Residency

In collaboration with the UCCS Office of Research, the Heller Center for the Arts and Humanities funds an annual Heller Resident Scholar or Artist. Awardees will receive two course offloads over a single semester to dedicate themselves entirely to research or creative goals. This residency is part of Heller’s effort to support and advance the contributions of UCCS faculty to the Humanities writ large. Applicants submit proposals for particular projects to undertake during their residency period. Heller affiliated departments and programs include: Anthropology, Communications, Economics, English, Geography and Environmental Studies, History, Humanities, Languages and Cultures, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Visual and Performing Arts, Women’s and Ethnic Studies, and the Kraemer Family Library. Thus, potential projects range from the humanities and social sciences to the arts.

Applications for the 2024-2025 Fall or Spring Residency are due September 1^st, 2023

Award:

• The award funds two course off-loads (6 credits) for a tenure-track or tenured UCCS faculty to be taken in a single semester (concurrently).
• Residents receive a workspace at the Heller Center for the semester.
• Residents are offered $700 for travel related to research or research/arts related supplies.
• Residents interact with a locally-based “council of scholars” arranged specifically for their project by the Heller Center and in conversation with the awardee. The goal is to encourage avenues of interdisciplinarity in the resident’s work.
• Residents conclude the semester with a presentation or exhibition of their work at the Heller Center. They must also submit a report to Heller and to the Office of Research regarding their work during the award period. Reports are due the semester after the residency, either by October 1^st or March 1^st.

Eligibility:

1. Applicants must be tenure-track or tenured UCCS faculty.
2. Applicants must be from one of the Heller-affiliated disciplines (listed above).
3. Applicants must have been in a full-time faculty position (instructional, clinical, or tenured/tenure track) at UCCS for at least three consecutive years. (Applicants may apply in their third year of being employed full-time at UCCS but must be tenure/tenure track at time of application.)

Requirements:

1. Awardees must take both offloads in a single semester during which they would have taught two courses. (Faculty on a 2/1 will receive a single course reduction and be expected to take it in the semester they are scheduled to teach their single course.)
2. Awardees must maintain the service component of their full-time position during the residency.

Application: Please know that this is a very competitive process. We receive many applications for the single residency and the quality of the applications is invariably high. We urge applicants who are not selected to submit applications in following years.

Applications are for the following academic year.

Guidelines:

1. Cover letter (1 page): include basic information including name, rank, department, current teaching load, and years as full-time faculty at UCCS. Please identify the semester you prefer to take the residency. Identify any other support that this project has received. Project title and 100-word description (include whether the project is a monograph, art project, digital project, public project, etc.)
    
2. Project Proposal (4-page limit, double spaced, 12-point font; the proposal should be free of jargon and readable/understandable by faculty from across humanities disciplines):
   
   Describe the project in detail. Please keep the following in mind: Significance: Articulate the potential impact/value of your project within your field and beyond, as well as how it fits in with your larger research/creative agenda. Project Design: Identify how you plan to use your time as resident and what you expect to accomplish during the semester of your residency. Clearly articulate the specific outcomes of the residency and the feasibility of accomplishing those outcomes. Touch upon the nature of your final public presentation/exhibition. Timing: Clarify why now is an important moment in your research/creative process for the time provided by the residency.
   
   Strong proposals will include language addressing your project’s contribution to the Heller mission to inspire interdisciplinary conversations across the UCCS campus, and to heighten the arts, humanities, and social sciences in Colorado Springs.
    
3. Work plan/outline. Include a timeline for the tasks you wish to complete, including a plan/budget for the provided stipend. (Include note of any additional funding the project has received.) (1 page)
    
4. Curriculum Vitae (5-page limit)
    
5. Include an email with your chair or director’s approval (to ensure that the program/department is prepared to reallocate your course load during the proposed residency period.)

Best Practices for Reviewing Applications:

The Heller Faculty Board is committed to a fair and transparent process in awarding of the Heller Residency. Members of the Heller Center Faculty Board will review applications in an objective and unbiased manner.

The strength of the proposal will be the main criterion for ranking all applications under review, specifically its feasibility, focus, and potential impact/value. Awardees will be able to demonstrate their ability to take advantage of the opportunity, time and resources offered by the Heller Residency when it comes to furthering their research/creative work, and enhancing their impact across the campus and community. 

Reviewers will recuse themselves from reading and ranking applications if there is a conflict of interest, which is defined as anyone who has a legal relationship to the applicant (partner, parent) and/or the applicant is from their home department. However, reviewers may take part in discussion of final candidates from their home departments after the initial review takes place.

The contents of applications and the discussion of applications in all review committees are confidential -- information about applicants or the discussion of the applications may not be shared with others outside the review panel.

Submission

Please send complete applications as a single pdf to heller@uccs.edu.