The American Communities Program
2015-16 Theme and Call for Research Proposals
RELATION
The 2015-16 American Communities Program theme is designed to deepen our understanding of
the construction and perpetuation of American identities, cultures, and communities through
humanities-based inquiry. In particular, this year’s theme asks us to consider how research in the
humanities can help us analyze the artifacts, structures, practices, and ontologies that make
various forms of relation possible and meaningful.
In other words, through what means are relations between bodies, species, objects, ideas, and/or
communities mediated, managed, forged, and/or foreclosed? What bases for relations are
relevant to particular American communities? How are relations imagined, manifested, and
represented and to what effects?
We invite proposals from tenured and tenure-track faculty at CSULA that engage questions
including, but not limited to, the following:
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material culture and the function of objects in mediating relations or rendering them
visible/invisible
the temporal and/or spatial dimensions of relations
innovative methodologies that explore relations such as Border Studies, New Mobility
Studies, and Food Studies, as well as evolving theories of relation in discourses such as
aesthetics, ontology, and Marxist or psychoanalytic theory
political treaties, contracts, gifts and promises, and other codified or informal acts of
obligation; sovereignty, citizenship, privacy, treason, terror, and betrayal
particular aesthetic forms and modes of representing affinities and connections whether
material and embodied or linguistic and referential
power relations, force, and violence; a-relationality
pedagogical possibilities informed by the ethics of relation
new conceptualizations of American communities in relation to global or hemispheric
contexts
intersubjectivity, permeability, attachment, and theories of the self
The Fellowships
Up to three fellowships will be awarded to applicants who engage in humanities-based inquiry.
One of the three fellowships, the Bailey Fellowship, may be awarded to an original project that
applies this year's research theme to African American communities and/or individuals and
preferably involves archival materials.
The program welcomes proposals from the arts that can be presented in a lecture/recital. All
proposals, however, must include a research or analytical component based in the humanities.
Each fellowship awards 8 units of release time and a $750 stipend for a student assistant or other
project-related expenses. Fellows must present their research at the ACP's Spring 2016
symposium and are expected to attend the 2015 symposium on May 19.
Application Materials
Please submit your application via email to aknight@calstatela.edu as well as submit a
hard copy to
Director of the American Communities Program
Dean’s Office
College of Arts and Letters
MUS 228
Application materials consist of a two-page curriculum vitae, a 500-word research proposal, and
a research budget outlining the use of the stipend. Proposals should explain the relevance of the
proposed project to this year's research theme and the significance of the research. Proposals will
be judged for innovation and capacity for generating campus conversations on the theme.
Proposals that include student research and/or community engagement are welcome. The
submission deadline for the 2015-16 fellowships is 5pm, April 17, 2015.