The Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities is happy to announce the 2021-2023 cohort of our newest initiative—The Lilly Faculty Fellows Program—for mid-career faculty leaders across the disciplines to engage the intersections of Christian thought and practice with the academic vocation. This initiative will:
- refresh and enliven a sense of calling for participants as people of faith, as teachers, and as scholars;
- provide a space for creative exploration of how Christian thought and practice intersect with the academic vocation;
- provide funds for Fellows to develop and pilot Faculty Fellow programs on their own campuses.
Although the Lilly Network has in the past emphasized faculty programs in humanities and the arts, this project especially seeks applicants from STEM, social scientific, and professional fields. We are looking for faculty interested in creative exploration, as well as a rich disciplinary and ecumenical mix of participants. The funded campus projects will be sites for creativity and experimentation that examine, cultivate, and enliven faculty engagement with Christian thought and practice as experienced on church-related campuses.
The Program
We will select 6-7 teams of two Fellows each, from different Network Schools. Each team will participate in a two-year program that includes four conferences in Indianapolis and Chicago. We will also provide start-up funds of $8,000 to each participating team to inaugurate a Lilly Faculty Fellows Program on its own campus. Individual Fellows also will be awarded a $4,000 honorarium for participation. Travel, meals, and lodging for all four conferences will be provided as well as all necessary books and materials. The schedule for the program is as follows:
- November 15, 2020 Applications Due
- February 15, 2021 Fellows Named
- June 13-16, 2021 Inaugural Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana
- October 22-24, 2021 Second Conference, Chicago, Illinois
- April 8-10, 2022 Third Conference, Chicago, Illinois
- Academic year 2022/2023 Pilot Faculty Fellow Programs on Fellow campuses
- June 2023 Fourth Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana
Eligibility
- In general, applicants must demonstrate a desire for the Fellowship, creative engagement with the intersections of Christian and academic thought and practice, and established campus leadership.
- Applications are for teams of two mid-career faculty members.
- Applicants must be tenured (or have received the equivalent of tenure at their institutions) at a member school of the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. Applicants must be teaching faculty.
- At least one member of the team must be in a STEM, social science, or professional field.
- Applicant teams must have approval from their chairs or preferably deans.
- Applicant teams must come from two different academic departments.
- Preference will be given to schools that did not participate in Cohort 1 of the Faculty Fellows Program.
Application Procedures
Applications must be submitted by November 15 to Slideroom: Slideroom Applications will open in mid-April.
Application package must include:
1. Application Cover Sheet Download Here
2. Answers to the following questions, written by each applicant individually:
- What are your sources of interest in and motivation for entering the program?
- What is your experience in engaging Christian thought and practice with the academic vocation?
- What is your experience in informal or formal campus leadership? Please provide specific examples.
- What is your experience with interdisciplinary collaboration on your campus? With you co-applicant? With others on your campus?
- A brief description of a project that you are interested in leading on your campus, written together by the applicants in 200 words or less.
3. CVs of applicants
4. Letter or letters of recommendation from Chair(s) or Dean(s) (one letter for the team or two separate letters, one for each team member).
