Login
The Graduate School and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Vanderbilt University in Nashville has partnered with historically Black Fisk University to create a groundbreaking new postdoctoral fellowship program.
These fellowships have been designed to offer opportunities for recent Vanderbilt Ph.D. graduates to build their teaching and scholarship portfolios, receive mentoring from faculty at both institutions and allow time for publishing their dissertations or preparing other research papers. Fellows will be considered by Fisk for faculty positions, with the goal of leading to tenure-track positions.
Two, 24-month fellowships will be available for the inaugural cohort which will launch this fall. Over the next few years, the cohorts will grow to five and then 10 members, and the plan is to eventually welcome applicants from outside Vanderbilt. The program’s aim is to serve as a national model for predominantly White institutions and historically Black colleges and universities to collaborate to prepare new generations for the professoriate.
“This collaboration with Fisk creates an innovative opportunity for Vanderbilt doctoral students to strengthen their preparation for the professoriate,” said C. Cybele Raver, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “One aim of our initiative is to provide everyone in our university community with opportunities for deeper engagement and more mentoring, across our campus and beyond. We are proud to partner with another leading Nashville university for the benefit of both of our campus communities.”
Historically Black Fisk University in Nashville and predominantly White Belmont University in Nashville have announced the establishment of the Belmont-Fisk Social Justice Collaborative, a partnership between the universities designed to promote social justice through exposure to civil rights and social justice movements across Middle Tennessee.
The donor-funded collaborative was created to educate, empower, and inspire students through mutual respect for humanity. Designed as a course that students from both universities will enroll in together, participants will immerse themselves in the state’s civil rights history. Over the course of the semester, enrolled students will visit both campuses, a variety of museums and libraries, and will interview social justice advocates across decades. As part of the experience, students will travel to Black Mountain, North Carolina, for the Ignite Retreat, an immersive experience designed to teach students how to create change in their communities.
“Our commitment to reweaving the social fabric through hope and inclusive excellence begins with a thorough and thoughtful examination of the past, reflecting on areas where imbalance and inequality have persisted,” said Susan West, executive vice president for administration, chief of staff, and chair of Belmont’s Diversity Council. “Only with this acknowledgment can we move forward, remaining accountable as we learn along the way.”
Belmont University enrolls about 7,000 undergraduate students and 1,600 graduate students, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up 5 percent of the undergraduate student body.
FreshRSS 