Junior Fellows

H+U+D Invites Applications for 2021-22 Junior Fellows—

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Mellon Junior Fellows 2021-22

Application deadline: January 29, 2021

The initiative in Humanities, Urbanism, and Design (H+U+D) at the University of Pennsylvania is a ten-year project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to foster critical and integrative considerations of the relationship between the humanities and the design professions in the analysis and shaping of the built environment. Under the renewed grant (beginning in 2018), the initiative takes “The Inclusive City” as its theme, focusing on issues of inclusivity and diversity. The program has a number of component parts, including a bi-weekly Faculty Colloquium, the sponsorship of graduate and undergraduate courses, student research funding, an Undergraduate Colloquium, special lectures, participation in conferences, a Doctoral Dissertation (ABD) Fellowship program, and a Junior Fellowship program. For more information on the initiative see: https://www.humanitiesurbanismdesign.com

Applications are now invited for two one-year Junior Fellowships to be held in 2021-22. One fellow will be selected from the humanities and one from design-related fields such as planning, architecture, and landscape. Each will be hosted at Penn by a department in the other discipline.

Mellon Junior Fellows will be selected on the basis of their ability to contribute, through research and teaching, to the interdisciplinary aims of the initiative. Preference will be given to projects related to the “Inclusive City” theme. During their nine months in residence, Junior Fellows will have the opportunity to pursue their own research. They will participate in the bi- weekly Colloquium, present their research at one of the Colloquium sessions, and will participate fully in the academic life of their host departments. In the spring semester they will teach an undergraduate seminar, which may be co-taught by the two fellows.

Eligibility

Applications are invited from junior scholars in all humanistic and design disciplines whose work deals with the built environment of cities, landscapes, and architecture, in relation to the Mellon initiative’s theme focusing on diversity and inclusion. Applicants for 2021-22 will hold a PhD that was defended no later than December 2020 and who will have held the PhD degree for no longer that 10 years on September 1, 2021. Candidates may hold tenure-track positions but may not be tenured at the time of application or during the fellowship year. Applications are welcome from scholars of all nationalities and academic affiliations.

The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected class status in the administration of its admissions, financial aid, educational or athletic programs, or other University-administered programs or in its employment practices.

Terms of appointment

The fellowship stipend is $55,000. Health insurance will be provided for fellows but not for family and dependents. Fellows may employ the stipend to supplement their sabbatical salaries. As participants in the Colloquium, they will receive a research fund of $2,500, which will be disbursed according to University guidelines.

Fellows are required to be in residence in Philadelphia during the academic year in which the fellowship takes place (August 31, 2021–May 16, 2022).

Application Guidelines

Applications and letters of reference must be received by January 29, 2021. These materials should be sent to Ms. Alisa Chiles, H+U+D Program Manager (mellon-hud-initiative@groups.sas.upenn.edu).

Applications should be assembled as one PDF comprising

1. cover sheet (template is downloadable here: HUD Junior Fellow Application Cover Sheet)

2. curriculum vitae

3. research proposal (750 words maximum)

4. undergraduate seminar proposal (200-word description plus syllabus)

Your PDF and the email that conveys it should be titled <Your last name> HUD application; e.g., Chakrabarty HUD application

Also arrange to have three letters of reference, which discuss your research proposal, sent directly to Ms. Chiles (mellon-hud-initiative@groups.sas.upenn.edu) by the application due date of January 29. The letters should be in the form of PDFs, and the PDFs and the emails that convey them should be titled

<Your last name>_<Reference writer’s last name> HUD reference; e.g., Chakrabarty_Ramirez HUD reference

Address questions to

Daniel A. Barber barberda@design.upenn.edu or Andrea Goulet agoulet@sas.upenn.edu

Download Application Cover Sheet

HUD Junior Fellow Application Cover Sheet

H+U+D Welcomes Junior Fellows and Dissertation Fellows for 2020-21—

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The Mellon Humanities, Urbanism and Design Initiative at Penn (H+U+D) is pleased to announce the arrival of its two Junior Fellows and two Mellon Doctoral Dissertation Fellows for the 2020-21 academic year.

