Call for Faculty Fellows: Freedom

 

“There is no easy walk to freedom.” 

—Nelson Mandela 

 

 

About Our Theme 

Few words stir more agonizing debate just now than freedom.  It serves to rally Black Lives Matter activists, those who oppose mask mandates, community health advocates, and even the violent mob that attacked the United States Capitol.  We feel its intense ambiguities, though agree it constitutes a moral bedrock on which nearly all other human rights rest.  English, the historian David Hackett Fisher notes, is nearly unique in having the words “liberty” and “freedom” both in our common language.  The first, derived from the Greek, traces its origins to the idea of independence.  The second—derived from the word for beloved and sharing the same root as “friend”—described rights of kinship and belonging.  And in this muddle we have found fertile ground for both emancipation and conflict, fellowship and violence. 

As we debate the strength of democracy, the rights of citizenship, the limits of the state, and the obligations of community, this long debate over the nature of freedom has taken on a renewed urgency.  And with it comes a clear need for the modes of knowing, thinking, and argumentation rooted in the arts and humanities.  Throughout the 2022-23 academic year, the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities will explore the idea of freedom by looking to the past, crossing cultural boundaries, forging unexpected connections, and imagining thriving futures for ourselves, our communities, and our planet. 

The Center’s work will be broadly interdisciplinary and will draw on the distinctive tools of the arts and humanities, then connect them to fields like law, engineering, business, and medicine. Fellows will explore the pathways to and from freedom that intersect in Oklahoma, from the Trail of Tears and the Tulsa Race Massacre to the McGirt decision and the Dust Bowl.  And we will look to the larger world as well to understand how this idea changes across time and between cultures.  How, we will ask, has freedom shaped our identity, ethics, governments, beliefs, and artistic expression?  What are the limits of freedom when articulated alongside other pressing issues like community health, global warming, and structural racism?  And how can a deeper, more complex understanding of freedom help us protect the values of democracy, equity, and dignity? 

 

About the Fellowship 

The Interdisciplinary Humanities Research Seminar sponsored by the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities at the University of Tulsa seeks to generate new research, inspire innovative teaching, create campus community, engage the city of Tulsa, and break through silos by supporting interdisciplinary work on topics of timely public and intellectual interest. This year, a group of approximately ten participants will be chosen to collaborate on a series of weekly seminar discussions. 

Faculty fellows will receive research stipends to support research, travel, course development, and publication. Such work could include scholarly papers, courses designed around the theme in question, creative works, or efforts designed to spur civic action and participation. Additional funding will be available to help create public programs hosted by the Center and its partners.  Fellows will also have access to shared works spaces and administrative support from the OCH staff. All full-time TU faculty are eligible to apply. 

 

Application Instructions 

Applications for participation in the seminar should include the following.  

• A current CV, including contact information. 

• Full responses to the three application questions listed below. 

Applications should be sent by electronic attachment to humanities@utulsa.edu.   

Application Questions (no more than 1,500 words total):  

1. What is it about the concept of freedom that most interests you? What are the questions that you would like to see addressed in the seminar? 
2. How will participation in the seminar contribute to your teaching, writing, creative, and/or other kinds of work?  What kinds of projects do you envisage arising out of your participation in the seminar? 
3. Provide a short list of works (books, images, performances, films, articles, etc.) that you have found important or provocative in relation to the seminar’s theme.