Worlds in Collision:

Nahua and Spanish Pictorial Histories and Annals in 16th-Century Mexico

HOW TO APPLY

Welcome Letter from Project Directors

Lodging and Institute Stipend

Please Note: the required Application Cover Sheet occurs at the end of this document, and is separately downloadable.

     NEH Institutes provide intensive collaborative study of texts, topics, and ideas central to undergraduate teaching in the humanities under the guidance of faculties distinguished in their fields of scholarship. Institutes aim to prepare participants to return to their classrooms with a deeper knowledge of current scholarship in key fields of the humanities. Prior to completing an application to a specific seminar or institute, please review the project website and consider carefully what is expected in terms of residence and attendance, reading and writing requirements, and general participation in the project.

     NEH Summer Institutes are designed primarily for full-or part-time faculty who teach undergraduate students. The Worlds in Collision Institute will include 26 Summer Scholars. Project directors may admit a limited number of others whose works lies outside undergraduate teaching but who demonstrate that their participation will advance project goals and enhance their own professional work. An applicant need not have an advanced degree in order to qualify as a Summer Scholar. We try to hold at least five institute spaces reserved for non-tenured/non-tenure-track faculty members, and three institute spaces for advanced graduate students.

NEH GUIDELINES FOR PARTICIPANT ELIGIBILITY

     Participants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. U.S. citizens teaching abroad at U.S. chartered institutions are also eligible to participate. Foreign nationals teaching abroad are not eligible to participate. Please note: An individual may apply to up to two projects (NEH Summer Seminars, or NEH Summer Institutes), but may participate in only one.

     Individuals may not apply to participate in a Summer Seminar or Institute whose director is a family member, or who is affiliated with the applicant's own institution, or who has served as an academic advisor to the applicant, or who has led a previous NEH summer program attended by the applicant. Individuals may not apply to participate in a Summer Seminar or Institute if they have been debarred or suspended by any federal department or agency.

SELECTION CRITERIA

     A selection committee reads and evaluates all properly completed applications in order to select the most promising applicants and to identify a number of alternates. The most important consideration in the selection of participants is the likelihood that an applicant will benefit professionally as determined by committee members from the conjunction of several factors, each of which should be addressed in the application essay. These factors include the following (and also see “Tips for a Successful Application,” below):

1. quality and commitment as a teacher, scholar, and interpreter of the humanities;
2. intellectual interests, in general and as they relate to the work of the institute;
3. special perspectives, skills, or experiences that would contribute to the institute;
4. commitment to participate fully in the formal and informal collegial life of the institute;
5. likelihood that the experience will enhance the applicant's teaching and scholarship.

     Recent participants in other NEH programs are eligible to apply, but selection committees are charged to give first consideration to applicants who have not participated in an NEHsupported Seminar, Institute or Landmarks Workshop in the last three years (2019, 2020, 2021). When choices must be made among equally qualified candidates, several additional factors are considered. Preference is given to applicants who have not previously participated in an NEH Summer Seminar, Institute, or Landmarks Workshop, or who significantly contribute to the diversity of the seminar or institute.

STIPEND, TENURE, AND CONDITIONS OF AWARD

     Individuals selected to participate in three-week projects will receive a stipend of $2,850. Stipends are intended to help cover travel expenses to and from the project location, books and other research expenses, and ordinary living expenses. Stipends are taxable. Applicants to all projects should note that supplements will not be given in cases where the stipend is insufficient to cover all expenses.

     Seminar and institute participants are required to attend all meetings and to engage fully as professionals in the work of the project. During the project's tenure, they may not undertake teaching assignments or any other professional obligations during the threeweek residential period of the Institute. Participants who, for any reason, do not complete the full tenure of the project must refund a pro-rata portion of the stipend.

     At the end of the project’s residential period, NEH Summer Scholars will be asked to submit evaluations in which they review their work during the summer and assess its value to their personal and professional development. These evaluations will become part of the project's grant file.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS AND SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

     Before you attempt to complete an application, please study the project website, which contains detailed information about the topic under study, project requirements and expectations of the participants, the academic and institutional setting, and specific provisions for lodging and subsistence.