H+U+D Junior Fellows

Dr. Tyeshia Redden and Dr. Syantani Chatterjee have been named H+U+D Junior Fellows for 2020-21. They were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants from the humanities and design disciplines. In keeping with the mission of H+U+D to bring together scholars and students to explore cities at the intersection of the humanities and design, Dr. Redden, a scholar of race studies and housing policy, is being hosted by the School of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Chatterjee, an anthropologist, is hosted by the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Both Junior Fellows will participate in the H+U+D Faculty Colloquium and teach interdisciplinary undergraduate seminars in their academic host departments in Spring 2020.

  • Tyeshia Redden

Ty Redden joins the Mellon H+U+D Initiative from Gettysburg College, where she was Assistant Professor of Africana Studies. She is a graduate of Savannah State University and the University of Florida, having earned a Ph.D. in Design, Construction & Planning with specializations in race studies and housing policy. Her research explores development-forced displacement driven by mega-sporting events. Ty is a frequent presenter at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Urban Affairs annual conferences, and is co-author of “Building the Foundation for Arnstein’s Ladder: Community Empowerment through a Participatory Neighborhood Narrative Process” in the forthcoming volume, Learning from Arnstein’s Ladder: From Citizen Participation to Public Engagement (co-edited by M. Lauria and C. Slotterback). She is appointed in the Department of Africana Studies (School of Arts and Sciences).

  • Syantani Chatterjee

Syantani Chatterjee, who recently completed her PhD in Anthropology at Columbia University, is an anthropologist specializing in questions of urban citizenship and belonging in India. Her book project, which builds on her dissertation, examines the social worlds of the residents of Shivaji Nagar (Mumbai), also known as “Bombay’s Gas Chamber.” Her interest in exposure, and embodiment is reflected in her earlier field research among commercial gestational surrogates in India. In her award-winning Master’s Thesis at Columbia University, Caste in a New Mold: The rematerializing of caste in the biomedical universe of commercial surrogacy in India, she studied the emergence of new configurations of caste, and the endurance of earlier forms of the same in contemporary India, from within biomedical practices and discourses. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, Chatterjee worked as a journalist for Reuters, the Associated Press and CNN.  Her scholarship has received generous support from the American Institute for Indian Studies, Columbia University’s Lindt Dissertation Fellowship, and other endowments. Her publications appear in the International Journal of Labor and Working Class History, and PoLAR. She is appointed in the Department of Landscape Architecture (Weitzman School of Design).

(more…)

H+U+D Invites Applications for 2020-21 Junior Fellows—

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Mellon Junior Fellows 2020-21

Application deadline: January 26, 2020

The initiative in Humanities, Urbanism, and Design (H+U+D) at the University of Pennsylvania is a ten-year project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to foster critical and integrative considerations of the relationship between the humanities and the design professions in the analysis and shaping of the built environment. Under the renewed grant (beginning in 2018), the initiative takes “The Inclusive City” as its theme, focusing on issues of inclusivity and diversity. The program has a number of component parts, including a bi-weekly Faculty Colloquium, the sponsorship of graduate and undergraduate courses, student research funding, an Undergraduate Colloquium, special lectures, participation in conferences, a Doctoral Dissertation (ABD) Fellowship program, and a Junior Fellowship program. For more information on the initiative see: https://live-penn-iur-hud.pantheonsite.io/

Applications are now invited for two one-year Junior Fellowships to be held in 2020-21. One fellow will be selected from the humanities and one from design-related fields such as planning, architecture, and landscape. Each will be hosted at Penn by a department in the other discipline.

Mellon Junior Fellows will be selected on the basis of their ability to contribute, through research and teaching, to the interdisciplinary aims of the initiative. Preference will be given to projects related to the “Inclusive City” theme. During their nine months in residence, Junior Fellows will have the opportunity to pursue their own research. They will participate in the bi- weekly Colloquium, present their research at one of the Colloquium sessions, and will participate fully in the academic life of their host departments. In the spring semester they will teach an undergraduate seminar, which may be co-taught by the two fellows.

