Provost Research Studios

Goals

The goal of the Provost Research Studios (PRS) is to support the professional development of full-time faculty (tenured, tenure track, and non-tenure track) who are not full professors or otherwise at the top of their promotion ladder. The PRS must provide mentoring from outside the university. Such mentoring will not only advance the research and scholarship agendas of these faculty, but it will also help expand their professional networks. PRS provides a chance to bring a more senior scholar or scholars from other universities to campus and/or to visit a more senior scholar or scholars at other universities. A key objective of the PRS is to offer this support at a critical time in the faculty member’s career so as to leverage the impact of this investment.

Eligibility

Full-time faculty (tenured, tenure track, and non-tenure track) who are junior professors and who report to the Office of the Provost are eligible for this program. Previous PRS recipients are ineligible for nomination.

Program Elements

• A PRS provides a chance to bring a scholar or scholars from other universities to campus and/or to visit a scholar or scholars at other universities. The PRS recipient and the scholar(s) must discuss the faculty member’s work. The PRS could provide interactive panel discussions, suggestions for improving the PRS recipient’s research and scholarship, and individual meetings with these visiting faculty mentor(s).
• The resulting feedback should help the faculty member’s program of research. This can be in the form of articles, books, creative expression, or external grants.
• The dean of each college that reports to the Provost may nominate faculty for this program.
• The Office of Academic and Faculty Affairs may provide up to $4,000 to cover the costs of each PRS. The PRS funding may be used on travel, lodging, meeting, and/or dining expenses, which could include group meals, to bring or visit scholar(s) from other universities to discuss the faculty member’s work. The PRS funding may also be used on an honorarium for each visiting scholar. Each honorarium may be up to $500 per visiting scholar. The colleges/schools, departments, programs may choose to provide an honorarium for more than $500 for each scholar, but the applicable college/school, department, or program would pay for the amount in excess of $500 per visiting scholar.
• For AY 2019-2020, funding must be spent by June 30, 2020.
• The Office of the Provost will make the final determinations given the nominee pool and announce the final awardees.
• By June 30, 2020, the awardees will be required to submit a report. The report form will include a short summary of the scholar(s) the PRS recipient met with and the outcomes of the recipient’s PRS.

Nomination Guidelines

• The deans’ offices of the eligible faculty will submit their nomination(s) to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.

Current Recipients

• Ellen Armour, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Associate Professor of Feminist Theology, Divinity School
• Matthew Berger, assistant professor of computer science and computer engineering, School of Engineering
• Carwil Bjork-James, assistant professor of anthropology, College of Arts and Science
• Lauren Buchanan, assistant professor of chemistry, College of Arts and Science
• Erin Calipari, assistant professor of pharmacology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and molecular physiology and biophysics, School of Medicine Basic Sciences
• Robert Fry, senior lecturer in music history and literature, Blair School of Music
• Joe Lambert, assistant professor of special education, Peabody College of education and human development
• Bianca Manago, assistant professor of sociology and medicine, health and society, College of Arts and Science
• Sara Mayeux, associate professor of law, law school
• Mulubrhan Mogos, assistant professor of nursing, School of Nursing
• Ipek Oguz, assistant professor of computer science and computer engineering, School of Engineering
• Chorong Park, assistant professor of nursing, School of Nursing
• Freeman Wu, assistant professor of marketing, Owen Graduate School of Management

Previous Awardees