2010-2011 William S. Vaughn Visiting Fellowship
"Representation and Social Change"
The Warren Center will host a year-long interdisciplinary faculty seminar to explore the complex and multidirectional relationship between representation and social change. In our current globalized and mediated culture, experiences of social change are commonly communicated through a variety of representational means, and the reach and influence of mass communication increases the possibility that representations can be used to create social change as well as to reflect it. Yet today’s conditions are not unique—historical examples abound of instances in which representations of circumstances and events, once disseminated, have both communicated and facilitated social change.
The seminar will include participants who study a broad range of representation, including verbal, visual, and other material means. These categories could stretch from literature to music to images, both moving and still (including technological representations such as magnetic resonance imaging, sonograms, etc., as well as digital media), and also to material culture (sculpture, pottery, grave goods, and the like). “Social change” is likewise understood broadly. It may manifest in activism, policy, or politics, but it also operates at the level of identity, lifestyle, and culture. While emphasizing participants’ concrete research projects that focus on the relationship between representation and social change, the seminar also will encourage interrogations of the meaning and nature of representation and of social change as contested concepts in and of themselves.
We invite applications from scholars in all disciplines whose lively presence will help to focus our work and stimulate discussions. We anticipate that the successful applicant will have completed the terminal degree in her/his field and will have a record of scholarly publication. The seminar meets weekly and will allow the visiting fellow ample time to pursue a major research project. The combined interests of the visiting fellow and the Vanderbilt faculty fellows will determine the form and content of seminar discussions.
The visiting fellow is provided with a spacious office within the Center’s own building. The fellowship pays a stipend of up to $45,000 and provides $2,000 in moving expenses.
Application materials available here.
For more detailed information please contact:
Mona Frederick, Executive Director
Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities
VU Station B #351534, Nashville, TN 37235-1534
(615) 343-6060