What is the course and administrative release policy?
Team members: As per the original ISS agreement with College Deans, team members will teach no more than 2 courses during year 2, the in-residence year of the theme project. In addition, all team members will receive full release from “heavy” administrative duties during the 2nd year of the theme project (see team member expectations section below).
Team leaders: As per our agreement with the College Deans, the team leader will receive one full year of course release. It is our expectation that this release will be spread over the course of the project's term, but will be concentrated primarily in the second year of the project (e.g., 25% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 25% in year 3). If a project has co-leaders, it will be their responsibility to decide how to divide this fixed resource. Team leaders will also receive full release from “heavy” administrative duties during all three years of the theme project (see team leader expectations section below).
What is the limited course buyout policy?
During the second year, the team members' departments will receive $5,000 to partially offset course reductions. ISS faculty fellows who have dual appointments will work out an equitable split of this resource with their department chairs.
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What are the expectations for team leaders in each year ?
It is expected that team leaders be physically present on campus (that is, not absent on leave) during the entire three-year period of the theme project. Given the responsibilities involved, team leaders may not take on any major administrative duties during the three years (e.g., department chairmanships, directorships, DGS, etc.). In year 1, team leaders are responsible for organizing and running team meetings to plan the schedule of activities for the residence year. As such, the team leader should have excellent organizational skills, work well with others, and be a strong group facilitator.
During year 1, the team must meet at least once every other week to plan upcoming events including: workshops, seminar series, conferences, postdoctoral associate recruiting, visitors, and courses. At the end of year 1, the team leader also gives a major public lecture that presents the motivation for the theme project and describes its activities.
During year 2, the in-residence year, the team leader is expected to spend 50% of each week in his or her office at the ISS. The team leader is responsible for continuing to direct the theme project’s activities, and for moving the team toward its collaborative scholarly contribution. This contribution may be a book, a series of journal articles, an edited volume, or a major research grant.
Finally, during year 3, the team leader will continue to work with the team to create and document their contribution. While year three is the final year, we clearly hope that the work begun during the theme project term will continue at Cornell through other means, such as ongoing seminars, courses, or major grants.
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What are the expectations for team members in each year?
Team members are expected to be physically present (that is, not on leave) during the entire three year period of the theme project. In year 1, the team spends time planning all its major activities for the in-residence year. As a result, during year 1 team members must be able to attend team meetings and devote time to activities such as planning courses, recruiting visitors and postdoctoral associates, organizing seminar speakers and conferences, etc.
In year 2, the in-residence year, it is expected that team members will spend 50% or more of each week in their ISS office. During this year team members will teach joint courses, attend theme project seminars and workshops, work with postdoctoral associates and students, and build collaborations with each other, visitors, and affiliates around the theme project. Time at the ISS is expected to help move project members toward their goal of a substantial scholarly contribution – which may be defined as a book, a series of journal articles, an edited volume, or a major research grant.
During year 3, team members will continue to work together to bring this work to a conclusion. While year three is the final year, we expect that the work begun during the theme project term will continue at Cornell through other means, such as ongoing seminars, courses, or major grants.
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Are junior faculty eligible to submit proposals for three-year theme projects?
Although junior faculty are encouraged to participate as team members, junior faculty will not be served well in the role of team leader. The team leader is responsible for organizing all project activities. These activities are extremely important, but they are also very time consuming, and are not the kind of activities that are generally rewarded in tenure evaluations. As such, if you have an idea for a theme project, we suggest that you work to get a senior colleague to propose the idea and take on the added responsibilities.
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Who will review the proposals?
Preproposals and final proposals will be reviewed by the ISS Director, the Vice Provost for the Social Sciences, and the Social Science Internal Advisory Council.
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How many finalists will be selected?
It depends on the number of pre-proposals submitted, and on the quality of those proposals. In the past we have selected no more than three finalists.
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Will the project leader select all team members?
No. The project leader will select no more than 4 (other than him or herself) of the Cornell team members. The remaining 3 or 4 Cornell team members will be selected through an open competition. Proposals received during the open competition will be evaluated by an ad-hoc committee, with input from the existing team members.
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Can a project have more than one leader? If so, how would the full year of course release be allocated?
Faculty can share the project leader role, but they will also have to share the one year of course release. It is left to the project leaders to determine an equitable split of this resource.
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For more details, see theme project guidelines. Please direct all inquiries to socialsciences@cornell.edu.
