Call for Applications: 2016-2017 Rutman Fellowship for Research and Teaching at University of Pennsylvania

Rutman Fellowship for Research and Teaching_Penn_CFA_2016-2017_Ext.pdf

Rutman Fellowship for Research and Teaching

University of Pennsylvania
Academic Year 2016-2017

The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research invites proposals for its 2016-2017 Rutman Fellowship for Research and Teaching that will provide summer support for one member of the University of Pennsylvania faculty to integrate testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive (VHA) into a new or existing course. The fellowship is open to all disciplinary and methodological approaches and will be awarded on a competitive basis to the most interesting project.

The USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive holds over 53,000 video testimonies of survivors and other eyewitnesses of the Holocaust, the Rwandan and Armenian genocides, and the Nanjing Massacre in China. The interviews were conducted in 39 languages and in 63 countries. They encompass the experiences not only of survivors in these contexts, but also of witnesses, liberators, aid providers, and war crimes trials participants. These interviews are life histories, and as such their subject matter includes the history and culture of the countries of the interviewees’ birth and their lives before, during and after genocide. The interviews average two hours in length and offer a wealth of possibilities for integration into many disciplines’ coursework. More information about accessing the VHA at Penn is available at http://guides.library.upenn.edu/vha.

Proposals will be judged according to the centrality of the VHA interviews to the course content. Preference will be given to classes that will be taught in the 2016-2017 academic year for existing courses and the 2017-2018 year for new course proposals.

The stipend will be awarded in the amount of $3,000 with an additional $500 for in-class materials related to the testimonies. The Rutman Research and Teaching Fellow will be invited to spend one week in residence at the Center during the summer of 2016 to collaborate with USC Shoah Foundation staff and researchers and receive specialized research assistance in preparing for his/her course. Travel and hotel for this visit will be paid by the Center. The fellow will be asked to present a lecture to the USC community about his/her research. Following the fellowship course, the Rutman Research and Teaching Fellow will present a lecture hosted by the USC Shoah Foundation at the University of Pennsylvania about his/her experience researching in the archive and using it in-class with students. Final course syllabi will be posted to the Center’s website and in a quarterly digest alongside a brief evaluation.

To submit an application, please send a cover letter, current CV, and proposal (2-3 pages) by May 1, 2016 to cagr@usc.edu.

For further information about the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, please consult the Center website: cagr.usc.edu.