We are now welcoming applications for the Mid-Career Faculty and Dissertation Fellowships for the 2017-18 academic year. The deadline for Mid-Career Faculty Applications has been extended to April 7, 2017 at 5pm. Mid-Career Faculty Fellowships come with a two course teaching reprieve. See below for complete descriptions and links to the application material.

We invite applications from recently tenured-faculty and CUNY doctoral students who would like to participate in a year-long research seminar on the theme “Facts and Their Discontents”.

Seminar Description

 The theme for the 2017-18 Committee for Interdisciplinary Science Studies seminar is Facts and Their Discontents. According to the historian of science, Lorraine Daston, facts have a history.  That is, the concept of facts has changed over time, as have the related ideas of objectivity, evidence, and truth.  The concept of facts is important to modern understandings of science, and also crucial for other domains, such as journalism and even matters of valuable (as in the alleged self-evidence of inalienable rights).  Yet facts have also come under attach.  Postmodernists have critically interrogated norms of truth and sociologists of science have questions the objectivity of laboratory methods.  The science journalist, John Horgan, has suggested that some domains within contemporary science are “ironic” – they advance theories such as the multiverse that can never be tested.  The turn against facts is also reflected in contemporary political discourse.   We scratch our heads at the idea of “alternative facts” and worry about “fake news.”  In 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary declared that the word of the year was “post-truth.”  Within some academic circles, there is both skepticism about the privileged status of facts and a deep anxiety that norms of truth may be in danger.  This seminar is designed to explore such issues.

Fellowships will be awarded to scholars who are currently exploring some aspect of the nature of facts.  The hope is to assemble a group of researchers from a variety of different fields whose work relates to the forgoing themes in some way.  Research questions might include:

• The nature of objectivity
• The contrast between science and pseudoscience
• The history of scientific methods and aspirations
• The relationship between social construction and truth
• The nature of evidence in science (e.g., must experiments be used, or is theoretical elegance enough)
• Comparisons between science and other domains (e.g., fact and/in fiction)
• The impact of social forces in science
• The ontological status of values
• The status of truth-telling in public discourse
• The relationship between postmodernism and politics
• Various forms of distortion, such as propaganda or charlatanism
• The current status of the science wars

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION STUDENT FELLOWSHIP

[download instructions as PDF]

Applications are invited from doctoral candidates in the humanities and humanistic social sciences such as anthropology, religion, sociology, philosophy, political science, history, psychology English, art history, and comparative literature who engage our seminar topic, “Facts and Their Discontents”. This fellowship is only open to Graduate Center doctoral candidates (i.e. you must be Level III. There are no exceptions). Fellows will be expected to participate in the Committee seminar as well as ongoing lectures and symposia. It is a condition of the fellowship that fellows leave this time free in their schedules for these meetings.

With generous support from the Provost’s Office and Graduate Center, CUNY, successful candidates will be granted $10,000 total for Fall 2017 – Spring 2018 in return for a commitment to fully participate in the work of the Committee and in the biweekly seminar. The basis for selection of participants will rest primarily on the relevance to the overall project of the proposal submitted by applicants. In accord with the interdisciplinary aim of the program, selections will also be made with an eye to maintaining disciplinary diversity.

The application materials should be assembled as a single PDF document including the following:

1. Application cover sheet
2. Statement of applicability
3. 9-page proposal and 1-page bibliography
4. 2-page CV
5. Current transcript

Complete application should be sent to: sciencestudies.gc.cuny@gmail.com. Inquiries can be directed to the same.

MID-CAREER FACULTY FELLOWSHIPS

[download instructions as PDF]

The Committee for Interdisciplinary Science Studies invites mid-career faculty from the humanities and humanistic social sciences such as anthropology, religion, sociology, philosophy, political science, history, English, art history, and comparative literature who engage and transect our seminar topic. With generous support from the Provost’s Office and the Graduate Center, CUNY, successful candidates will be granted two course releases from college teaching requirements, to be distributed across the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters at their department’s discretion, in return for a commitment to fully participate in the work of the Committee and in the seminar.

The basis for selection of participants will rest primarily on the relevance to the overall project of the proposal submitted by applicants. In accord with the interdisciplinary aim of the program, selections will also be made with an eye to maintaining disciplinary diversity. Applicants must be tenured, and preference will be given to faculty in the early stages of career development (i.e. within ten years of receiving tenure).

Fellows will be expected to participate in the biweekly Committee seminar as well as ongoing lectures and symposia.

A complete Faculty Fellow Application is comprised of four parts:

• A completed cover sheet signed by the Executive Officer or Department Chair
• 150 word abstract
• Project description (maximum 1500 words)
• A current short CV (maximum five pages)

The materials, including the signed application form, should be assembled as a single document in PDF and the complete application should be sent to: sciencestudies.gc.cuny@gmail.com. Inquiries can be directed to the same. See application for contact and additional information.