination works.

Either way, the goal is to contribute to a trans-disciplinary discussion of two interrelated phenomena: (1) the political force of fictions, dreams, visions, and suppositions and (2) the imaginative work involved in building and sustaining political communities, identities, and institutions.

Amherst is a private undergraduate liberal arts college, with 1,800 students and more than two hundred faculty members.  Located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, Amherst participates with Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts in the Five-College Consortium.  Amherst College is an equal opportunity employer and encourages persons of all genders, persons of color, and persons with disabilities to apply.