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Apply to FrameWorks

FrameWorks

APPLY TO BE A FRAMEWORKS FELLOW

Link to Apply: FrameWorks Online Application

Before you apply, make sure you’ve read the description below of the theme and the proposal requirements. It is also important to familiarize yourself with the FrameWorks program.

PREPARING TO APPLY

In 2023-2024 successful FrameWorks Fellowship applicants will be invited to research and write critical articles that interpret the theme “Generation.” The application form asks you to propose an article that addresses the theme of “generation” through a humanities-based analysis of a “cultural artifact.”

How to Think About the Theme:
Let the theme, “generation,” inspire rather than limit you. There are so many questions to fuel your thinking:
  • Generation implies creation, causation, origination, production, reproduction. How, culturally speaking, do we understand processes that generate ideas, art, language, change, innovation, happiness, families? How are they encouraged, suppressed, inclusive, exclusionary, oppressive, liberatory, etc.?
  • What defines a generation? What make someone the Voice of their Generation? Who speaks for Generation Z, or Y, X? Baby Boomer? The Silent, Greatest, or Lost Generations? What do younger generations inherit from those who came before? How do are the wisdoms of our ancestors transmitted to us? Are we duty-bound to their legacy? What should be embraced, improved, challenged, abandoned? In what ways, under what circumstances, and to what effects and ends are the young responsible for their moral failures of their predecessors?
  • What are the cultural roots of the obsession with next generation technology? What is gained or lost in this pursuit? What are the aesthetic implications of AI-generated digital art, poems, essays? Is human imagination and artistic skill destined for obsolescence, like floppy discs and fax machines?

These are large, abstract questions and ideas. And there are many, many more unasked here. Dig in. Dig down. See what layers you can uncover.

What is a “Cultural Artifact”?
If the theme lends itself to big ideas, the cultural artifact will focus your approach. Instead of writing broadly about “generation,” you will engage it through a detailed analysis of a cultural artifact of your choosing.

For our purposes, the term “cultural artifact” refers to something created by human beings which, properly researched and analyzed, will help you (and ultimately your reader) understand the culture out of which it arose, while giving you (and your reader) the opportunity to engage the theme.

Your cultural artifact should stand up to detailed scrutiny but be of a manageable scope given editorial word limits (5000 words per article). Prioritize depth over breadth. For example, it is much easier to do justice to a single novel than an entire literary movement. So, too, privilege the particular over the general. A careful interpretation of a specific historic event is easier to manage than a sweeping overview an era.

Cultural artifacts may include but are not limited to a novel, a family tree, a philosophical text, a Greek tragedy, a painting, an example of eugenics literature, a poem or collection of poems, a 1st gen iPhone commercial, a reparations debate, an oral history, a play, a family recipe, a speech by Greta Thunberg, a sculpture, Prince Harry’s Spare, a dance performance, an example of AI-generated digital art, a video game, the phrase “OK Boomer,” an art installation, a musical composition, and so forth and so on.

HOW DO I APPLY?

Double check that you meet the eligibility requirements:

  • Rising sophomores and juniors are invited to apply.
  • You need not be a student in the Honors College.
  • You must have a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
  • You do not have to be a humanities major, but a strong humanities background is preferred.

Click here to fill in the online form.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This application form requires you to fill out all fields before you can submit. The following fields, in particular, will need offline preparation: 

  • Has a faculty member agreed to serve as your FrameWorks mentor? Y / N
  • What is the name of the Faculty Member who has agreed / offered to serve as your FrameWorks mentor?

Experience has taught us that FrameWorks Fellows do better in the program when they work with faculty mentors with whom they have an established relationship. While you need not have a faculty mentor lined up to be eligible, preference will be given to applicants who do. While some applicants are encouraged to apply by faculty who volunteer their mentorship, typically prospective fellows take the initiative by approaching faculty with whom they have worked well in the past. CLICK HERE for useful tips.

Other prompts that will require advanced offline preparation:

  • Why do you think you are a good candidate to be a FrameWorks Fellow? (Your answer cannot not exceed 200 words.)
  • Propose a humanities-based research project that you would like to undertake as a FrameWorks Fellow. What would you write about, and why?  Please note, your answer must engage the 2023-2024 FrameWorks theme: “Generation” (Your answer cannot exceed 300 words). [you are not committing to the project proposed in this field. Rather, we will use your answer to ascertain the quality of your writing and your grasp of humanities research. If you already have a faculty mentor, consider developing your answer to this prompt in consultation with them.]   

 

Contact

If you have any questions, email Max Rayneard.