CLASS Research Excellence Professorship

Overview:

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) annually awards a small number of CLASS Research Excellence Professorships to recognize and support significant research being conducted by tenured faculty members within CLASS at the associate level.

APPLICATION DEADLINE FEBRUARY 25, 2026, 5 P.M

Eligibility:

Open to tenured associate professors within CLASS.
Must be in at least the third year of full-time faculty employment at the University of Houston.
Preference will be given to recently promoted associate professors.
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 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 a research 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:

Teaching Load reduction: 2 course releases spread over the three year term. These may not be taken concurrently. The timing of releases will be determined in consultation with the faculty member’s department chair.

OR
Research Support: $5,000 per year (total of $15,000 over the three-year term) to be spent on research-related expenses (for example, publishing subvention, indexing, conference travel, research assistants, data collection, manuscript workshops, software 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 research project(s) within three months of completing the award. This should include a list of all conference papers/presentations and publications (accepted, published, and under review) resulting from the award.
Acknowledge the support with the phrase “Supported by the UH College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Research 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:

Curriculum vitae (limited to five pages)
Project statement (limited to 500 words) including:
- Description of the research project and its central goals/claims;
- Statement of the project's significance to the field;
- Current status of the project and schedule for completion;
- Previous financial support for the project;
- Research plans for the period of the award, including any research-related travel.

Please compile both documents into a single PDF, with documents in the above order. The file should be named as follows: LASTNAME_EXCELLENCE_2026

The applicant makes the nomination by uploading the file through this application portal: Application Form

Evaluation and Selection Process:

A multidisciplinary committee of senior faculty will review the nomination materials and make a recommendation to the Dean of CLASS, who will determine the recipients of this year's award. Selection criteria include: project’s scholarly merit and potential for research publication; applicant's previous research and publication record; project completion requirements; status or stage of new projects; prior support provided for the proposed project; potential to lead to external funding.

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