CLASS Research Excellence Professorship

CLASS Excellence Professorship

Overview:

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) annually awards a small number of CLASS Excellence Professorships to recognize and support significant research and creative activity being conducted by tenured faculty members within CLASS at the associate professor level.  These professorships aim to help CLASS faculty members attain the next career level by accelerating their productivity and encouraging activities that enhance their national and international reputation.

APPLICATION DEADLINE JANUARY 29, 2027, 5 P.M.

Eligibility:

• Applicants must already hold the rank of tenured associate professor within CLASS at the time of application.
• Must be in at least the third year of full-time faculty employment at the University of Houston.
• Preference will be given to those within 5 years of promotion to the associate rank.
• Faculty members holding the rank of full professor and current members of the CLASS Dean’s Office are ineligible to apply.
• Faculty are ineligible to receive the award if they would be undergoing promotion-to-full review in the first full year of the appointment.  Please take this into consideration when applying.

Conditions & Benefits:

This is a three-year appointment.  However, because full professors are ineligible to hold it, the appointment will be terminated if an associate professor is promoted to the rank of full professor during that time.

Holders of the CLASS Research Excellence Professorship may choose between the following two benefit options, with the choice to be made at the time of application:

1. Teaching Load reduction: 2 course releases spread over the three years. These must be spread across separate semesters; they may not be taken concurrently. The timing of releases will be determined in consultation with the faculty member’s department chair

   OR
   
   
2. Research Support: $15,000 to be spent over the 3-year term on project-related expenses (e.g. publishing subvention, indexing, conference travel, research assistants, data collection, manuscript workshops, etc.) Research professors may NOT use the funds to supplement their own salaries. Unused monies will be returned to the college if not spent within the three-year term.

Expectations:  those holding the Research Professorship will --

• Present a paper or conduct a colloquium on their research for faculty and students at least once during the award period.
• Submit to the Dean of CLASS a written, final report on the progress of their project(s) and listing any publications accepted or published during the tenure of the professorship. This should be submitted within three months of completing the award.   
• Acknowledge the support with the phrase “Supported by the UH College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Excellence Professorship” in all resulting related publications. Recipients of the CLASS Research Excellence Professorship in appropriate fields are encouraged to apply to become Fellows of the University Center for Arts and Humanities.

Required Application Materials:

These professorships aim to accelerate productivity for faculty relatively early in their associate professor years, thereby helping them to move expeditiously to the next career level.  Please take this purpose into account in your application materials

1. Curriculum vitae (limited to five pages)
2. Proposed activity (limited to 500 words) including:
   • Description of the main planned research and/or creative activity and its central goals/claims;
   • Statement of the work's significance to your field and how this relates to your place within it;
   • Current status of the research or creative work and schedule for completion;
   • Planned dissemination activities (such as conference presentations, new grant applications, publications, etc.)

Please compile all the above materials into a single PDF, with documents in the above order.  The file should be named as follows: LASTNAME_DEPARTMENT_2027

The applicant makes the nomination by uploading the file through this Application Portal. Application Form

Evaluation and Selection Process:

The multidisciplinary CLASS Research Committee will review the nomination materials and make a recommendation to the Dean of CLASS, who will determine the recipient(s) of this year's award. Selection criteria include:

• Clarity of the activity description and its goals and aims;
• Demonstrated significance in the field;
• Appropriateness and likely impact of dissemination activities;
• Feasibility of outlined activities
• Likely contribution of activities to applicant’s career advancement.

Questions may be addressed to Associate Dean Susan Scarrow sscarrow@uh.edu.