Applications for Spring 2026 are due February 15, 2025
The Dresher Center for the Humanities, in conjunction with the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), and the Vice President for Research, invites applications for four Residential Faculty Research Fellowships in Academic Year 2025-26. Dresher Center fellowships offer the gift of time, space, and collegial conversation within a robust humanities center environment which will, in turn, enhance the UMBC conversation surrounding inclusive excellence.
Funding is intended to support and promote significant humanities research at UMBC. Dresher Center Residential Research Fellows will reside at least one day a week in the Dresher Center and receive a release from teaching (up to two course releases) to work on a significant humanities research project or the training necessary to embark on such a project. Faculty wishing to develop expertise in a new field or discipline towards a future project are also encouraged to apply. Each Fellow will have the use of an office in the Dresher Center and will be awarded $750 to hire an undergraduate research assistant (junior or senior) for the semester. Faculty fellows will be encouraged to connect to and share their work with each other and with the graduate student fellows connected to the Center.
Fellows will conduct two research works-in-progress sessions during their semester in residence. The first will be a Fellows and Others session on their research methods held toward the beginning of the semester. The second will be a session for the CURRENTS: Humanities Work Now series on the work that has been accomplished during the semester. Fellows will also participate actively in Dresher Center programs during their term of residency, including attendance at Fellows and Others and CURRENTS sessions, and at least two Humanities Forum events. A short report on fellowship activity will be due to the director within three months of completion of the fellowship. Residential faculty fellows will be considered fellows of the Dresher Center for as long as they are on the faculty of UMBC. After their semester in residence, they will be invited to serve a two-year term on the Dresher Center Advisory Board and remain active participants in Dresher Center programs.
Proposals are welcome from all full-time tenured or tenure-track UMBC faculty as well as full-time professors of the practice pursuing humanities research in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Four fellowships are available annually (two per semester). Applicants should mark on the application form whether they are applying for Fall 2025 or Spring 2026. Proposals will be reviewed by the Dresher Center Advisory Board, with decisions on Fall semester fellowships by mid-January and decisions on Spring semester fellowships by late June.
Submit proposals and Department Chair letters of support to dreshercenter@umbc.edu.