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 office staff (Cathy Pescatore and Joanne Kimpel)

Currently Active Groups

2015-16

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

2014/15

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

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 a myriad of 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.

Note: The Self-Service portal, in which faculty, staff and students will be able to sign up on the CUR website and add themselves to the Enhanced membership, is currently under construction. During this time please send an email to the Membership Coordinator, Janae Douglas at jdouglas@cur.org and she will be able to add you to Swarthmore's membership. CUR will provide instructions on how to join using the Self-Service portal once the update is complete.

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.