McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism includes the following commitment:
Establish a Provostial Visiting Fellowship-in-Residence on Black Life and History. This initiative will welcome to McGill, each year, a leading Black scholar whose research focuses on Black life and the Black experience, whether historically or in contemporary society. Application and selection oversight will occur through a collaborative process that involves the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic) and the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty Caucus. Fellows may be selected from any discipline and will be welcomed within the Faculty most closely related to their discipline for one or two academic terms. Fellows will give a keynote lecture during their time at the University.
The Provostial Visiting Fellowship-in-Residence on Black Life and History (“Fellowship”) will launch in a new format in 2023-24. In this iteration of the initiative, McGill will recruit two fellows who will be granted a visiting academic appointment that will extend between two and four weeks. During this time, fellows will deliver a keynote lecture and lead a paper or book workshop within the Faculty in which they hold their visiting appointment. This workshop shall have as its particular aim to engage with junior Black faculty and doctoral students at McGill, to support their academic flourishing.
In 2023-24, McGill will aim to welcome two Fellows: one in Fall and one in Winter terms. Recruitment will begin in Fall 2022 by inviting all pre-tenure Black colleagues at McGill to suggest prospective Fellows. Candidates suggested by colleagues will receive an invitation from the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic), via Professor Terri Givens, to submit their candidacies. Eligible candidates will hold tenure-track, tenured, or equivalent positions at a college or university in any country.
Candidacies will consist of a portfolio that includes a two-page statement of intent that introduces their work and describes the keynote they would deliver as the Visiting Professor at McGill as well as how they envisage framing the manuscript workshop in collaboration with the McGill faculty member.
McGill will offer each Fellow an honorarium of $10,000CDN, and will cover return air or train travel to Montreal, as well as a $2,500CDN living expense stipend for the duration of the fellowship.
To be eligible for consideration for the Fellowship in 2023-2024, candidacies must be received by 1 February 2023. The process for selection of the Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 will occur through a review by a committee with the following membership:
- Professor Terri Givens, Provost’s Academic Lead & Advisor (Chair)
- Karen Diop, Program Manager, Anti-black Racism Action Plan
- One or two faculty members of the Dr. Kenneth Melville Black Faculty & Staff Caucus
- One staff member with ties to the community.
Once selections have been made, the Committee Chair shall confer with the Dean and Chair of the relevant Faculties and Departments into which selected Fellows would hold visiting appointments to ascertain the consent and engagement of the academic unit(s) in question with processes for welcoming the Fellows during their time in residency at McGill.
Decisions must be made by 31 March 2023, notably to allow time for immigration requirements to be met should one or both selected fellows are foreign nationals.