2004-2005

Toward Equality: The Global Empowerment of Women

Program Overview
Research Theme
Program Activities
New Century Scholar Distinguished Leader
Orientation and Goal Setting
Mid-term Seminar
Final Plenary Seminar
New Century Scholar Final Plenary Seminar
International Research Exchange Visit
Eligibility Requirements
Benefits
Timeline
Application Materials & Guidelines
General Selection Criteria
Privacy Act
Contact Information
NCS Scholar Web Site

Program Overview

In March 2001, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, announced the launching of the Fulbright New Century Scholars Program (NCS), one of three new initiatives designed to build on the strengths of the Fulbright Scholar Program by extending its mission and outreach.

The New Century Scholars Program (NCS) will play a vital role in forging new links among scholars and professionals from around the world who will work together to seek solutions to issues and concerns that affect all humankind.

Each year 25-30 outstanding research scholars and professionals from the U.S. and abroad will be selected as NCS Fellows through an open competition. Under the leadership of an appointed Distinguished Scholar Leader, NCS Fellows engage in multidisciplinary collaboration of the highest quality on a topic of global significance and universal concern.

Research Theme:

"Toward Equality: The Global Empowerment of Women"

Analyses of social institutions and processes throughout the world - family, market, education, polity - reveal systematic differences in the treatment of men and women. Even programs not ostensibly about men or women but about macro-economic policy and trade, war and peace, global communication, or governance and civil society provide different points of access, offer different roles and have different impacts. Largely, but not always, women experience more constraints and receive fewer benefits. These results are substantially modified by race, class, ethnicity and other factors that marginalize many men as well as women, and place poor and uneducated women in the greatest jeopardy.

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Efforts over the last several decades to improve women's lives have produced new concepts and methods. We have more sophisticated understanding of how organizations and markets work, critiques of nationalism and other ideologies that negatively affect women, new social technologies like microcredit, new ways of hearing women's voices in literature and the arts, activist movements within countries and across the globe, and a substantial recognition by mainstream institutions of women's critical roles in national development. It is now well-documented that more enlightened gender policies and investments in women's education and health lead to higher human development and economic growth.

Yet many challenges remain in addressing women's roles across the world. The UN Beijing conference in l995 identified a substantial agenda of actions needed to enable women to enjoy full human rights, to have access to critical resources like land and water, and to realize their potential contribution to national development. Several international communities of research, programming and activism have formed to carry these issues forward. Among these issue communities are networks concerned with women and economic development, human rights, conflict and international relations, reproductive health, women's studies, women in welfare states, organizational change and political participation. Some of these are more concerned with women in developing countries, others deal with issues in industrialized countries, and some but not many span issues in rich and poor countries.

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The New Century Scholars Program will support accomplished scholars, professionals and policy-makers who wish to share their work and build collaboration within and across these issue communities. Fellows selected as New Century Scholars will conduct individual research, make an international exchange visit of two to six months, and participate in a program of seminars and exchange to engage in collaborative thinking across cultures and issue communities. They will also identify and carry forward collaborative projects to advance research, education and/or policy to improve the lives of women.

Prospective applicants are invited to submit research proposals which reflect ongoing research interest addressing issues relevant to the NCS theme. Preference will be given to fellows proposing comparative work. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Education and socialization of girls
• Politicized religions and the involvement of women
• Globalization and the economic status of women
• Workforce and workplace issues
• Policies toward family, reproduction and women's health
• Impact of international and civil conflict on women
• Media representations of women and the formation of ideologies of gender
• Women's writings as a sites of resistance and change
• Women and science and technology
• Migration, sex trafficking and crossing of international borders

Preference will be given to fellows proposing comparative work.

Program Activities

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Approximately 25-30 leading scholars and professionals representing a variety of disciplines from the U.S. and abroad will be selected as NCS Fellows.

• Approximately one-third of the NCS Fellows will be U.S. scholars
• Remaining NCS Fellows will be visiting scholars from outside the U.S.

