Application Deadline:
22 April 1999
The Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute announces a call for proposals to develop university courses. The competition is intended to encourage the introduction of new courses innovative in both content and methodology, and the dissemination of new curricula across the region (defined as Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union). The program also aims to provide incentives and means for interdisciplinary and international co-operation among academics from the region.
Applicants are invited to develop and teach a one- or two-semester-long course (introductory, survey or research level) on an important topic from a new perspective. The competition is open to individuals and groups for 10-month grants for preparation and introduction of the new course. Group grants will be awarded to promote innovative, collaborative projects and priority will be given to groups of academics from at
least two countries or cities of the region who aim to design a course with an international perspective. All applicants are strongly recommended to base their courses on their original research in the given field and apply new approaches to delivering the course. In making awards for group projects, preference will be given to courses that will be delivered at all universities represented by the group.
Grants for both individual and group projects will consist of monthly individual stipends for the preparation and teaching period (max. 10 months), and an allowance for legitimate additional expenses (book purchase, teaching materials, photocopying, slides, and additional, justified travel costs and administrative expenses in case of the group grants). In the case of projects where a course developed by a group will be taught at only one institution, the stipends for the teaching period will be calculated from the amount of a full stipend in proportion to the degree of involvement of each participant (involvement should be expressed clearly as a percentage in the course plan). Group leaders will receive a small group leader`s fee in addition for their extra responsibilities. Grants will not cover the costs of study in countries outside the region. Group project proposals should include budget requests for meetings during the preparation period and further visits to teach the course. HESP plans to organize a methodology seminar together with Central European University`s Curriculum Resource Center at the end of the grant period for the grantees who will continue teaching the course for the next years.
Evaluation: In order to ensure quality of new courses, applications will be evaluated by a special selection committee set up by HESP. Members of the committee will be respected scholars with sufficient knowledge of the higher education needs of the region. The new courses will also be evaluated by experts in the field, and by students of the given course during or at the end of the grant period.
Academic Subjects:
Based on our experience with institutions of higher education and programs in the region, HESP invites applications in the following subject areas:
Ethnography and Anthropology:
We encourage individuals or teams to design new courses that:
1. explore the concept of `culture` as used by the Anglo-Saxon and French anthropological traditions, contemporary European ethnology and the emerging anthropological-ethnological schools in the region OR
2. deal with the epistemological and moral problems of the production of ethnographic knowledge about distant others and contemporary modern societies OR
3. are based on original ethnographic investigations in topics relevant to current social changes and processes in the region, such as the rise of capitalisms, the formation of public and private histories, new forms of political mobilization, transnational production of knowledge and culture, and novel classifications of groups in society.
Research seminars involving students in focused and short-term fieldwork will be preferred.
(Please submit a clear and detailed budget request for students` fieldwork.)
Sociology:
HESP welcomes courses built on empirically grounded, comparative projects that engage issues of institutional change at the micro and/or macro levels. (Comparisons do not have to be multinational.) We especially encourage projects with creative research designs and rigorous, state-of-the-art methodology, that engage on-going theoretical debates in the regional and international literature, and carry clear and important policy implications. Areas of interest include, but are not restricted to, economic sociology; sociology of culture, minorities, inequalities, religion, family, ageing, demography, deviance, gender, science, media studies, popular culture, globalization and nationalism; political sociology; historical sociology; and urban sociology.
Political Economy:
We welcome applications for courses on contemporary political economy in the region. Political economy is a complex field, and it cannot be said that there is consensus among its practitioners about its most fundamental methods or objectives. Therefore we encourage the submission of applications from researchers working in various academic areas: economics, political science, law, sociology, history, philosophy. We especially welcome proposals for courses examining the relationship between political science and economics; the place of economics among the social sciences; or the status of formal-mathematical theories in political philosophy. We would like to emphasize the importance of developing curricula for the study of the experience of `transition` from a political economy point of view.
Public Sector Analysis:
Courses should cover both quantitative and qualitative methods, and assist in developing empirical and theoretical skills with the purpose of conducting systematic analysis of policy, politics, and institutional structures within the public sector. Methods and subjects may be drawn from the disciplines of political science, sociology, comparative law, statistics, economics, etc. Possible course topics include comparative approaches to reform in education,
health care, housing policy, and social security.
Art History and Theory:
We are inviting applicants from humanities programs and art academies to design innovative courses around topics such as:
1. the history of national/state and private collections; museum studies (the political functions of museums, changing principles of art conservation and restoration); the interaction of high and low art; connoisseurship and criticism: history of art history;
2. the power and changing function of images (in illiterate and literate cultures); new forms of visuality; analysis and interpretation of new art forms related to technology; art and science: interdisciplinarity and networking in the frame of media tools.
Eligibility: Academics from the region may apply as individuals or in groups if they teach at a higher education institution in the region. Experts from research institutes may also apply to design and teach courses based on their own work. In the case of group grants, HESP will not support projects carried out exclusively by faculty from a single institution. Project proposals should demonstrate the following:
compatibility with the curriculum reform endeavours
innovative character and approach (also to course design)
relevance to regional issues
scientific quality in the selected field
feasibility
Priority will also be given to curricula in comparative and interdisciplinary studies and course development from an international perspective, particularly with group grants. Applicants are strongly advised to base their programs on their original research.
Previous CDC grantees and HESP/RSS Course Development Competition Fellows are not eligible for 5 years.
Applications must be presented in English on HESP application forms.
For individual proposals, the application form must be accompanied by a description of the proposed course and preliminary bibliography of materials to be used in preparation and teaching, a presentation plan, a curriculum vitae (also highlighting research activity), a letter of reference and a letter of endorsement from the host university.
For group proposals, the application should be submitted by the project leader. In addition to the above it should contain a list of the individuals involved in the project, their CVs, institutional affiliations and contact information. For group projects letters of endorsement must be submitted from all the institutions that will host the course. (Please feel free to duplicate the letter of endorsement form if necessary.)
Application forms can be obtained from the local Soros foundations free of charge, from International HESP or from our website, , at the announcements section. Applications must arrive to International HESP by 22 April 1999 (see the address on the letterhead of the application form). The applicants will be informed in mid-May. Preparation should begin in May-June 1999 and courses should be taught during the first and/or second semester of the 1999/2000 academic year.
