ACTC Oxford Abroad Program

THE ASSOCIATION FOR CORE TEXTS AND COURSES

AND

THE OXFORD STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMME

ANNOUNCE

THE ACTC-OSAP SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE AT OXFORD PROGRAMME

The Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC) and the Oxford Study Abroad Programme (OSAP) are offering to scholars of core texts and liberal arts an opportunity to travel and study abroad as the ACTC-OSAP Scholar in Residence at Oxford University for eight to ten weeks during the summer of 2012.

This Programme is open to any faculty member from an institution which is an institutional supporter of ACTC: http://www.coretexts.org/institutional-members.  Please check with your core text program director, dean, or provost/academic vice president office to learn if your institution will be a member in 2011-2012.  

Modeled after the successful Oxford Study Abroad Programme for students, http://osap.studioabroad.com/, the new joint-venture ACTC-OSAP Scholar-in-Residence Programme will offer the following benefits for one Scholar-in-Residence at Oxford per year:

Benefits

• Up to $ 700 round-trip airfare to London and bus to Oxford through OSAP’s designated travel agent.  (In 2012, it is preferable to arrive between Tuesday, April 12, at the beginning of Trinity term, and April 26^th.  Arrival afterward is possible, but diminishes opportunities for contact with Oxford faculty.)
• During the mid-April, optional participation in OSAP 12-day orientation to Oxford University and town.
• One bedroom apartment in Oxford up to 10 weeks for Scholar and Scholar’s partner.  Children’s rooms available but at cost to the Scholar.  Wifi capable.
• Participation as a speaker in the OSAP “Faculty Seminar” on Oxford, liberal education, and the tutorial method, June 5-10.  All costs for meals and tours in this seminar paid by OSAP.
• Exclusive work-space in the OSAP offices for the Scholar, including WiFi capability.
• OSAP staff will provide reasonable support for the scholar, including free photocopies for research.
• Free participation in all student field trips and excursions (usually accompanied by a scholar-proctor for the student groups).
• Access to all public lectures at any of the 38 Oxford colleges
• Affiliation with New College, and its Middle Common Room.  The Scholar may dine, use the common room, borrow from the library, join clubs, or participate in special events – tours or even a ball (at cost).  www.new.ox.ac.uk.
• Access to the Bodleian (the main university library) with full use from 9 am to 10 pm on weekdays and from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays.  Photocopying available at 10 pence per page.
• Access to most of the twenty of so Faculty (Departmental) Libraries, all of which have their own regulations.
• Meetings and Consultations with Oxford University faculty through arrangement with OSAP and ACTC.  OSAP will take the scholar to dinners at several colleges.
• OSAP has summer programs, headed by faculty, from 10 USA colleges.  Depending on field, the Scholar may join some of these programs’ seminar sessions or offer one to two lectures to the students.

A Scholar traveling with family or partner will incur all expenses for airfare, transportation, and food, save the airfare for the scholar, only.  As indicated above, OSAP can provide housing for a partner and, at additional cost, room for children.

Though the OSAP office can provide computers to the Scholar, it is strongly recommended that the Scholar bring a computer for personal use.

Background of ACTC-OSAP Scholar-in-Residence Program:

The Association for Core Texts and Courses is a professional, liberal arts association that supports the development and maintenance of core text or world classic courses and curricula in undergraduate institutions, see http://www.coretexts.org/organization/organizing-statement.  As part of this effort, ACTC is proud to be working in cooperation with the Oxford Study Abroad Programme on the ACTC-OSAP Scholar in Residence program.  Founded about 1090, Oxford University is the oldest English-speaking university and considered to be one of the two or three best institutions of higher education in the world.

For twenty-five years, the Oxford Study Abroad Programme has placed students of academic distinction at the colleges of Oxford University.   In addition, to its record of providing undergraduate students from 600 colleges the opportunity to study with world-renown scholars under the tutorial system, OSAP offers week-long seminars for faculty to explore an academic topic with leading Oxford scholars.  Individual faculty can apply to undertake research in residence at Oxford University.  OSAP offers scholarship support, as OSAP Fellowships, to faculty conducting research.

Building on its experience, OSAP has partnered with ACTC to offer North American faculty the opportunity to study, during the summer, core texts (and/or core authors) and liberal arts education at Oxford University in the ACTC-OSAP Scholar-in-Residence Program.

Application Process:

Below you will find

• eligibility requirements;
• a link to the Nominator’s Form;
• a link to the ACTC-OSAP Scholar Candidate Form; and,
• post-scholarship obligations.

If you prefer to submit a paper application, please contact, Rosa Grundig, Administrative Assistant, ACTC Liberal Arts Institute: 925 631 8597 or rgrundig@stmarys-ca.edu.

