2025-2026 Workshops
For Early-Career Faculty at Small Liberal Arts Colleges
The Nielsen Center for the Liberal Arts at Eckerd College supports liberal arts college faculty in exploring the vocation of liberal arts teaching over the course of a career arc; considers best pedagogical and faculty support practices at liberal arts colleges; and provides a forum for liberal arts advocacy through empowering liberal arts college faculty.
Nielsen Center workshops invite early-career faculty at liberal arts colleges to join a supportive learning community and national network. Nielsen Fellows participate in a seminar-style workshop throughout a year-long program that includes three in-person gatherings at Eckerd College on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
During their workshop, Nielsen Fellows will:
- Explore the history and purpose of liberal arts education, the vocation of liberal arts educators, and the arc of the liberal arts college student experience
- Enhance faculty self-understanding, pedagogical innovation, and interdisciplinary connection in small liberal arts college contexts
- Deepen capacity for life-long learning and liberal arts advocacy with colleagues from across the country in a retreat-style setting at Eckerd College on Florida’s Gulf Coast
Travel, Accommodation, Stipend
Accommodations and travel are paid. Nielsen Fellows also receive an honorarium of $1200 for their participation in all three in-person gatherings.
Questions?
Email nielsencenter@eckerd.edu
Eligibility
We invite applications from faculty in their first few years of teaching undergraduates at a small liberal arts college (3,000 or fewer students). Faculty applying within ten years of earning their terminal degree will be given preferential consideration.
Apply for ONE of the Following
Each workshop is comprised of three face-to-face sessions on the Eckerd College campus. Nielsen Fellows are expected to attend their full workshop program. Read our Statement on Full Participation.
Workshop for Pre-Tenure Faculty
- June 23-26, 2025
- January 9-11, 2026
- June 8-11, 2026
Workshop for Recently Tenured Faculty
- June 15-18-2025
- January 2-4-2026
- June 1-4, 2026
Workshop Applications are DUE December 13, 2024
Application Form
Instructions
Applicants may be nominated by a chief academic officer, or may apply independently.
The application process requires attaching three documents.
Names should appear on all documents and they should be labeled “lastname-typeofdocument.pdf.”
Applications that do not include all three documents will be considered incomplete.
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- A current CV (3 pages maximum), labeled “lastname-cv.pdf”
- A document with brief written responses to the following five prompts, labeled “lastname-prompts.pdf”
- Describe your teaching experience, your teaching context, and your current position in your school’s faculty tenure and promotion review process, if applicable. (100 words maximum)
- Describe your current teaching persona – in other words, who you are when you are with your students. Give an example of a pedagogical practice that you think best exemplifies your teaching persona. Where do you find your persona resonating, and not resonating, with your students? (150 words maximum)
- How have your own learning experiences and training and, if relevant, the tenure experience prepared you, or not prepared you, for teaching at a liberal arts college? (150 words maximum)
- Forget about the clichés and the acceptable responses that we are all accustomed to hearing. For yourself, how do you understand the role and importance of undergraduate liberal arts education today? Why does “the liberal arts” matter? How do you see yourself contributing to the project of undergraduate liberal arts education? (150 words maximum)
- Considering your responses to the previous prompts, tell us a pressing issue you would like to pursue with a cohort of fellow liberal arts college faculty, as well as why this is a pressing issue for you. (150 words maximum)
- EITHER a copy of the statement from an academic administrator at your institution nominating you (250 words)
OR, if you are applying independently, a letter of support (250 words) on institutional letterhead from your provost, dean, or department/division chair labeled “lastname-letter.pdf.”
Letter writers should address the following points:- The writer’s relationship to the candidate.
- A description of where the candidate is in the tenure and promotion review process.
- A description of the promise the candidate has demonstrated for teaching excellence and for future leadership in campus conversations about teaching, the college’s curriculum, and liberal arts education.
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