The University Sabbatical Fellows Program, provided by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, supports full-year sabbatical leaves and provides opportunities for highly research-active faculty to take two-semester academic leave at full base salary.

Logistics

Eligibility for the full-year sabbatical program will follow the standard 7-year sabbatical cycle. Faculty will apply to the full-year program at the same time as they submit standard requests for academic leaves. We anticipate supporting up to five University Sabbatical Fellows per year. Fellows will be selected in a process coordinated by the VPR and Provost’s Offices. As with standard leave requests, applications will be approved by relevant Department Chairs and Deans before consideration.

Criteria

  • Candidates will be selected based on a compelling case that a full year of leave will make a substantive difference to their level of research activity and/or impact (e.g., by enabling a prestigious opportunity, leading a large proposal, an unusual data collection opportunity, etc.)
  • Candidates should also show evidence of actively seeking external sabbatical support, as available by discipline (e.g., Fulbright, Guggenheim, Sage Foundation, etc.).

Funding

For each Fellow, the OVPR will provide funds to replace one-semester of teaching to departments and/or programs. This may take one of two forms: (a) OVPR will provide funds to support adjunct coverage of up to two courses, or (b) OVPR will match (at 50%) department funds to hire a visiting assistant professor for one year. Note that this program also entails generous financial support from the Colleges, which will not recoup salary they otherwise receive when faculty take full-year leaves at half pay. If an awarded University Sabbatical Fellow successfully secures external support, the university will cover the difference (if any) between the external award and the faculty member's full-year base salary.

Application process

Applications will be due at the same time as requests for academic leaves. Faculty who wish to be considered for a full-year sabbatical at full base salary will submit a proposal, via their standard application for academic leave, including the following:

  1. A one-to-two page narrative including:
    1. A compelling case that a full year of leave will substantively elevate their research activity or profile over what would be possible with the standard half-year leave;
    2. A list of (planned) external applications for sabbatical support. If an awarded University Sabbatical Fellow successfully secures external salary support, the University will cover the difference (if any) between the external award and the faculty member’s full-year base salary.
  2. An academic CV.

We anticipate decisions being made by mid-January 2025.

Kate Arrington, Professor of Psychology. Building from an NSF-funded conference to be hosted in May 2024, Kate will lead the effort for a center-level proposal to the newly formed NSF CRISES program. The proposed center will merge computational social science and community-based participatory research approaches to address specific community crises.

Joe Kramer-Miller, Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Joe is hoping to be a visiting scholar at Columbia University for the Spring 2025 semester. In addition, Joe will be visiting Tohoku University, National Taiwan University, and Heidelberg University, to work with collaborators and give presentations on his research.

Clay Naito, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Clay will use the sabbatical fellowship to advance the state of the art on concrete bridge construction. Specifically, he will be collaborating with the Federal Highway Administration on the use of Ultra High Performance Concrete for improving the resilience of US infrastructure. He will also be collaborating with the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute on developing concrete bridge design and assessment standards for U.S. designers and transportation officials.

Monica Najar, Associate Professor of History. Monica is looking forward to finishing a book manuscript on the life of Maria Monk, the famous (infamous) “runaway nun” of the nineteenth century. Monk claimed she had been abused in a Catholic convent and her narrative became an international bestseller. Moving beyond what her book can teach us about anti-Catholicism before the Civil War, Monica explores Monk’s fame, and descent in poverty and prostitution to understand the gender and sexual politics of the antebellum era.