All application materials, including the nominator’s nomination and the applicant’s application must be submitted by 11:59 PM, EST, December 31, 2011.

The ACTC-OSAP Scholar-in-Residence Programme has a particular emphasis: core texts and liberal arts.  ACTC, in line with its mission statement to “bring together colleges and universities that promote the integrated and common study of world classics and other texts of major cultural significance,” will select each year’s scholar through a peer-reviewed application process.  The process is designed to indicate the scholar’s interest in core text(s) (and/or core authors) and liberal arts education.

Scholars should understand that ACTC’s commitment to core texts and liberal arts shapes the selection process. Potential applicants are invited to consult ACTC’s website homepage at www.coretexts.org to see the kind of texts and programs that ACTC has supported in the past through its conference and special grant projects.

ACTC recognizes the plurality of conceptions of liberal arts education.  Oxford tutorials employ many core texts, yet this strand of liberal education is highly personalized, and while its methods are widely shared, its readings may be quite disparate from one tutorial to the next.  Further, since ancient Greece, liberal arts education’s development has always been in some sense international.  Thus, applicants may wish to consider internationalization in liberal, higher education within their proposal and to integrate this consideration in the four questions that are asked of applicants.

A renewed or further appreciation of the liberal arts by individual faculty is one very important object of this program.  Yet, ACTC would hope that a renewed, articulated value of a liberal education for academic and wider communities in the 21^st Century, informed by works central to the development and understanding the arts or sciences, might emerge as one consequence of a faculty member’s scholarship at Oxford.  Such articulation, ACTC believes, can have positive effects upon the development of liberal arts education in institutions across North America and around the world.

All application materials, including the nominator’s nomination and the applicant’s application must be submitted by 11:59 PM, EST, Dec. 31, 2011.

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Eligibility Requirement:

Applicants must be members of a faculty of an accredited institution, part-time or full time.  And, faculty must come from an institution which is a listed institutional supporter of ACTC; http://www.coretexts.org/institutional-members.  ACTC will accept institutional supporters to its list during the period leading up to the deadline for applications.

Nomination Requirement:

An applicant must provide a nominator, see http://www.coretexts.org/actc-oxford-abroad-program/nominator-form/.   ACTC advises all applicants to share a draft of the application with the nominator.

Application Essay Questions:

The Application Form will be found at http://www.coretexts.org/actc-oxford-abroad-program/candidate-application/. Applicants will be asked to address four questions:

1.         Why will your proposed scholarship be beneficial to the understanding or advancement of liberal arts and study of core texts?  (Up to 1100 words.)  Include in your answer the liberal arts and/or core texts that your scholarship will address.

Choose one:

2.         Are you pursuing a specific question or hypothesis in core texts and liberal arts? (275 words)

Or

What impact might your scholarship have on curriculum or teaching?          (275 words)

3.         What impact might your scholarship have upon institutions of higher learning, including your own?   (275-550 words)

4.         Personal statement: What was the origin and development of your interest in core texts and/or liberal arts education?       (275-550 words)

Or

What significance do you think the liberal arts and/or core texts have for persons and institutions outside the academy?  (275-550 words)

Readers will be looking for scholarship that addresses the wide audience of liberal arts professors and institutions, and for specifics that substantiate claims made in answering these questions.  If citations are needed, use the author’s last name, a readable abbreviation of a book title (or journal title), and (volume and) page citations in parentheses.  Conciseness, clarity, and accessibility count in the judges’ decision.

Post-Scholarship Obligations:

The applicant, upon acceptance of the award of Scholar-in-Residence, must agree to the following conditions for fulfillment of the programme:

a)  Provide a report no later than December 31 of the summer-in-residence year to both the Nominator and to the ACTC Executive Director on the activities and results of his/her scholarship while in Oxford.

This report should include an indication to ACTC/OSAP of any international, liberal arts educational interests or activities which may be enhanced or developed on the Scholar’s campus on the basis of the nominee’s trip to Oxford.

b)  Conduct a faculty meeting by December 31 of the summer-in-residence year wherein the Scholar will present the results of her/his scholarship while in Oxford, acknowledging the support of ACTC/OSAP, and including any pertinent information on international liberal arts;

c)  Attend the annual ACTC meeting following the summer session in Oxford and report either in plenary or panel session on his/her scholarship while in Oxford.

All application materials, including the nominator’s nomination and the applicant’s application must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST), December 31, 2010.

Selection Process:

Applications will be read (blind as to name) and judged by two selected ACTC reviewers.  All reviews are final and may not be appealed.  ACTC will not provide initial feedback on rough drafts of application materials or feedback on applications after submission for review, but applicants may contact ACTC with questions before submitting an application.

Best wishes to all applicants.

J. Scott Lee

Executive Director, ACTC

Richard Kamber

President, ACTC

Robert Schuettinger, President, OSAP