PROPOSALS FOR SPRING COURSE FUNDS DUE OCTOBER 5!

CBD offers faculty funding to support the development of new interdisciplinary courses that address the program's major themes. Funding to augment existing courses to incorporate CBD themes is also available. The goal of the CBD Program is to examine a wide range of approaches to the relationships that exist among the studies of mind, brain, and culture. Through its courses, CBD aims to bring together literatures and methodologies from all of Hampshire's five schools. Visit our course page for more information on past and current CBD courses.

Developing a New CBD Course:
A CBD course is usually (but not necessarily) co-taught by faculty from different schools. It examines a question or issue related to the study of culture, mind/brain, or human development (at least two of the three), and incorporates perspectives from several different disciplines. The steering committee is particularly interested in courses that bring perspectives from the humanities/arts/cultural studies or critical social inquiry together with those from the cognitive or natural sciences.

Augmenting a Pre-existing Course for CBD:
Individual faculty who plan to teach a course that explores an aspect of culture, mind/brain, or human development may propose ways of augmenting the course to incorporate CBD themes and multiple disciplinary perspectives. For example, a faculty member teaching a course on human biology could propose to incorporate a perspective exploring the ways that culture interacts with and influences biological processes. As another example, a course on ethnomusicology could be augmented to include perspectives from the cognitive psychology or neuroscience of music processing. It is expected (but not required) that this would be done by inviting other faculty into the class to guest teach, and by incorporating new readings and class materials.

APPLICATION PROCESS AND PROPOSAL GUIDELINES:

Any Hampshire College faculty on a long-term (at least three years) contract can apply. Individual faculty or faculty working together should submit a proposal outlining ideas for either a new course or the modification of an existing one. For the current funding cycle, proposed courses must be taught no later than spring 2013. Applications must include:

  A Project Description
  Address the following in two pages:

• The intellectual focus of the course, when, and at what level it will be taught (100, 200, 300)
• How the course will engage with at least two of the three areas of the study of culture, mind/brain, and human development
• Relation to the goals of the CBD Program
• A description of the methodologies, theories, and literatures that will be introduced
• The background, disciplinary focus, and objectives each faculty member will bring to the course
• Information on any guest speakers/lecturers who will be invited to participate (indicate if they already have been invited/have agreed to participate)
• An outline of preparatory work that must to be done and a timetable for course development

  Budget with Justification for Expenses
  Non-stipend expenses may not exceed $1,000; allowable budget items include:

• A stipend of up to $1,000 per faculty member for new course development
• A stipend of up to $500 per faculty member for course augmentation
• Expenses for guest speakers from outside the College (honorarium and travel costs)
• Course materials
• Student assistance

Please submit your application to Ryan McLaughlin via email. Proposals are due by NOON on OCTOBER 5th.

REVIEW PROCESS:

The CBD steering committee (Jane Couperus, Karen Danna, Cynthia Gill, Laura Sizer, and Pamela Stone) will review proposals according to the above guidelines. Preference will be given to those proposing courses that could be taught again in the future; balance and focus within the CBD Program will also be considered.

If you have questions, or to discuss whether your proposed course meets the CBD guidelines, please contact CBD program director, Jane Couperus.