HI Faculty Fellowships

This one-year residential fellowship program for tenured and tenure-eligible UB faculty engaged in humanistic research provides the Fellow with a semester of course release (two 3-credit hour courses), which enables the Fellow to focus primarily on a major research project and to participate actively in HI programs. 

2025-26 HI Faculty Fellowships

The Call for Applications for 2025-26 Faculty Fellowships will be released in November 2024.

Program Information

The Humanities Institute (HI) offers fellowships for University at Buffalo tenured and tenure-track faculty engaged in humanistic research. HI defines the humanities broadly, accepting proposals from a wide range of disciplines, including literature, history, classics, anthropology, sociology, geography, art, music, architecture, law, and more.

These residential fellowships provide the Fellow’s department with course replacement funds at the standard College of Arts and Sciences adjunct rate ($4,500 per course effective July 1, 2024) to support a semester of course release (two 3-credit hour courses), which will allow the Fellow to focus primarily on a major research project and to participate actively in HI programs. HI fellowship leaves are classified as research leaves and do not affect semester accumulations towards sabbatical eligibility (“the sabbatical clock”).

The fellowships are generously supported by the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Fellowship Overview

The HI Faculty Fellows are key components of the intellectual climate of the Humanities Institute, and it is our expectation that they will be actively involved in creating and sustaining an intellectual community. Indeed, we hope this will be one of the great benefits of the award. Therefore, we ask each Fellow to present their work in a public forum (customarily as part of the Scholars@Hallwalls event series), to participate in the other Fellows’ lectures, and to attend the Fellows’ seminars the week after each public lecture. 

Faculty Research and Follow-Up: Fellows will pursue their research topics as outlined in their proposals. The semester following the leave, Fellows must submit a one-page summary of their research that outlines project goals, how the fellowship helped the recipient towards those goals, how close the project is to completion, and how it will be made available to the public (e.g. the publication of a book, a series of articles, an exhibition, a documentary film, a performance). The UB Humanities Institute should be acknowledged in any publicly distributed works resulting from the research completed during the fellowship period. Recent publications, including edited volumes, resulting from the fellowship are celebrated annually at the HI Spring Book Celebration.

As with all faculty research leaves, the faculty member will be required to provide a research leave report to their department Chair for submission to the Office of the Dean of their college/school within the University at Buffalo.

Application Checklist
  • Notify your Department Administrator of your intent to apply for an HI Faculty Fellowship for the applicable academic year (year following application window) and check your eligibility for a research leave;
  • Prepare the following materials to be submitted via the online application form:
    • Research proposal abstract (200 word maximum);
    • Four- to six-page, double-spaced research proposal;
    • Current CV of no more than three pages, which should indicate in detail previous and upcoming research support (grants, fellowships, leaves);
    • Chair Agreement Form signed by the applicant’s department chair that indicates the chair’s agreement to free the applicant from two courses in return for course replacement funds at the standard course adjunct rate during the period of the fellowship.

Selection Criteria

Applications will be evaluated by an ad hoc committee comprised of faculty members selected to represent a wide cross-section of the humanities. Attention will be given to the following criteria:

  • The quality and potential of the proposed research project as outlined in a brief proposal (four to six double-spaced pages);
  • The quality and completion record of previous research projects and scholarly publications;
  • The proposal’s ability to communicate the importance of the project beyond the applicant’s home discipline;
  • The demonstrated ability and desire of the applicant to participate in Institute programs.

 

Restrictions

  • No current member of the Humanities Institute’s Executive Committee can apply for a fellowship;
  • Fellows must be in residence in the Buffalo area during the term of their fellowship;
  • Past recipients of a Humanities Institute Fellowship may reapply seven years after the previous fellowship year (for 2025-26 applicants, previous fellowship year of 2017-18 and earlier are eligible);
  • Fellows may not accept any other internal or external research support designed for salary replacement during the tenure of their award;
  • University policies for research leaves are applicable*, including:
    • Requests for leaves will not be considered from faculty members who have not submitted outstanding leave reports from previous sabbaticals, research leaves or Title F leaves;
    • Research leaves may not involve more than two successive semesters without teaching duties.
      *Please contact your Department Administrator if you have questions regarding research leaves.