'First Fridays' Lecture Series on Race, Ethnicity, and Social Justice Returns Oct. 7

Emory College’s “First Fridays at 4 p.m.” series — designed to highlight groundbreaking faculty scholarship in a wide variety of topics related to race, ethnicity, and social justice — returns this Friday, Oct. 7 with a lecture by Mónica García Blizzard, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese. She will draw from “The White Indians of Mexican Cinema,” her book that charts the representation of whiteness as indigeneity during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema between the 1930s and 1950s, for the talk.

The lecture takes place at 4 p.m., Friday, Oct. 7, in the Rose Library’s Woodruff Commons on the 10th floor. It and other lectures in the series are free, but registration is required. The James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference and Emory College launched the First Fridays series in early 2021 as a way to build community and conversation informed by new faculty research across disciplines.

Join Dean Search Listening Sessions for Faculty and Staff

Emory is in the process of launching the search for the next Dean of Emory College of Arts and Sciences. As part of the process, there will be listening sessions conducted with the search firm Witt Keiffer, the search advisory committee, and key constituents. These sessions will help inform decision making and your participation will be much appreciated. All faculty and staff should have received an Outlook calendar invitation to the sessions, which are as follows:

• Open Faculty Listening Session #1
  Zoom
  10:30 a.m., Thursday, October 13

• Open Faculty Listening Session #2
  Zoom
  1-1:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 18

• All Staff Listening Session #3
  Zoom
  10 a.m.-10:30 a.m., Thursday, October 20

• Open Faculty Listening Session #4
  Zoom
  11-11:30 a.m., Thursday, October 20

For nominations and information to be sent directly to the search firm, email deanemorycollege@wittkieffer.com. Should you have any general questions or you did not receive an invitation, please reach out to Melissa J. Daly, melissa.j.daly@emory.edu, in the Office of the Provost.

Undergraduate Education Updates

New Religious Accommodation Policy in Effect

Emory students may now request excused absences from class, rescheduled assignments, and other adaptations for their religious observances under the new university-wide religious accommodation policy.

Effective August 1, 2022, the policy encourages faculty to be aware of major religious observances when developing syllabi and arranging required meetings and important programs. It also allows students and employees to request accommodations when religious observances impact their ability to participate in course activities or work. Of note, faculty may not count these absences toward any maximum absences allowed during the semester nor can a test be dropped if that test falls on a day a student has a religious accommodation. More information about the policy and its impact can be found in Emory Report.

Upcoming Deadlines

Please note the following upcoming deadlines that may impact your students and classes:

• Wednesday, October 12
  Partial Withdrawal Deadline
  Grading Basis Change Deadline (Letter Grade to S/U)

• Thursday, October 13 – Date of Record

Faculty Funding Opportunities

Request for Proposals: Social Justice and Socially Engaged Arts

This program in the Office of the Provost seeks to identify and support research proposals from current Emory faculty members whose research, scholarly efforts, and creative activities address social justice and the socially-engaged arts, broadly writ.

Proposals can address work that aligns with a single topic area outlined here or work that integrates efforts across multiple areas. Proposals should present compelling new ideas for research or scholarly works and must present a clear plan for using these one-time, internal seed funds to create a (mostly) self-sustaining signature initiative at Emory. Internal Submission Deadline: Saturday, October 15. For more information, please visit this link.

2023 ILA Interdisciplinary Teaching Fellowship Applications Due October 23

Emory College’s Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA) invites applications for the ILA’s Interdisciplinary Teaching Fellowship. The Fellowship provides an opportunity for a full-time Emory College faculty member, at the level of senior lecturer, associate professor, or above, to spend one academic year immersed in the ILA.

Through teaching, mentoring, and programming alongside the ILA faculty, the Fellow will engage in innovative and inclusive interdisciplinary practices in and out of the classroom, that will continue to impact the Fellow’s professional and pedagogical trajectory beyond the Fellowship year. The Fellow will be released from teaching and service responsibilities in the home department. In addition, the ILA will provide a research stipend of $4,000.

Applications are due October 23, 2022. For details and to apply, please visit the ILA website at Interdisciplinary Teaching Fellow.

Emory College Chronos Faculty Fellowship: Applications Due Nov. 1

The College of Arts and Sciences is accepting applications for the Chronos Faculty Fellowship for a tenured faculty member in the Humanities or Social Sciences. Honoring the critical importance of time in the scholarly work of research and writing, the Chronos Faculty Fellowship will support one academic year of leave, allowing a tenured member of the College faculty to pursue deep intellectual inquiry, pose important questions, and contribute to critical debates in and beyond a single field or discipline. This opportunity has been conceived as a way to support creative and ambitious scholarship in the post-tenure period when time for immersive research/writing can be especially difficult to secure.

The successful fellowship recipient will advance a bold research question and demonstrate the capacity to disseminate the results of that research through clear and compelling writing. The Chronos Faculty Fellowship is funded through a generous grant by the Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation, and provides a single fellowship, (salary and $10,000 in research/travel funds). In concert with this generous gift, the College will fund a Visiting Assistant Professorship (or similar instructional opportunity) in the successful Chronos Fellowship recipient’s field to provide a professional development opportunity for an individual in the early career stage, and to ensure the coverage of relevant courses.

