Visiting Scholars

The Julien and Virginia Cornell Visiting Professorship brings professors or lecturers from other nations and cultures to the college for a semester or a year. The Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professorship brings to the campus an outstanding social scientist or other suitably qualified person who has achieved prominence and special recognition in the area of social change. Lang Professors may be appointed from a semester for up to 3 years.

Faculty and hosting departments/programs are invited to submit nominations for each professorship. Letters of nomination should include a curriculum vita of the nominee, along with a letter of support from the chair of the home department or program. Normally appointments are developed two or three years in advance, allowing visitors sufficient time to schedule their professional and family lives.

While the principal criteria for selection are excellence and fit with other aspects of the college, some consideration is given to college and departmental curricular needs and to how recently a given department has hosted a Lang or Cornell Professor. The visiting professor must be housed in a department or program, which means that the department or program must show enthusiastic support for having the nominee in residence and a willingness to offer departmental credit for the course(s) the visiting professor will teach. The home department or program must also understand that while the College will provide some administrative, financial, and social support, the major responsibility for this must rest with the department or program hosting the visitor. 

Nominations should be sent to the Associate Deans of the Faculty in the case of the Cornell Visiting Professorship, or to the Executive Director of the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility in the case of the Lang Visiting Professorship. Selection decisions are made by the Provost, Associate Deans of the Faculty, and Division Chairs for the Cornell Professorship, and by the Provost, the Executive Director of the Lang Center, and the Lang Center Advisory Committee for the Lang Visiting Professorship.  Departments and Programs hosting a Cornell Visiting Professor are asked to become familiar with the Guidelines for Departments and Programs Hosting a Cornell Professor.