APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
You can download from this website a letter from the project director that contains detailed information about the topic under study; project requirements and expectations of the participants; the academic and institutional setting; and specific provisions for lodging, subsistence, and extracurricular activities. All application materials should be sent to the project director. Sending application materials to the Endowment will result in delay.
Completed applications should be postmarked no later than March 1, 2007 and mailed to:
NEH Summer Seminar,
Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies,
University of California, Los Angeles,
310 Royce Hall,
UCLA
Los Angeles, California
90095-1404
phone: 310-206-8552
fax: 310-206-8577.
Applications will be reviewed by the seminar director and a committee appointed by the Center. Perhaps the most important part of the application is the four-page essay. In the essay applicants should do the following things: (1) provide personal and academic information that is relevant to the seminar; (2) state reasons for applying to this particular project; (3) explain interest, both intellectual and personal, in Oscar Wilde’s life and work; (4) comment on qualifications to contribute to the seminar; (5) identify what one hopes to accomplish through participation in this event (including individual research or writing projects); and (6) show how involvement in “The Oscar Wilde Archive” connects with one’s classroom practice.
CHECKLIST OF APPLICATION MATERIALS
A completed application consists of three copies of the following collated items:
In addition, it must include two letters of recommendation as described below.
The application cover sheet
The application cover sheet must be filled out online at this address: http://www.neh.gov/online/education/participants/ Please fill it out online as directed by the prompts. When you are finished, be sure to click on the “submit” button. Print out the cover sheet and add it to your application package. At this point you will be asked if you want to apply to another project. If you do, follow the prompts and select another project and then print out the cover sheet for that project. Note that filling out a cover sheet is not the same as applying, so there is no penalty for changing your mind and filling out cover sheets for several projects. A full application consists of the items listed above, as sent to a project director.
Résumé
Please include a detailed résumé (not to exceed five pages).
The Application Essay
The application essay should be no more than four double spaced pages. This essay should include any relevant personal and academic information. It should address reasons for applying; the applicant's interest, both academic and personal, in the subject to be studied; qualifications and experiences that equip the applicant to do the work of the seminar or institute and to make a contribution to a learning community; a statement of what the applicant wants to accomplish by participating; and the relation of the project to the applicant's professional responsibilities. Applicants to seminars should be sure to discuss any independent study project that is proposed beyond the common work of the seminar. Applicants to institutes may need to elaborate on the relationship between institute activities and their responsibilities for teaching and curricular development.
Reference Letters
The two referees should be chosen carefully. They should be familiar with the applicant's professional accomplishments or promise, interests, and ability to contribute to and benefit from participation in the seminar or institute. They should specifically address these issues in their recommendations. Letters from colleagues who know the applicant's teaching and from those outside the applicant's institution who know his or her scholarship are often more useful than letters from college or university administrators. Referees should be provided with the director's description of the seminar or institute and the applicant's essay. If an applicant has previously participated in an NEH summer seminar or institute, a recommendation from the director or lead scholar of that program would be useful. Please ask each of your referees to sign their name across the back of the sealed envelope containing their letter, and enclose the letters with your application.
SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS AND NOTIFICATION PROCEDURECompleted applications should be submitted to:
NEH Summer Seminar,
Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies,
University of California, Los Angeles,
310 Royce Hall,
UCLA
Los Angeles, California
90095-1404
phone: 310-206-8552
fax: 310-206-8577.
The application should be postmarked no later than March 1, 2007.
Successful applicants will be notified of their selection on April 2, 2007, and they will have until April 15 to accept or decline the offer. Applicants who will not be home during the notification period are advised to provide an address and phone number where they can be reached. No information on the status of applications will be available prior to the official notification period.
STIPEND, TENURE, AND CONDITIONS OF AWARD
Individuals selected to participate “The Oscar Wilde Archive: his Life, His Work, His Legend” will receive a stipend of $3,600. Stipends are intended to help cover travel expenses to and from the project location, books and other research expenses, and living expenses for the duration of the period spent in residence. Stipends are taxable. Applicants to all projects, especially those held abroad, should note that supplements will not be given in cases where the stipend is insufficient to cover all expenses.
Seminar participants are required to attend all meetings and to engage fully in the work of the project. During the project's tenure, they may not undertake teaching assignments or any other professional activities unrelated to their participation in the project. Participants who, for any reason, do not complete the full tenure of the project must refund a pro-rata portion of the stipend.
At the end of the project's residential period, participants will be asked to submit on-line evaluations in which they review their work during the summer and assess its value to their personal and professional development. These evaluations will become part of the project's grant file and may become part of an application to repeat the seminar or institute.
SELECTION CRITERIA
A selection committee reads and evaluates all properly completed applications in order to select the most promising applicants and to identify a small number of alternates. (Seminar selection committees consist of the project director and two colleagues. Institute selection committees consist of three to five members, usually drawn from the institute faculty and staff members.) While recent participants are eligible to apply, selection committees are charged to give first consideration to applicants who have not participated in an NEH-supported seminar or institute in the last three years (2004, 2005, 2006). Recent participation in NEH’s Landmarks of American History and Culture Program does not negatively affect eligibility or competitiveness.
The most important consideration in the selection of participants is the likelihood that an applicant will benefit professionally. This is determined by committee members from the conjunction of several factors, each of which should be addressed in the application essay. These factors include:
1. quality and commitment as a teacher, scholar, and interpreter of the humanities;
2. intellectual interests, both generally and as they relate to the work of the seminar or institute;
3. special perspectives, skills, or experiences that would contribute to the seminar or institute;
4. commitment to participate fully in the formal and informal collegial life of the seminar or institute;
5. the likelihood that the experience will enhance the applicant's teaching and scholarship; and
6. for seminars, the conception and organization of the applicant's independent project and its potential contribution to the seminar.
When choices must be made among equally qualified candidates, several additional factors are considered: Preference is given to applicants who have not previously participated in an NEH seminar or institute, or who would significantly contribute to the diversity of the seminar or institute.