2023-2024 Thematic Graduate Student Fellowship: The Place of Memory
The Topic
The Robert Penn Warren Center’s theme for AY 2023-24 is The Place of Memory. With equal emphasis on “place” and “memory,” we invite you to create, research, and (re)think what it means to navigate remembering and forgetting in our post-COVID, algorithmic world. Where does memory live in the body and how is it communicated through our actions in the world? How do places—geographical, corporeal, conceptual—inform memory? How do memory and place(s)—individual, collective, or historical—influence and shape each other? How do we memorialize so as to preserve, do justice, heal, and move forward? And when is it necessary to forget?
The Program
Fellows will convene weekly in person to discuss scholarly works-in-progress. The schedule and nature of the meetings will be established collectively by the Fellows in consultation with the Center Director. At the end of the appointment, Fellows will be expected to have completed an academic research project (such as an article or dissertation chapter or law-review note), a creative/artistic project, or a scholarly public engagement project.
They will also be required to give a public presentation on their project during the academic year.
Who Can Apply
Graduate students from all Vanderbilt schools are invited to apply. Students must have completed at least one year of their program and be working on a well-defined project in their program to be eligible. Each graduate student will be provided $2000 in research funds.
*Note: This is a residential fellowship. All Fellows, including those on leave, are expected to participate fully, in person, in the collaborative work and scheduled meetings of the group.
To Apply
Applicants for The Place of Memory Graduate Fellows Program should provide their curriculum vitae and a maximum of 1,000-word statement that describes their project, its relevance to the fellowship theme, and the work to be completed over the course of the fellowship. Preference will be given to candidates who reflect on the specific aspects of their work that could benefit from collaborative, interdisciplinary engagement with other colleagues, as well as projects that are broadly relevant to “mending and transforming.” All materials will be reviewed by the RPW Center Director and an interdisciplinary faculty review panel.
If you are willing to serve as a coordinator for the seminar, please indicate that in your application.
Send all application materials (CV, statement) with “The Place of Memory Graduate Fellowship” in the subject line to Phoebe Thompson by April 1, 2023. Applicants will be notified of their status by July 1, 2023.
For all questions, please contact Holly Tucker, Director, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.