Subject: ANNOUNCE: Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship: Ecological
Conversations
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 08:25:24 -0800
From: Suzanne Clark <[log in to unmask]>
Ecological Conversations: Gender, Science and the Sacred
A Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship Program
Center for the Study of Women in Society
University of Oregon
The Program
Ecological wisdom is cultivating a new ethos, a new covenant, a new
spirit
of place. More than three decades after Rachel Carson first raised a
passionate voice of conscience in protest against the pollution and
degradation of nature, the gendered dimensions of the global
environmental
predicament are increasingly visible. Key elements of Western science
and environmental management have been challenged by postcolonial,
feminist, antiracist, and indigenous peoples' struggles. These
movements have generated investigations of the religious and cultural
meaning systems and the socioeconomic underpinnings of Western
colonization and desacralization of the natural world. The global nexus
of these movements has opened up fundamental philosophical,
evolutionary, political, and spiritual questions.
Ecological Conversations: Gender, Science and the Sacred proposes to
engage the creativity generated by the convergence of women's and
ecological movements around the globe. The program will create a forum
for critical reflection and scholarly interchange where the assumptions
about knowledge and the world that shape these movements can be
complicated and contested.
Our goal is a series of dynamic conversations where scholars, writers,
scientists, theologians and grass-roots activists from different
cultural
and national contexts can move beyond environmental crisis rhetoric and
explore conceptual and ethical vocabularies that meet the challenges of
a
new millennium.
Each year's theme will balance questions of theory and practice.
Fellowships will be provided in the 1999-2000 academic year to scholars,
writers and activists whose work centers on issues of gender and
ecology, environmental justice, or ecofeminism. We welcome proposals
that deal with basic epistemological, theological, philosophy of
science, and cultural questions, as well as those focusing on specific
problems such as environmental illness, fertility, sexuality, or
geographical displacement.
The theme for 2000-2001 is the cultural analysis of scientific concepts,
practices and policies. We will consider how scientific concepts and
findings are translated into public environmental discourse, and the
role
of the emerging ecofeminist vision of science and technology in this
discourse. During 2001-2002, we will focus on the ways in which
scientific and sacred epistemologies are being integrated and how this
integration (or lack thereof) influences our sense of place. The
program is committed to an international dialogue. Ideally, half of the
fellows will be from outside the U.S. and Europe.
In addition to pursuing their own research project, fellows will
participate in a biweekly seminar and an annual CSWS-sponsored
conference on the theme of the Rockefeller program for that year.
Appointment duration may range from three to nine months. A monthly
stipend, medical coverage and travel expenses will be provided. Awards
may not be used for the completion of graduate degrees, advanced
training, curriculum development, or for writing poetry or fiction.
The Center for the Study of Women in Society
Founded as a multidisciplinary research center in 1983, The Center for
the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) generates, supports, and
disseminates research on gender and on all aspects of women's lives.
The center has a large cadre of active faculty affiliates representing
disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, most of the natural
and physical sciences and all of the professional schools. CSWS is a
member of the National Council for Research on Women.
Resources at the University of Oregon
Nurtured by the region's long history of independent and original
thinkers
in ecological theory and practice, the University of Oregon has become
an
international locus of environmental scholarship and activism. The
Environmental Studies Program is unique among US campuses due to it's
strong humanities component, and is one of two in the country that
offers a
Ph.D. level program in literature and the environment. Also unique, are
the resources of the Institute for a Sustainable Environment, which
fosters research addressing the long-term sustainability of the earth's
major environmental systems and encourages cross-disciplinary
environmental research, education and public service.
The University's School of Law hosts the premier annual gathering for
environmentalists worldwide. Now in its 18th year, the Public Interest
Environmental Law Conference unites attorneys, students, activists,
scientists and concerned citizens. Students at the School of
Architecture
and Allied Arts founded the multidisciplinary HOPES (Holistic Options
for
Planet Earth Sustainability), which sponsors an annual ECO-Design arts
conference focused on an ecologically sustainable approach to human
living
systems.
Fellows will also have the opportunity to draw on the resources of the
ongoing scholarship of the Oregon Center for the Humanities, the Center
for Asian and Pacific Studies, the International Studies Program, the
Religious Studies Program, and the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in
Judaic Studies. Furnished office space will be provided, along with a
telephone, computer, network access, full privileges to university
libraries, access to on-site copy and fax machines, and some secretarial
support.
Application Procedure
Please include the following items in your application
(We request that materials be written in English):
ˇ Letter of Intent (1- 2 pages)
Describe how your work addresses the program's concerns and how
participation in the program will enhance your research/leadership.
ˇ Proposal (3 - 5 pages)
Describe the project you will pursue as a fellow,
including your timeline.
ˇ Curriculum vita or Résumé
ˇ Letters of Reference (2)
ˇ Publication / Writing sample (1)
Application Deadline (for first year fellows):
February 1, 1999
Please send applications via the postal service within the US.
International applicants may consider delivery by electronic mail or
facsimile.
Address all inquiries and application materials to:
Rockefeller Fellowship Program
Center for the Study of Women in Society
1201 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1201
Telephone (541) 346-5015
Facsimile (541) 346-5096
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
For more information, contact the CSWS web site:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~csws/
___________________________________________________
Lynne Fessenden, Program Manager
Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship Program
"Ecological Conversations:
Gender, Science and the Sacred"
Center for the Study of Women in Society
1201 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1201
phone:(541)346-5399
fax:(541)346-5096
e-mail:[log in to unmask]
CSWS Website: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~csws/
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