Faculty Fellow, Georgetown-Howard Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice (MHHJ)

Description

The Georgetown - Howard Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice (MHHJ) is pleased to announce the call for proposals for its 2025-2026 Faculty Fellowship. This fellowship is open exclusively to faculty at Georgetown University and Howard University. The fellowship supports interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the medical humanities and health justice, focused specifically on the Washington, DC, metropolitan area (District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, and Prince George's County). The fellowship supports faculty (through course buyouts or effort buydown) only and does not provide support for research assistance. The fellowship is a full-time, residential position, requiring fellows to reside in the DC area and fully engage in the Center’s activities throughout the academic year. Each year, the fellowship focuses on a specific theme; this year's theme is "Networks”: the forms and structures of connection, and how we are connected: whether kinship, social, digital, cultural, data, regional. 

Faculty Fellowship Notice of Funding Opportunity V.2

Fellowship Expectations

Fellows are expected to produce at least one research output, such as the following:

• Peer-reviewed articles
• Public and engaged scholarship
• Digital materials and databases
• Oral histories
• Archival projects
• Expressive and creative projects

Fellows must organize at least one public-facing lecture, panel, workshop, or similar event. Fellows  may apply for funding with MHHJ (subject to funding availability and if the event meets the Center’s annual objectives) or institutional or third party sources to support this public-facing event.

Funding Details

Maximum Award Amount: $48,000
Period of Performance: 12 months, full-time

Funding Structure

Direct payment to the GU or HU school/college for a full academic year teaching or effort buyout.

Funding Conditions

Faculty are responsible for negotiating with their department for approval of teaching relief or effort buy down. This fellowship is intended for individual researchers; funding may not be divided and cannot be directed to research assistants. Funding cannot be deferred.

Funding Restrictions

Fellowship funding cannot be used for the following: 

• Preparing or revising of textbooks
• Developing curriculum
• Writing of books for children or young adults
• Creating documentary films
• Inventorying of collections
• Writing guidebooks, how-to books, and self-help books
• Pursuit of projects that fall outside the medical humanities, humanities, or humanistic social sciences

Qualifications

To be eligible for this fellowship, the candidate must: 

• Be a full-time faculty member (either tenure-track or non-tenure-track) at either Georgetown or Howard University;
• Have an advanced degree in relevant areas such as medicine, nursing, bioethics, social work, humanities, social sciences, or law;
• Reside in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area and be available to participate in in-person and virtual MHHJ programming.

Selection Criteria

Applicants will be evaluated through a peer-review process, based on the following criteria:

• Relevance of the application to the Center’s designated research theme.
• Overall significance of the research to the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
• Feasibility of research and engagement plans.
• Clarity of dissemination pathways for research findings.
• Likelihood of deriving satisfactory results during the fellowship period.
• Quality of previous research and potential future contributions.
• Collaboration opportunities with other Center Fellows and community advocates.
• Use of humanities methodologies to explore topics related to health or health justice.
• Evidenced support from the applicant’s department and/or college.

Application Instructions

Step 1:

• Optional Notice of Intent form (due October 4, 2024)
  • The issue addressed by the project and its relation to the theme
  • Overview of methods and activities
  • Expected outcomes

Step 2:

Full Application (due November 1, 2024)

• Two referees’ n