Edinburgh Fellowship

Fellow for 2013-2014: Leemon McHenry (California State University, Northridge)

Edinburgh Fellowship -- Applications for the 2014-2015 academic year are now being accepted. (There is no deadline.) Please send your application and supporting materials electronically to prizes@apaonline.org.  

The APA sponsors one Visiting Research Fellowship per year at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The University of Edinburgh. There is no funding associated with this award but the APA Fellow has a private office in the Institute, is a member of the Institute's lively research community and has full borrowing rights at Edinburgh University Library. The Fellowship is for a period of 2-6 months. Applicants must be members of the APA. 

No limitation is placed on the area of research within the Humanities and Social Sciences but priority will be given to those whose work falls within the scope of one of the Institute's research strands:

• Theory, Practice and Performance
• Enlightenment
• The University and the Wider World
• The Human and the Environment

Information about the research strands and the associated themes, projects and events, can be found on the Institute's website:
http://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/

About the Institute (website -http://www.iash.ed.ac.uk)

The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at The University of Edinburgh was founded in 1970 to promote enquiry of the highest standards in the Humanities, broadly conceived, and is both nationally and internationally renowned. It was the first interdisciplinary research institute in the United Kingdom and since its foundation over 900 scholars from 62 countries have held Fellowships.

IASH has a great deal to offer visiting philosophers. Fellows enjoy quiet facilities conducive to contemplative research that are nonetheless located in the centre of the university and indeed in the heart of a historic city, steeped in the history of the Scottish Enlightenment and home to many distinguished figures from the history of philosophy, including not only David Hume, but also Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, Sir William Hamilton, and, more recently, John Macmurray, A.E. Taylor, Norman Kemp Smith, W. H. Walsh and T.L.S. Sprigge. Professor Sprigge’s philosophical library is housed in the Institute and is a valuable resource for researchers. The Philosophy department at Edinburgh excels in philosophy of mind and cognition and has major strengths in ancient and early modern philosophy, ethics and epistemology and members of the department maintain close collaborations with academics in, for instance, Edinburgh’s School of Informatics, Psychology, History, and Classics. 

The Institute is housed in a secluded 18th Century courtyard close to the University Library, where Fellows have full borrowing rights and access to the library's unusually rich collection of manuscripts and rare books. It is also within easy reach of the National Library of Scotland, the Central City Library, the National Galleries and Museums, the Library of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland, the library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and the National Archives of Scotland. About 20 scholars can be accommodated in the Institute at any one time and each has a private office with a computer, telephone and internet access. All Fellows give at least one seminar on their research and are expected to play a full part in the Institute's activities which include a weekly Fellows' lunch and a full programme of seminars and scholarly events linked to the Institute's current research themes. The Institute maintains close links with all academic Schools within the University of Edinburgh's College of Humanities and Social Science, including the Schools of Arts, Culture and Environment; Divinity; History, Classics and Archaeology; Law; Literature, Languages and Cultures; and Social and Political Science, as well as the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. Fellows are encouraged to develop contacts with appropriate Faculty within the College.

Application Procedures

Candidates should apply to the APA with a description of the project to be pursued at the Institute, a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendation. Applications must be sent in electronic format to prizes@apaonline.org. The APA will then forward a nomination to the Director of the Institute.

Previous Holders of the Fellowship:

2013-2014: Leemon McHenry (California State University, Northridge)
2012-2013: None
2011-2012: None
2010-2011: Paul O. Nnodim (Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts)
2009-2010: Leemon McHenry (California State University, Northridge)
2003-2004: Allan Bäck (Kutztown University)
1998-1999: Thomas Olshewsky
1995-1996: Samuel Fleischacker

Notes for Guidance:

1. Candidates for Fellowships will normally hold a doctorate. Consideration will be given to the academic record and the publications of all applicants and their capacity to disseminate their views among a community of like-minded people. Candidates should give evidence of any contact they have made with researchers at the University of Edinburgh, and of proposed collaboration during their visit to Edinburgh; those who do make such contact before submitting their applications will be at an advantage.

2. The Institute encourages inter-departmental and inter-disciplinary study. All applications should state clearly the relationship of the proposed scheme of work to one or more of the current Research Themes of the Institute.

3. Fellows are expected to be resident in Edinburgh throughout the tenure of their Fellowship and to play a full part in the activities of the Institute. The Institute will be pleased to help with finding suitable accommodation in Edinburgh. The minimum tenure for a Fellowship is two months; applications for less than two months will not be considered.

4. No regular teaching is required but Fellows usually give at least one seminar on their current research work.