Fellowship applications should include the following:

• CV
• A research/writing proposal no longer than 3 single spaced pages.
• A brief letter of endorsement from the department chair
• Courses to be released during the academic year of leave

Proposals should be submitted to Dean_of_Faculty@emory.edu no later than Tuesday, November 1.

Hightower Speaker Funds Available

Each year Emory College receives funds from the Hightower endowment, which memorializes the late Robert E. Hightower Sr. This endowment provides funds to bring outstanding visiting lecturers to Emory. The College has typically committed funds of $75,000-$100,000 annually. These include small allocations for partial funding of a single speaker to larger amounts to support conferences with several speakers.

Faculty are invited to make requests for funding for spring and summer events by Tuesday, November 15. The committee meets once a semester to review requests. Requests that are submitted after deadlines will still be evaluated on a rolling schedule by the committee. For more information and to apply, go to the Office of Faculty website.

Teaching Resources

ECDS Offers Fall Workshops

Registration is open for the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship’s Fall 2022 workshops. Workshops will be held from 1-2 p.m. on Wednesdays via Zoom and will also be recorded and available afterwards on the ECDS Workshops Canvas site for Emory students, faculty, and staff (enroll in the ECDS Canvas site here). For course descriptions and to RSVP, visit the ECDS calendar. If you have any questions, email ECDS (ecds@emory.edu). This semester’s topics include:

• October 12 – GIS in R, Part 1
• October 19 – GIS in R, Part 2
• October 26 – Database Design
• November 2 – Choosing a Chart Type

Save the Dates: Course Evaluation Training

Emory College will administer online course evaluations as usual this term, with a goal to complete all preparation and customization of evaluations in November prior to the Thanksgiving break November 23-25. Course evaluations are scheduled to begin November 28. Additional information for both instructors and staff is forthcoming, but please save the dates for a trio of two-hour “configuration workshops” for department staff (not instructors) to be held:

• 10 a.m.-Noon, Monday, November 7;
• 2-4 p.m., Tuesday, November 15; and
• 10 a.m.-Noon, Friday, November 18.

Each session will provide a guided opportunity to collectively step through the preparatory process with close support. Staff planning to participate need to register using the form at this link. Questions may be emailed to ec-courseevals@emory.edu.

Emory Pre-College Program 2023 Call for Course Proposals

The Emory Pre-College Program brings bright, ambitious, rising high school Juniors and Seniors to Emory in the summer to give them a short experience of college life. Current Emory faculty, emeritus faculty members, and advanced graduate students with strong teaching records are eligible to propose courses for the Pre-College Program. Below are the dates for the two-week non-credit course sessions. Each of these two-week courses will include a minimum of 25 contact hours, and in-person courses meet daily from 9 -11:30 am.

• Session A (in-person) June 20- 30
• Session B (in-person) July 3 – 14 (no class on July 4)
• Session C (in-person) July 17 -28
• Session C (online) July 17- 28 (class meeting times, tbd)

If you would like to teach in the 2023 Pre-College Program, please complete the online course proposal form by Wednesday, October 26. We will review the proposals and make decisions by mid-November. The Pre-College staff is happy to discuss the program’s details and answer any questions you might have. Please direct questions to LaToya Rolle, Associate Director (latoya.rolle@emory.edu).

Are you a member of Phi Beta Kappa?

Emory's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa requests that new and recently hired faculty members please report their membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society to the Secretary of Gamma of Georgia, James Morey (jmorey@emory.edu), Emory College Professor of English. Faculty members who belong to Phi Beta Kappa are the custodians of the College's chapter and are responsible for student elections and other chapter business. 

Annual Benefits Enrollment Coming Soon

Emory's annual benefits enrollment will take place October 24 - November 7. Your 2022 benefits letter has been mailed to your home address and includes important information about this year’s enrollment. You will have the opportunity to review your benefits and make changes as needed during this time period.

Get Your Flu Vaccine & COVID-19 Booster

For 2022-2023, Emory University strongly encourages students, faculty, and staff to follow public health guidance and stay up to date with flu vaccine and COVID-19 recommendations.

• Flu Vaccine: The best way to protect yourself and your loved ones against influenza (flu) is to get an annual flu vaccine, ideally by the end of October. Flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to hospitalization, or even death. The CDC recommends everyone six months and older get an annual flu vaccine as the first and most important action to protect against flu and its potentially serious complications.
• COVID Booster: As part of the continued effort to develop stronger tools against an evolving virus, a new COVID-19 bivalent vaccine booster was approved and made available. The bivalent vaccine booster is designed to better protect against the omicron subvariants most prevalent in our community and is authorized for use as a single booster dose at least two months after primary or booster vaccination. To stay best protected, the CDC recommends that everyone stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination, to include getting all primary series doses and boosters — which now includes this new bivalent vaccine booster for all those 12 and older.

The flu vaccine is covered by Emory University medical insurance for University employees on an Emory medical plan. The COVID-19 booster is available for everyone at no cost, regardless of insurance coverage. Contact Healthy Emory with questions at healthyemory@emory.edu.