Eligibility

Applications are invited from junior scholars in all humanistic and design disciplines whose work deals with the built environment of cities, landscapes, and architecture, in relation to the Mellon initiative’s theme focusing on diversity and inclusion. Applicants for 2020-21 will hold a PhD that was defended no later than December 2019 and who will have held the PhD degree for no longer that 10 years on September 1, 2020. Candidates may hold tenure-track positions but may not be tenured at the time of application or during the fellowship year. Applications are welcome from scholars of all nationalities and academic affiliations.

The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected class status in the administration of its admissions, financial aid, educational or athletic programs, or other University-administered programs or in its employment practices.

Terms of appointment

The fellowship stipend is $55,000. Health insurance will be provided for fellows but not for family and dependents. Fellows may employ the stipend to supplement their sabbatical salaries. As participants in the Colloquium, they will receive a research fund of $2,500, which will be disbursed according to University guidelines.

Fellows are required to be in residence in Philadelphia during the academic year in which the fellowship takes place (August 26, 2020–May 17, 2021).

Application Guidelines

Applications and letters of reference must be received by January 26, 2020. These materials should be sent to Ms. Alisa Chiles, H+U+D Program Manager (mellon-hud-initiative@groups.sas.upenn.edu).

Applications should be assembled as one PDF comprising

1. cover sheet (template attached as Word document and also available on website)

2. curriculum vitae

3. research proposal (750 words maximum)

4. undergraduate seminar proposal (200-word description plus syllabus)

Your PDF and the email that conveys it should be titled <Your last name> HUD application; e.g., Chakrabarty HUD application

Also arrange to have three letters of reference, which discuss your research proposal, sent directly to Ms. Chiles (mellon-hud-initiative@groups.sas.upenn.edu) by the application due date of January 26. The letters should be in the form of PDFs, and the PDFs and the emails that convey them should be titled

<Your last name>_<Reference writer’s last name> HUD reference; e.g., Chakrabarty_Ramirez HUD reference

Address questions to

Daniel A. Barber barberda@design.upenn.edu or Andrea Goulet agoulet@sas.upenn.edu

HUD Junior Fellow Application Cover Sheet

Search for the Next Mellon Junior Fellows in Humanities, Urbanism and Design—

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Applications are now invited for two one-year Junior Fellowships to be held in 2016-2076.

One fellow will be selected from the humanities and one from design. Each will be hosted at Penn by a department in the other discipline.

Mellon Junior Fellows will be selected on the basis of their ability to contribute, through research and teaching, to the mission of the initiative.  During their ten months in residence, they will have the opportunity to pursue their own research. They will participate in the bi-weekly Colloquium, presenting their research at one of those sessions, and they will also participate fully in the academic life of their host departments. In the spring semester they will teach an undergraduate seminar, which may be co-taught by the two fellows.

For full job description,
HUD Junior Fellow JobDescript 2016-17
Junior Fellow application cover sheet

New H+U+D Courses for Spring 2016—

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For Spring 2016, H+U+D will sponsor several new course for undergraduates and one graduate seminar. Thanks to our new Mellon H+U+D Jr. Fellows, we will add two new courses to our multidisciplinary offerings.

ARCH-314 Fantastic Cities
This seminar introduces the notion of the city, or polis, as a powerful current in our cultural imagination, provoking both fear and desire. Through architectural theory, literature, and film, we will examine representations of Rome, Berlin, New York, Lagos, and a series of utopian and dystopian imagined cities. Course taught by Dr. Christina Svendsen, Mellon H+U+D Fellow
HIST 233- Improvised Cities in the Modern World: Between Design and Urban Informality 
The course examines the formation of the improvised or “informal” city in historical context, considering this as a global phenomenon, whether framed as slum, shantytown, bidonville, favela, katchi abadi, human settlement, etc. It traces the shifts in design professionals’ conceptions of and responses to the improvised city, ranging from the confident assertions of order expressed by early reform housing and urban renewal projects, to experiments with self-help and design for progressive development, and more recent targeted interventions aimed at achieving incremental improvements or upgrading. Course taught by Dr. Helen Gyger, Mellon H+U+D Fellow.

