Spring Break
Bronfman sponsors contest for visiting professorship
by Jacob Kamaras
Senior Editor
News | 10/16/07
Posted online at 8:53 PM EST on 10/15/07
/ Last updated at 4:21 AM EST on 10/15/07
A new temporary faculty position is opening up the University to the ideas of innovators and creative thinkers in the American Jewish community.
Jewish philanthropist Charles Bronfman is sponsoring an open competition for a two-year visiting professorship at the University.
Applicants must submit five-page proposals explaining an idea that "will transform how the Jewish community thinks about itself," according to the online job posting. A symposium for finalists will be held in February or March. A decision will follow soon after.
"My hope is that among these dozens and dozens of people that have written to me, there will truly be some whose thinking about the community will move us in totally new directions," said Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS), who's administering the competition and will select the winner. He said he couldn't disclose any information about submitted ideas.
The winner will receive an estimated $110,000 salary as the Charles R. Bronfman Visiting Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation, and will have two years at Brandeis to publish a book based on the idea. The visiting professor will teach one course per semester and present visiting lectures next fall. Sarna said the specifics of the course won't be determined until the winner is chosen.
"The aim is really to ensure that our students can spend time with this creative person, even as we want to make sure that the creative person is able to devote most of their time to working on this project," Sarna said.
Bronfman donated $1.5 million to sponsor this competition and a similar one in two years.
"The goal of this is to create a free space where a bright and creative academic could write a book that would allow the Jewish community to think a little bit about who we are, where we have come from and where we are going," said Roger Bennett, a senior vice president at the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Foundation.
Bennett said the presence of Sarna in particular, the foremost scholar on American Jewish history, makes the University an attractive place to hold this competition.
Jewish philanthropist Charles Bronfman is sponsoring an open competition for a two-year visiting professorship at the University.
Applicants must submit five-page proposals explaining an idea that "will transform how the Jewish community thinks about itself," according to the online job posting. A symposium for finalists will be held in February or March. A decision will follow soon after.
"My hope is that among these dozens and dozens of people that have written to me, there will truly be some whose thinking about the community will move us in totally new directions," said Prof. Jonathan Sarna (NEJS), who's administering the competition and will select the winner. He said he couldn't disclose any information about submitted ideas.
The winner will receive an estimated $110,000 salary as the Charles R. Bronfman Visiting Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation, and will have two years at Brandeis to publish a book based on the idea. The visiting professor will teach one course per semester and present visiting lectures next fall. Sarna said the specifics of the course won't be determined until the winner is chosen.
"The aim is really to ensure that our students can spend time with this creative person, even as we want to make sure that the creative person is able to devote most of their time to working on this project," Sarna said.
Bronfman donated $1.5 million to sponsor this competition and a similar one in two years.
"The goal of this is to create a free space where a bright and creative academic could write a book that would allow the Jewish community to think a little bit about who we are, where we have come from and where we are going," said Roger Bennett, a senior vice president at the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Foundation.
Bennett said the presence of Sarna in particular, the foremost scholar on American Jewish history, makes the University an attractive place to hold this competition.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Maya Norton
posted 1/22/08 @ 12:20 PM EST
If you are interested in reading some of the proposals submitted to the contest and the conversations surrounding them, please visit my blog, The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy (linked above), and add your voice to the discussion. (Continued…)
Post a Comment