NCS Scholars will pursue individual research objectives as well as identify collaborative projects under the leadership of the Distinguished Scholar Leader, Carolyn Elliott, Professor Emerita of Political Science at the University of Vermont. Possible outcomes of this group of diverse, multidisciplinary fellows might include such projects as planning a new text or special issue of a journal, making a critical assessment of results in a research field, developing a research agenda in a new problem area, and building a network for ongoing collaboration.
The collaborative activities of the program will focus on integrating themes formulated by the participants to advance the state of the field, such as:

1. How has research on women and gender developed differently in various cultural contexts? How might this comparison enable us to critique the field and suggest ways of moving it forward, both globally and in specific contexts?
   
   
2. As the study of women and gender has become established in university curricula and research programs, has it become professionalized at the cost of losing connections with policy and activist issues? How might research scholars reenergize these connections? What do we have to say and to whom?
   
   
3. What connections and/or analytically significant comparisons can we identify between the research issues arising from developing countries and those arising from industrialized countries? What can these issue communities learn from each other?
   
   
4. What progress has been made in mainstreaming women and gender issues in university curricula? How can these issues be integrated into introductory, discipline-based courses?

Participants will identify questions for work in subgroups during the NCS seminars and through electronic communication. An important objective of the subgroups will be to generate potential collaborative activities.

NCS Scholars will be expected to pursue research activities related to the NCS research theme throughout the program year; to maintain contact with one another as a means to expanding their own research directions and accomplishing NCS group objectives; and to participate in all activities of the program, including:

• Orientation and Goal Setting Session
• Mid-term Meeting
• Final Plenary Seminar
• International research visit of two-six months
• Ongoing communication and interaction with NCS Distinguished Scholar Leader and other NCS Scholars throughout program year

New Century Scholar Distinguished Leader: Carolyn Elliott

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Carolyn Elliott, an alumna of the Fulbright Program, is Professor of Political Science Emerita of the University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and held faculty positions at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Wellesley College and Case Western Reserve University before joining the University of Vermont. She was the founding director of the Wellesley Center for Research on Women and a Senior Program Officer in Social Science at the Ford Foundation in India. In l997-9 she served in the Fulbright position of Director of the Indo-American Center for International Studies in Hyderabad, India.

Professor Elliott has played a leading role in the international women's movement. She served as President of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), an international membership association of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers, and led their delegation to the Beijing conference. Earlier she led the Wellesley conference on Women in National Development, one of the first research conferences in this field that yielded the volume Women in National Development in l977. In India she developed the Ford Foundation program in Women's Studies that assisted the creation of many women's research centers.

Professor Elliott has published numerous pieces on women's education in India and internationally, on women in development, and on South Asian politics. She has chaired the South Asia panel of the Council for International Education of Scholars (CIES) and served on its Executive Committee. She chaired the South Asia committee of the Association for Asian Studies and served on its Executive Committee. Her current research interests are women's education, civil society and governance, and women in comparative politics. Carolyn Elliott's most recent publication is Civil Society and Democracy, published by Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2003.

Orientation and Goal Setting

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A virtual or in-person orientation will occur in April 2004 to launch the program, establish collaborative goals for the seminar and encourage early interaction among NCS Scholars. The orientation, led by the NCS Distinguished Scholar Leader, will introduce the Scholars to each other and enable them to share their various approaches to the program's research theme. The Scholars will gather in small groups to identify possibilities for collaboration across their issue areas, help participants develop a common vocabulary, and set the stage for sustained interaction during the program.

The orientation for the 2002-2003 NCS Program took place at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, thanks to the generous support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Carnegie Foundation. Depending on availability of funding and dates, the orientation may be at the Pocantico Conference Center or another locale. Should funding not be available for an in-person meeting, the program orientation will be conducted electronically

The exact location and dates for the orientation meeting will be posted on the CIES web site when available. In the meantime, prospective applicants should take note of the proposed April 2004 date.

All NCS Scholars are expected to participate in the orientation, whether virtual or in-person.

Mid-term Seminar

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At the mid-term of the program year - October/November 2004 - the Distinguished Scholar Leader will convene the NCS Scholars, either electronically or in person, to report interactively on progress toward individual and group goals established at the orientation session. The mid-term meeting will elicit the input of NCS Scholars on all proposals and products of the Program and engage in planning of the final plenary seminar in March/April 2005. Scholars will have the opportunity to become more familiar with each other's work as an impetus to continuing communication and the cross fertilization of ideas.

