Office of Faculty Development Launches New Scholarly Writing Fellows Program

The Office of Faculty Development (OFD) is pleased to announce a new program aimed at expanding support for faculty writing accountability groups. OFD invites faculty participation in the Scholarly Writing Fellows Program. As a Scholarly Writing Fellow, faculty will partner with OFD to catalyze interdisciplinary support for writing and to expand a mutual support community of faculty writers on campus. Applications will be accepted through Monday, March 21 for fellows commencing in fall 2022.

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Over the course of the 2022-23 academic year, Scholarly Writing Fellows will benefit from developing new connections with other writers, participating in OFD’s creative programming in support of faculty, contributing to scholarly writing opportunities on campus, and through their engagement, making progress on their own writing goals. Scholarly Writing Fellows will receive a stipend of $500 for the academic year.

Scholarly Writing Fellows will launch and facilitate two semester-long Writing Accountability Circles (WACs), comprised of small groups of faculty who meet weekly to write together and share progress on their writing. WACs create connections and accountability among writers whose practices are enhanced because of participation. Fellows will facilitate each session, providing guidance on meeting format and writing tips.  In addition to supporting their colleagues, fellows will benefit from this dedicated time for their own scholarly writing.

The Scholarly Writing Fellows program is open to all full-time faculty at UMass Amherst. Appointments will be made to up to four Fellows for a one-academic year period.  Scholarly Writing Fellows will participate in two one-hour training sessions during the summer to become oriented to the process and principles of Writing Accountability Circles.  Throughout the year, they will also receive guidance from the OFD team and the associate provost of faculty development to support the implementation of their WACs.

To apply:

Send letter of interest to Wendy Varner, wvarner@umass.edu, by Monday, March 21.

In the letter, briefly describe:

• Your interest in the Scholarly Writing Fellow Program with the Office of Faculty Development for AY 2022-23 and how it will contribute to your professional goals.
• Your experience related to scholarly writing groups and mutual mentoring (e.g., participation in a WAC or other writing group, facilitation of groups, participation in other faculty development and/or faculty support programs, etc.)
• Any conflicts you may have with facilitating writing groups during the academic year.

Faculty will be notified of the status of their application by Friday, April 15.