Fellowships
The Gray Center’s signature initiative is the Collaborative Fellowship for Arts Practice and Scholarship program, designed to foster intensive and experimental collaborations between artists and scholars.
These fellowships involve at least two people, one from inside and one from outside the university community, who eventually co-teach a course open to undergraduate and graduate students. Fellowship awards are customized to each project, which should encompass research, creative production, and teaching.
No route of inquiry (except the conventional and predictable!) will be ruled out; the program is not limited to the humanities nor to the realm of high culture. The collaboration is not limited to only two participants; larger teams are welcome.
Funds are available for project-related expenses (e.g., production/commissioning costs, publication/web costs, events, exhibitions, special facility needs for the practitioner, etc.). Visiting fellows receive a temporary salary (as well as housing, travel, etc.). In addition, to facilitate these collaborations, the university collaborator will also be eligible for appropriate support.
How to apply
Fellowship proposals are accepted on a rolling basis from University of Chicago faculty, lecturers, and postdoctoral scholars. Rather than require the submission of detailed and lengthy applications, we have designed a two-phase proposal process.
In the first (developmental) phase, we ask interested parties to submit a letter of interest of approximately two pages in length that offers a general introduction to the proposed collaboration and the proposed collaborator(s), including an account of his/her/their relevant achievements. The statement should address the following questions:
- How would you describe the aspirations of the project at this early stage of conception?
- How does this project extend beyond and/or depart from your work to date?
- Wherein lies the risk and experimentation of the proposed collaboration?
Upon review by the Gray Center Advisory Council, the most promising submissions are entered into a brainstorming process whose focus might involve identifying potential collaborators, designing project components, and/or clarifying the experimental ambitions of the proposed fellowship.
In the wake of this process, the council determines whether the proposal should move on to the second (evaluative) phase, which involves creating a full proposal.
Letters of interest can be sent to the following:
Seth Brodsky, Director: seths@uchicago.edu
Zachary Cahill, Director of Programs and Fellowships: zcahill@uchicago.edu
Mike Schuh, Associate Director of Fellowships and Operations: mikes1@uchicago.edu