Leah Savion Faculty Fellowship

The Leah Savion Faculty Fellowship annually funds a non-tenure-track (NTT) FACET member’s research in pursuit of continuous improvement as a scholarly teacher. Savion believes NTT faculty have the capacity, curiosity, and commitment to improve their teaching through disciplinary or interdisciplinary research relevant to teaching and learning. She has asked that the research be thought of broadly. It could be experimental, observational, or academic, for dissemination in the scholarship on teaching and learning ("SoTL"), discipline-based pedagogical research, textbook, or other book on evidence-based teaching practices.

The fellowship will provide financial support (approximately $4,500) for research. Applicants for this fellowship should think broadly about how the financial support will support their research and include a budget.

Application

NTT faculty interested in applying must have been a FACET member for at least three years and participated in at least two FACET activities in the three years immediately prior to submitting the application. The amount and recipient of the fellowship will be determined by a selection committee comprised of at least three FACET members. 

The application deadline is annually on January 30. A selection committee comprised of at least three FACET members will review applications and determine the amount and recipient of the fellowship by February/March. 

Applications should be emailed to facet@iu.edu as a single PDF and include the following: 

  1. Cover page using this form
  2. Project description
  3. Drafted budget with a statement about the need for fellowship funding.
  4. Curriculum vitae 

Project Description

Proposals for the fellowship must make a clear case for the merits of the project. Applicants are drawn from all of Indiana University’s campuses and programs, so proposals should be clear to readers outside the applicant's discipline. When the committee makes its decision, quality of the project is a higher priority than experience conducting research. For faculty new to conducting research, FACET will discuss and help to facilitate mentorship. 

Proposals should include the following components:

  • clearly stated goals 
  • potential methods to be used (e.g., observation, record analysis, interventions)
  • outline of the research design
  • understanding of existing theory, data, and practice that apply to the topic 
  • evidence of creativity and innovation that will advance knowledge relevant to teaching and learning
  • clear connection between the research and the learning environment
  • plan for dissemination including a project timeline

Fellows will present their findings at the Annual Retreat or a virtual townhall. They will work with the FACET office to make appropriate arrangments. 

Social Justice Statement
As a community, FACET is committed to social justice in and out of the classroom. In our selection process, we actively avoid discriminating based on characteristics that are fundamental to identity or conscience.

About Leah Savion

Leah has a well-known commitment to teaching excellence, benefitting the FACET community through her distinguished engagement and service, her undergraduate students through her teaching excellence, and graduate students preparing for teaching in their careers through her shared expertise and wisdom. It is due to her longstanding interest in supporting teaching excellence through mentorship and leadership that she decided to found the Leah Savion Fellowship.

Leah earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy at the City University of New York in New York City. She served as faculty member in two departments at IU Bloomington, the Department of Philosophy for 28 years until January 2018, and then the Department of History and Philosophy of Science in Medicine in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences. She is the author of nine textbooks in her discipline and about pedagogy. She has offered courses in the Hutton Honors College, the Liberal Arts Management Program, intensive freshman seminars, Human Biology, the Graduate School, and directed graduate student pedagogical training for a number of years. She has an international reputation in the intersection of cognitive science and pedagogy. I suggest watching her amusing 2016 TEDx talk on self-deception. Leah’s own curiosity and research record is a model for NTT faculty and drives her belief that non-tenure track faculty have the capacity, curiosity, and commitment to improve their teaching through evidence-based research on teaching and learning.

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