National Consurtium for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) Member Benefits
Swarthmore's NCFDD Institutional Membership provides an external mentoring community designed to help faculty members of all ranks increase research and writing productivity and improve work-life balance.
Membership Benefits include:
- The Monday Motivator (weekly productivity email)
- Access to monthly core curriculum
- Access to guest expert webinars
- Access to multi-week courses
- Access to the Career Center
- Audio and video recordings, slides and transcripts from all webinars
- Access to moderated monthly writing challenges and monthly mentor matches
To register and access member benefits visit the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity website.
Mellon Tri-College Faculty Forum Grants
Brainstorming and Seed Grants support faculty projects related to research, teaching, curriculum, or service/governance. The grants are flexible as to the nature and scope of the initiatives funded. Projects could include faculty working groups, topical workshops or symposia, "outreach" activities, invited speakers, travel money for faculty training, etc. The Steering Committee particularly welcomes collaborative proposals that bring together faculty from the three colleges as well as proposals that are difficult to fund through conventional sources. All faculty members at Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges are eligible to apply. Please visit the Mellon Trico website for more information.
Regional Faculty of Color Working Group
For those who are interested, send an email to Professor Nina Johnson (njohnso5@swarthmore.edu) or Professor Jennifer Vargas (jharfordva@brynmawr.edu) to be added to the listserv and receive invitations to group events.
Support for Reading/Writing Groups
The Provost office supports reading, research and writing groups within one or across the disciplines by offering organizational and monetary assistance for up to 5 meetings each semester (10 per year).
Application Process:
- Write a short proposal for your group project and email it to the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Diversity, Recruitment, and Retention
- The proposal should include the contact information for and a list of the members of the group and their departmental/program affiliations, an estimated budget request for moderate food and beverage items
- Should you need a (specific) place on campus to hold your meetings, please make this clear and provide the definitive time and date slots in your proposal. If you prefer to hold meetings off campus, make sure to rotate the host site appropriately for equity’s sake
- The Associate Dean of the Faculty will acknowledge receipt of the proposal and might ask for more information as needed
- Once the Associate Dean of the Faculty has authorized the establishment of your group, remember to keep all your receipts and request reimbursement through the Provost's Office
Previous Groups
- Interdisciplinary: COLOR working group - Looking at the concept, discourse, history and practice of COLOR from different disciplinary backgrounds (Art, Psychology, Biology etc.)
- Humanities: First Book Writing Group - A group organized by junior faculty in the book proposal stage to help themselves stay focused and on deadline
- Interdisciplinary: Identity & Intersections with Race, Class, and Gender - A group of junior faculty invested in research on identity construction and intersectionalities of gender, race and class
- Interdisciplinary: General Writing Group - A group dedicated to help each member with accountability for achieving writing progress during the school year
Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)
The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) is a national organization of individual and institutional members representing over 900 colleges and universities. CUR believes that faculty members enhance their teaching and contribution to society by remaining active in research and by involving undergraduates in research.
Swarthmore has an enhanced institutional membership, which allows all faculty, staff, and students to join CUR at no additional cost and to access many resources, including publications, mentoring services, and announcements of conferences and training opportunities (see full list of benefits). We recommend connecting with one or more of CUR’s divisions to access the latest announcements related to your discipline.
Here are instructions for activating your membership. If you previously had login information, it will remain the same.
Here are slides and a recording (accessible using your Swarthmore credentials) from CUR’s information session for the Swarthmore community.
The Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges
The Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC) is a group of twenty-five institutions striving to advance liberal arts education through collective efforts to support faculty research and teaching. AALAC aims to enhance the overall experience of students and to develop faculty leadership. Originally funded through a Mellon Foundation grant, the schools that comprise AALAC continue to explore the role of their institutions in the landscape of higher education and thereby to address more effectively the pressing challenges facing American liberal arts colleges.
Swarthmore has been a member of this collective since its inception in 2006. AALAC hosts annual multi-institution faculty development workshops. Information on proposing future faculty workshops and an archive of past workshops can be found on the AALAC website. For more information, contact Janet Tobin, Associate Dean for Academic Administration at Amherst College, at jstobin@amherst.edu.