IMPORTANT: Do not send applications to NEH -- they will not be reviewed or returned.

All application materials must be sent to the project directors at the addresses listed below. Please submit your application for “Worlds in Collision” electronically – sent simultaneously to the following two email addresses of the two Project Directors:

Dr. Laraine Fletcher at fletcher@adelphi.edu.

Dr. George Scheper at gscheper@jhu.edu.

Applications must be dated no later than March 1, 2022.

Successful applicants will be notified of their selection on March 25, 2022, and they will have until April 8 to accept or decline the offer.

     Once you have accepted an offer to attend any NEH Summer Program (NEH Summer Seminar or Institute), you may not accept an additional offer or withdraw in order to accept a different offer.

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CHECKLIST OF APPLICATION MATERIALS

The application process is quite simple, but before you attempt to complete an application, please check out the ELIGIBILITY and SELECTION CRITERIA sections below, along with our project website, which contains detailed information about the topic under study, project requirements and expectations of the participants, the academic and institutional setting, and specific provisions for lodging and subsistence. Please note: An individual may apply to up to two projects (NEH Summer Seminars, or NEH Summer Institutes), but may participate in only one. All application materials must be sent to the project directors at the email or postal addresses listed below or on the project website. Application materials sent to the Endowment will not be reviewed.

CHECKLIST OF APPLICATION MATERIALS

     A complete application consists of three copies of the following collated items:

1) The Application Cover Sheet
     (attached at the end of this document, downloadable)

     This consists of basic informational items required for filing with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

2) Résumé and References

     Please include a detailed résumé, curriculum vitae, or brief biography (not to exceed three pages), along with the name, title, phone number, and e-mail address of two professional references. You may, if you wish, include letters of reference, but this is not required.

3) The Application Essay

     The application essay should be no more than four double-spaced pages. This essay should include any relevant personal and academic information. It should address reasons for applying; the applicant’s interest, both academic and personal, in the subject to be studied; qualifications and experiences that equip the applicant to do the work of the seminar or institute and to make a contribution to a learning community; a statement of what the applicant wants to accomplish by participating; and the relationship of the project to the applicant's professional responsibilities. Applicants to institutes may wish to elaborate on the relationship between institute activities and their responsibilities for teaching and curricular development.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT

     Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. For further information, write to the Equal Opportunity Officer, National Endowment for the Humanities, 400 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024. TDD: 202/606-8282 (a special telephone device for the Deaf).

Additional Tips from Project Co-Directors Laraine Fletcher and George Scheper toward a Successful Application for “Worlds in Collision”

     The NEH “How to Apply” document above fully sets out the requirements for an application, and the selection criteria used, but we would like to add to this a very succinct summary that might be helpful especially to first-time applicants.

• Keep in mind that the Application Essay is of paramount significance in the selection process.
• In your essay, be extremely careful to focus on the content of the Institute to which you are applying: the Institute description and rational; the Institute Visiting Faculty Scholars; the Institute required readings -- these should all form the basis of your description of your own interest in participating in the Institute, and relevant academic background that you bring to the project.
• In your essay, be sure to explain what actual, realistic opportunities you will have to incorporate the Institute proceedings into your own teaching and research in the near future; be specific as to your opportunities to undertake new curriculum and course designs at your institution.
• In your essay, be sure to explain the research project you hope to undertake at the Library of Congress, and the resources you expect to access.

Expectations of Participants in “Worlds in Collision” as NEH Summer Scholars

• Summer Scholars are expected to make a full commitment to the proceedings of the Institute during the time the Institute is in session.
• Summer Scholars are expected to be prepared for each meeting session of the Institute in terms of readings for the day as listed in the Institute Daily Schedule.
• Summer Scholars are expected to engage actively in substantive discussion of content at meetings of the Institute with the Project Directors and with Visiting Faculty Scholars.
• Summer Scholars in the "Worlds in Collision” Institute will each give a report at one of the final meetings of the Institute, presenting the results to date of the participant’s individual research project undertaken during the Institute.

NOTE:
THE FOLLOWING PAGE CONSISTS OF THE DOWNLOADABLE APPLICATION COVER SHEET

Click to download printable copy. Click to download printable copy.