New Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program Created

Brent Meredith

In defense of a growing void in university hiring thanks to the current economic environment, Peabody is offering its Ph.D. candidates the option to continue their study for up to two additional years.

The new Peabody Pre-Doctoral Fellows Program is geared toward Ph.D. students who have defended their dissertations but may be experiencing difficulty finding a faculty position in a dwindling job market. The program will allow qualifying Ph.D. students to continue their education while working on further professional development.

"Faculty positions that were open last fall have been pulled off the job market and many universities across the county have frozen faculty hires or are cutting faculty positions. Peabody College has put a lot of resources into mentoring these students for competitive positions, and it is to our and their benefit to have them ready to be the strongest candidates when those jobs start opening up," said Craig Anne Heflinger, associate dean for graduate education. "Peabody's goal is to have Ph.D. students who are more competitive when they enter the job market and better situated for a more prestigious offer."

The program will involve full-time effort by students in the following four areas:

Scholarship of Teaching: Advanced opportunities for substantive teaching responsibilities that also work toward a certificate of teaching from the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching.
Research Apprenticeship: Collaboration with a Peabody faculty member in their program of research that will result in publication within the program's time frame.
Systematic Advanced Methods Training: Experienced through existing coursework or other proposed independent study, that would advance the student's skills and expertise in their chosen field of research.
Writing for Publication: Developing a plan for publishing the participant's dissertation research as well as other manuscripts or project underway.

Peabody Ph.D. students who are seeking faculty positions at national research universities are eligible to apply for the program. To begin the fellowship, students must have successfully defended their dissertation but have not yet been awarded a degree. To maintain the fellowship, students must submit a progress report at the beginning of the last month of each semester and earn the appropriate grades.

The fellowship positions are competitive and require an application, the nomination by a faculty member and the director of graduate studies from the applicant's department, and dean approval. Applications must be submitted a minimum of one month prior to the requested start date. The applications for deans' reviews should be submitted by April 1, for funding to begin in May; July 1, for funding to begin in August; and Dec. 1, for funding to begin in January.

For additional information, email Craig Anne Heflinger, associate dean for graduate education, at c.heflinger@vanderbilt.edu.