Back by popular demand, The City: Baltimore co-taught by Professor Eric Schneider, History and Professor Michael Nairn, Urban Studies will once again explore the history of the city and its institutions using HBO’s series The Wire as a core text.

URBS/HIST 210- The Wire and The City
This semester Urbs/Hist 210 will focus on Baltimore and use The Wire as one of its core “texts.” The course will explore the history and development of the city and its institutions, with a topical focus on issues such as industrialization and deindustrialization; urban renewal and the role of universities; public education; policing and the criminal justice system; drugs and underground markets; institutions; public housing; and Baltimore’s so-called renaissance amidst persistent poverty. The seminar will include field trips both in Philadelphia and a concluding all-day trip to Baltimore.

Finally, we will be offering a graduate student seminar, co-taught by Professor Naomi Waltham-Smith, Music and Professor Francesca Ammon, City and Regional Planning.

HSPV 638 / MUS 621 Cities and Sound: The Spatial Politics and Practices of Sound in Modern Urban Life This seminar will examine the role of sound in shaping modern urban spaces and life. While music plays a large part in the sounds of the city, we will focus on soundscapes more broadly. From the late 19th century through the present, and in geographies spanning from Paris to Philadelphia, we will explore the making, meaning, and experience of sound for varied populations; the politics of sound as an instrument of power; and the policies of noise regulation.

H+U+D Welcomes Two Junior Fellows—

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The Mellon Humanities, Urbanism and Design Initiative at Penn (H+U+D)  is pleased to announce the arrival of its first two Junior Fellows.

Dr. Helen Gyger and Dr. Christina Svendsen have been named H+U+D Junior Fellows for the 2015-2016 academic year, in a program support by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. They were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants from the humanities and design disciplines. In keeping with the mission of H+U+D to bring together scholars and students to explore cities at the intersection of the humanities and design, Dr. Svendsen, a scholar of comparative literature, is being hosted by the School of Design, and Dr. Gyger, an architectural scholar, is hosted by the School of Arts and Sciences.

gygerHelen Gyger joins the Mellon H+U+D Initiative from Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, where she received her PhD in 2013 and has taught courses on architectural history and theory. Her research focuses on the architecture and built environments of modern Latin America  and contemporary patterns of “informal” urban development, which is a global phenomenon. She is the co-editor (with Patricio del Real) of Latin American Modern Architectures: Ambiguous Territories (Routledge, 2012) and is currently working on a book project titled The Informal as a Project: Self-Help Housing in Peru, 1954–1986. While at Penn, her research will focus on the urban development programs of the Alliance for Progress. She is appointed in the Department of History (SAS).

This fall, the initiative also welcomes Christina Svendsen, who completed her PhD in 2010 at Harvard University, Svendsen bio photowhere she has taught in the Department of Comparative Literature and co-directs “Rethinking Translation,” a Mahindra Humanities Center seminar in collaboration with Peter Waterhouse’s Versatorium (a translation collective) and the Akademie der Lesende Künste in Vienna. She has published the first English translations of architect Paul Scheerbart’s Lesabéndio: an Asteroid Novel (2012) and the surrealist Unica Zürn’s The Trumpets of Jericho (2015). Her research interests include modernist literature, architectural and critical theory, and new materialisms. Currently, she is revising a book manuscript titled Stone, Steel, Glass: Architectures of Time in European Modernity. Her newest project, on which she will work while at Penn, is a conceptual history of transparency and virtual space, tentatively called “Aesthetics of Transparency: Glass Culture as Threat and Desire.” She is appointed in the Department of City and Regional Planning (Design).

Both Junior Fellows will participate in the H+U+D faculty colloquium and teach interdisciplinary undergraduate seminars in spring 2016.