Q. I have completed, defended, and filed my dissertation but not yet received the official degree from the University because anyone filing between April and September can only receive the degree in October. Am I eligible to apply?
A. Yes. Please mention these details in your letter, and ask at least one of your recommenders to verify the degree conferral information.
Q. I sent in my application a few weeks ago. I wonder if you could tell me what happens next. When will you be scheduling interviews?
A. Your file will be reviewed in a three-stage process, which should be complete by early May when campus visits will be arranged for finalists.
Q. Who are the current IHUM Fellows?
A. For current staffing information, see our Current Fellows page.
Q. Does this position include benefits?
A. Yes. For information on Stanford benefits, see http://benefitsu.stanford.edu/.
Q. Do you accept applications from outside the U.S.?
A. Yes. We welcome all qualified applicants.
Q. After I applied for the position, I received a job offer from another source. Should I inform you?
A. We invite you to contact us with this updated information as soon as possible. Stanford is on the quarter system and spring quarter ends in mid-June, which is much later than most other schools. We understand that decisions about other offers may need to be made before the IHUM search is complete, and would appreciate learning about your situation in time to give you full consideration.
Q. Your job posting indicates February 28th as the deadline. Should my documents arrive by the deadline or postmarked by that date?
A. You may send in all materials postmarked by February 28th. If you are sending materials from overseas, please take into account any delay in mailing time. We will start our review process on schedule.
Q. I applied last year and was notified that my materials were being kept on file in case an opening developed as a replacement. I'd like to apply again this year. Should I resubmit all my materials?
A. Yes, please submit a new application. Applications kept on file are only for positions in the academic year applied for. The curriculum in IHUM changes each year. We would also appreciate updated recommendations.
Q. What kinds of teaching evaluation information do you want – student comments? a faculty supervisor’s review of my classes? copies of evaluation forms?
A. We prefer that you send summaries of student evaluations, including representative comments if available. Faculty reviews of your classroom teaching, especially with reference to being part of a teaching team, are also helpful.
Q. My student evaluations take up many, many pages of completed forms, with both numerical rankings and qualitative comments. What kind of summaries are appropriate? Do you want to see the actual student writing?
A. If your institution does not compile numerical summary rankings from course evaluations, please create a numerical summary for all your courses and include a photocopy of a sample completed form from each course. Representative student comments can be submitted as photocopies of students' writing, but please make a careful selection that reflects the entire range of responses and limit the number to no more than 15. You may also type up students' comments and group them by headings to help the review committee identify aspects of your teaching that would best qualify you for leading IHUM discussions.
Q. Do some post-doctoral fellows stay beyond the three-year term?
A. In very rare cases. Perhaps one fellow per year is invited to teach a fourth and final fellowship year in response to programmatic need, such as replacing someone on medical leave.
Q. What specifically is required in the description of my background for the courses I selected in the webform? Do I need to provide a course design?
A. IHUM courses are designed by senior faculty and approved by the IHUM Governance Board to satisfy the first-year humanities requirement in general education. The candidate should discuss his/her particular familiarity with the topics, themes, and texts mentioned in the course description. If you have taught a course on the topic or theme, using the texts mentioned in the course description, your syllabus is welcome. Otherwise, please describe how you would teach one of the course texts in a seminar setting for freshmen.
Q. The online form requests the names and positions of three references but also allows for additional references. Do you welcome additional written letters of reference, or would you prefer to receive only three such letters?
A. Additional recommendations can be submitted provided that they speak directly to the candidate's qualifications as a teacher and scholar.
Q. In the application letter and the teaching statement, should I describe my preparation for all 5 courses that I identified (3 fall and 2 winter/spring), or should I focus on just 1 course as an example?
A. Please describe your preparation for your first choice in fall, as well as for your first choice sequence in winter/spring.
Q. I'm considering applying for one of these IHUM post-docs, but I can't find any information regarding how recent a PhD one must be. I received my PhD in Spring of 2003. May I still apply for one of these postdoctoral positions?
A. We do not have a firm cut-off date for the conferral of the Ph.D. but rather consider each application on its own merit. We encourage you to apply if your background and experience match both the qualifications for the fellowship and the courses offered in the curriculum next year.
Q. I'm uncertain whether a scholar coming from outside the US system is likely to be successful in an application to Stanford's IHUM program, particularly given the fact that higher education in many other countries does not systematically conduct teaching evaluations. What should I do in my application in the absence of these evaluations?
A. We have had many fellows from international backgrounds teach with great success in the program. In the absence of student evaluations, some candidates submit a supplemental letter of reference from someone who knows well their teaching skills and abilities and can attest to the quality and range of the candidates' teaching experiences. This can be a suitable substitute for direct comments from students or summary reports of scores.
Q. I am currently a part-time Lecturer in the English Department at X University. I would like to apply for the IHUM Fellowships offered by Stanford for next year, but was wondering if you had any specific recommendations as to what types of courses you would like to be taught for the Program.
A. Stanford faculty are responsible for designing IHUM courses which must be certified by the Faculty Senate's Governance Board to satisfy the General Education Requirement (GER). The Senate Legislation governing the GERs limits the IHUM course design process to members of the faculty. Applicants for the post-doctoral fellowship should review the provisional list of courses for the next year and identify the courses for which they would like to lead discussion seminars. We do not solicit course proposals as part of the fellowship application.
Q. I am finishing my PhD in political philosophy and I would like to apply to the IHUM post-doctoral fellowship. I am interested in the course "Freedom Equality Difference". In the course material are included Daniel Defoe's, Robinson Crusoe and Nella Larsen's, Passing. I haven't read these books nor do I know anything about their commentaries. I know Mill, whom my thesis is about and Locke, because my field is history of modern political philosophy. I would like to know if I am eligible for this post and the extent that the contents of this course are flexible.
A. Yes, you are eligible to apply for the fellowship. All autumn courses are interdisciplinary; therefore, most Post-Doctoral Fellows are teaching texts both within and outside their areas of specialization during this ten-week term. One of the important purposes of the fellowship is to enhance fellows’ teaching skills across many areas of the humanities, especially in a seminar setting with first-year students. You would be expected to prepare for teaching of these and other texts outside your doctoral field, with professional development help and support from the IHUM staff and the Center for Teaching and Learning.