Support for Reading/Writing Groups
The Provost office supports reading, research and writing groups within one or across the disciplines by offering organizational and monetary assistance for up to 5 meetings each semester (10/year).
Process:
- Write a short proposal for your group project and address it in email form to the Associate Provost
- The proposal should include the contact information for and a list of the members of the group and their departmental/program affiliations, an estimated budget request for moderate food and beverage items (e.g. pizza and sodas/beer)
- Should you need a (specific) place on campus to hold your meetings, please make this clear and provide the definitive time and date slots in your proposal. If you prefer to hold meetings off campus, make sure to rotate the host site appropriately for equity’s sake
- The Associate Provost will acknowledge receipt of the proposal and might ask for more information as needed
- Once the Associate Provost has authorized the establishment of your group, remember to keep all your receipts and request reimbursement through the Provost's Office
Currently Active Groups
2015-present
Interdisciplinary: COLOR working group - Looking at the concept, discourse, history and practice of COLOR from different disciplinary backgrounds (Art, Psychology, Biology etc.). For information contact: Derek Burdette or Logan Grider.
Examples of Previous Groups
Humanities: First Book Writing Group - A group organized by junior faculty in the book proposal stage to help themselves stay focused and on deadline
Interdisciplinary: Identity & Intersections with Race, Class, and Gender - A group of junior faculty invested in research on identity construction and intersectionalities of gender, race and class
Interdisciplinary: General Writing Group - A group dedicated to help each member with accountability for achieving writing progress during the school year
Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)
The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) is a national organization of individual and institutional members representing over 900 colleges and universities. CUR believes that faculty members enhance their teaching and contribution to society by remaining active in research and by involving undergraduates in research.
Swarthmore has an enhanced institutional membership, which allows all faculty, staff, and students to join CUR at no additional cost and to access many resources, including publications, mentoring services, and announcements of conferences and training opportunities (see full list of benefits). We recommend connecting with one or more of CUR’s divisions to access the latest announcements related to your discipline.
Here are instructions for activating your membership. If you previously had login information, it will remain the same. If you have difficulty accessing your membership, please send an email to CUR Membership Coordinator Janae Douglas at jdouglas@cur.org.
If you have general questions, please contact Robin Howard, Director of Membership and Volunteer Strategy and Experience, at robin@cur.org. Here are slides and a recording (accessible using your Swarthmore credentials) from CUR’s information session for the Swarthmore community.
Regional Faculty of Color Working Group
For those who are interested, send an email to Professor Nina Johnson (njohnso5@swarthmore.edu) or Professor Jennifer Vargas (jharfordva@brynmawr.edu) to be added to the listserv and receive invitations to group events.
TriCo Mellon Brainstorming Seed Grant (Deadline: early April)
These Seed Grants support faculty projects related to research, teaching, curriculum, or service/governance. The grants are flexible as to the nature and scope of the initiatives funded. Projects could include faculty working groups, topical workshops or symposia, "outreach" activities, invited speakers, travel money for faculty training, etc. The Steering Committee particularly welcomes collaborative proposals that bring together faculty from the three colleges as well as proposals that are difficult to fund through conventional sources. All faculty members at Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges are eligible to apply.
Budget requests for a Seed grant can be as high as $3,000, and if you have received a Seed grant in the past, you are eligible to submit a request for a grant renewal. (Funds can be provided for up to 3 years for a maximum of $9000 in financial support.) The one limitation from the Andrew Mellon Foundation is that the budgeted money cannot be used for faculty stipends.
Please visit the Mellon Trico website for more information. You also will find lists of past Seed Grant projects funded by the Mellon Tri-College Faculty Forum Grant at this site.
The Seed Grant application should include the following:
- Cover sheet (attached to this message and on the website)
- Faculty member(s)involved in the project
- A description of the proposed initiative (2 pages max.)
- A detailed budget (travel expenses are permissible, but faculty stipends are not funded.)
Please submit your application electronically to Joanne Kimpel at jkimpel1@swarthmore.edu. (You will receive confirmation of your submission.) We look forward to hearing from you, and we encourage you to apply. This is a great opportunity to collaborate with tri-co colleagues, the application process is not particularly onerous, and many wonderful projects have started life through this funding.
Contact: Rachel Buurma, Department of English Literature, Swarthmore College and Chair of the Mellon Tri-Co Faculty Forum
Lynne Butler, Department of Mathematics, Haverford College and Member of the Mellon Tri-co Faculty Forum
The Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges
The Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC) is a group of twenty-five institutions striving to advance liberal arts education through collective efforts to support faculty research and teaching. AALAC aims to enhance the overall experience of students and to develop faculty leadership. Originally funded through a Mellon Foundation grant, the schools that comprise AALAC continue to explore the role of their institutions in the landscape of higher education and thereby to address more effectively the pressing challenges facing American liberal arts colleges.
Swarthmore has been a member of this collective since its inception in 2006. AALAC hosts annual multi-institution faculty development workshops. The most recent assembly of AALAC institutions was held at Carleton College in 2019 with a theme of The Challenges of Balancing the Humanities, STEM, and Other Fields of the Liberal Arts.
Information on proposing future faculty workshops and an archive of past workshops can be found on the AALAC website. For more information, contact Janet Tobin, Associate Dean for Academic Administration at Amherst College, at jstobin@amherst.edu.
Research/Writing Support: NCFDD Member Benefits
Swarthmore's NCFDD Institutional Membership provides an external mentoring community designed to help post-docs and faculty members of all ranks increase research and writing productivity and improve work-life balance.
Membership Benefits include:
- The Monday Motivator (weekly productivity email)
- Access to monthly core curriculum
- Access to guest expert webinars
- Access to multi-week courses
- Access to the Career Center
- Audio and video recordings, slides and transcripts from all webinars
- Access to moderated monthly writing challenges and monthly mentor matches
To register and access member benefits visit the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity website.
