Frost Fellowship

The Frost Center for Social Science Research provides funding for faculty release-time dedicated to social science research projects.

The Program

Because teaching takes up such a large amount of time during the academic year, progress on research often slows. The release time and student research funding provided by this program is intended to allow faculty members to devote more time to research during the academic year. The program will provide up to a 4-credit-hour course release for fellows either in either the Fall or Spring semester, or release from one 2-credit-hour course in both semesters, and up to $1,000 in student research participation. The Frost Center will reimburse departments the cost of paying part-time or overload faculty to cover the course from which the faculty member is released.

Eligibility and Participation

The program is available to full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty who are not currently receiving research release time from a grant or another source. When completing the application materials (following), please notify your department chair of your intent to apply, discuss which semester you plan to take the leave, and what staffing implications the release time would have for your department. The faculty members receiving a fellowship will be asked to give a report of their progress at the end of the academic year and also will be encouraged to make a division-wide presentation of their research findings. If student research funding is accepted, a colloquium through the Frost Center presenting the results of the research is expected.

Application

To apply, please:

• Complete the application form and provide all the requested information.
• Deliver the Department Chair Statement form to your chair and include the completed form with your application materials.
• Plan to attend the Frost Center Advisory Committee meeting to defend your application. You will be notified of the date.

Review of Proposals

Applications will be reviewed by the Frost Center Advisory Committee, comprised of the Dean of Social Sciences, the Frost Center Director and one faculty member from each Social Science department. Advisory Committee members are selected by the Dean, with the provision that these faculty members not be submitting an application to the program in the current year.

Criteria for Acceptance

Most forms of scholarship are acceptable for consideration for the Fellowship Program. The program embraces the broad categories of scholarship put forth by Boyer in Scholarship Reconsidered. Thus, the committee would consider proposals not only for scholarship of discovery, but also scholarship of integration, scholarship of application, and scholarship of teaching. Applications that strictly propose course development will not be accepted.

Besides quality of proposal, applications are judged on the following criteria:

• Timeliness of fellowship for faculty member’s overall research agenda.
• The extent of student collaboration in research activities.
• Staffing implications for faculty member’s department.
• Representation across a variety of social science departments.
• Faculty members who have not received a fellowship in the past.
• Special preference will be given to at least one project having a strong local-community connection or partnership.

Application Form for 2007-2008 Fellowship
Note, the period for application for 2007-2008 has passed. This application is for reference. The application for 2008-2009 may vary somewhat from this form.