Manuscript Workshops for Postdoctoral and Post-MFA Fellows

Deadline: Rolling

The Humanities Research Center offers competitive funding to support manuscript workshops for School of Humanities postdoctoral and post-MFA fellows in their second year at Rice University.

For postdoctoral fellows, the workshop should focus on a scholarly work (regardless of genre), such as a completed book manuscript, key chapters of a book-in-progress, or a set of articles. The HRC welcomes proposals from post-MFA fellows in the visual and performing arts for studio visits, pre-exhibition reviews, or other consultations with external experts in your field to support scholarship or creative works that transcend these text-based workshop formats.

The idea of a manuscript workshop is to invite one external reviewer and one internal reviewer—both established scholars and/or artists in the applicant's field—to read, engage, and comment upon the manuscript or creative work in a workshop format.

Hosting a manuscript workshop:

The manuscript workshop should be hosted or co-hosted by the department, center, and or program with which the postdoctoral or post-MFA fellow is affiliated. Invitations for external manuscript reviewers would normally be extended (or co-extended) by the department chair or center/program director on behalf of the unit.

Manuscript workshops require advance planning (ca. 6 months) and can be scheduled around the author's availability, the unit, and the first-choice external readers. Once the date has been determined, the department chair or center/program director should work with the author and their mentor (if relevant) to extend a limited number of invitations to colleagues to participate in the workshop.

Not only does the hosting role of the department/center/program attest to its investment in supporting the advancement of the postdoctoral or post-MFA fellow, but such workshops should ideally become part of the unit’s and the School’s intellectual life.

Expectations of unit, reviewers and participants:

  • Unit:
    • Workshops should generally not be public events or involve departmental or school publicity. It is critical that the author, in consultation with the host chair/director, is able to shape the group of participants so that it is possible to receive meaningful input in an intellectual constellation that includes those colleagues whose input they most value. Chairs/directors, as hosts of a manuscript workshop, should ensure a productive and collegial atmosphere in the workshop and a discussion format that is comfortable for the author in terms of creating a format that allows them to respond to comments one by one as they are raised, or to collect input and respond to several comments at once. Chair/director hosts should attend to the demands on the author to think on their feet in the face of rigorous questions and comments and to work out with the author the best rhythm for the discussion.
  • External readers:
    • The postdoctoral/post-MFA fellow associate requesting the workshop should identify two to four external readers and rank them by order of preference (in the event that the top choice is not available), with the goal of enlisting one external reader whose insights will be useful to the author as they prepare their materials for submission/promotion. The postdoctoral associate must also identify one to two internal readers and rank them by order of preference. The chair/director extends the invitation, including the CV and a brief description of the scholarly work presented to the workshop. The charge to the external and internal reviewers is to carefully read the manuscript materials and provide oral comments/questions/discussion points, leading off and setting the tone of the discussion. The external and internal readers should provide written comments to the author, ideally following the conclusion of the workshop. It is important that the department chair/center director outline the expectations of the invited reviewers in the formal invitation.
    • Workshop planning should involve adjacent time, ideally after the workshop, for the author to meet privately with the external and internal readers, possibly over dinner, to procure additional input or discuss the work in greater depth.
  • Local participants/Rice colleagues:
    • The list of Rice participants should also be assembled by the chair/director with the postdoctoral associater whose work is being read/reviewed and may include faculty with related interests from other disciplines/schools, including colleagues from nearby universities if relevant. Hosts must make clear that attendance presumes the willingness to pre-read substantial sections of the circulated material and to offer input and insights to the author, i.e. participants should not presume they will just listen to the discussion.
    • Workshops should be scheduled during the semester, during reading days, or just after the semester’s end in order to garner the desired participation. For that same reason, workshops should be scheduled for a reasonable time frame (3-4 hours maximum). A well-run workshop can be highly productive in this time frame.

Funding:

Up to $2,000 is provided by the HRC per workshop proposal and covers honoraria and travel/hosting costs for the external expert's invitation as well as other costs associated with the workshop (including dinner with the external and internal readers).

The award is to the unit for the individual postdoctoral/post-MFA fellow's workshop and not to the individual postdoctoral/post-MFA fellow. Should the budget for the workshops exceed this sum, departments/centers/programs should ascertain if they can contribute the remaining funding.

We estimate that the HRC will be able to allocate funding for no more than 4 manuscript workshops per year, although we will do our best to fund workshops as the need arises and will consider the timing of the planned submission, publication, or promotion process.

To learn more about our recommended budget best practices, please consult the HRC budget guidelines document at https://rice.box.com/s/yz00vaak56nkfbuq93c5qf5tbrxla7sb (Rice login required). Please see the RICE GLOBAL PARIS CENTER BUDGET TEMPLATE for an example.

Staffing:

The workshops should be staffed by the department/center/program administrator(s). The HRC will submit a budget transfer to the postdoctoral or post-MFA fellow's unit, and the unit administrator will work with the chair/director to issue invitations to the external and internal readers and Rice participants and will arrange the advance dissemination of the materials to both. The unit administrator(s) will also be responsible for hotel, flight, and airport transportation booking, as well as restaurant reservations and workshop catering if needed.

Deadline:

Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Awarded funds must be used within six months of their disbursement.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

For more information, please contact Dr. Gabriela Garcia at gabriela.garcia@rice.edu.