The mid-term seminar for the 2002-2003 NCS Program took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with the continued support of the Carnegie Foundation and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the State Department. While an in-person mid-term meeting is again envisioned for the 2004-2005 Scholars, its implementation will depend on the availability of funding. Prospective applicants should take note of the proposed October/November date for the meeting.

All NCS Scholars are expected to participate in the mid-term meeting, whether virtual or in-person.

New Century Scholar Final Plenary Seminar

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The final plenary seminar will take place at the end of the program year, in March or April 2005, in the Washington, D.C. area. At the final plenary seminar, which represents the culminating activity of the Program, the Distinguished Scholar Leader will convene the multinational group of NCS Fellows for approximately one week to share the results of their research and to report publicly on the accomplishment of individual and group objectives in the research, education and/or policy arenas.

Resource experts and policymakers representing government agencies, NGOs, and other interested national and international organizations will be invited to attend the seminar and take an active role in the proceedings. NCS Scholars will have the opportunity to explore new avenues of inquiry and collaboration and to make recommendations for framing policy discussions at both the national and international levels.

It is anticipated that the reports and recommendations resulting from the final plenary seminar, with an introduction and summary by the Distinguished Scholar Leader, will be disseminated in printed form.

All NCS Scholars are expected to participate in the NCS final plenary seminar. The exact dates for the plenary will be announced at the NCS orientation.

International Research Exchange Visit

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The international research exchange visit provides an opportunity for the Scholars to present their research to colleagues or professional constituencies, to renew or develop international networks for collaboration and exchange, and to carry out individual projects.

All NCS Scholars are expected to make such a visit of two - six months' duration during the course of the program year. Fellows may plan their visits to begin as of August 2004 and should complete them by April 30, 2005. U.S. applicants may propose visits to any country in which there is an operating Fulbright scholar program; non-U.S. applicants will propose their research visits for the United States.

All applicants are responsible for prearranging and confirming their own affiliations, as well as making any housing and other arrangements related to carrying out their research activities at the host institution and in the host country.

Eligibility Requirements

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Leading scholars and professionals in any area of the social sciences or humanities concerned with the study of women or gender. Successful candidates will be active in the academic, public or private sector and will demonstrate outstanding qualifications and a distinguished record of experience, research and accomplishment in an area clearly related to the NCS theme. Applicants must be conducting current research relevant to the program's theme and objectives, be open to exploring and incorporating comparative, interdisciplinary approaches in their investigations, and interested in developing collaborative activities with other program Scholars.

• For academic applicants, a Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree in a relevant field.
• For applicants in the professional fields, the appropriate terminal degree in a relevant field.
• U.S. applicants must have U.S. citizenship and permanent residency in the U.S.
• Non-U.S. applicants must be citizens of and residing in the country from which they are applying at the time of application.
• Non-U.S. applications must be submitted through a participating Fulbright Commission or Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in the home country.
• Fluency in English.

Benefits

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• Individual awards in the amount of $41,500
• Travel, accommodations, and meals for Program seminars (except travel to the final plenary, which is to be funded from the individual awards.)

NCS grants are not intended to replace a full salary. The individual awards are for expenses related to participation in the NCS Program, including:

• international travel and maintenance;
• domestic travel and per diem;
• books, supplies, and other materials necessary for conducting individual research projects;
• research assistance;
• partial salary/benefits.
• air travel to the final plenary seminar
• incidental expenses associated with attending in-person program meetings

Dependent support is not covered by the grant.

NCS awards for U.S. scholars will be administered through their U.S. institutions; awards for non-U.S.scholars will be administered through the Fulbright Commission in their home countries; awards for non-U.S. scholars in countries with no Fulbright Commission will be administered through CIES as individual grants.

Timeline

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July 2003	Program announced and application materials available
* December 15, 2003	Deadline for submission of application materials
February 2004	NCS Fellows announced
April 14-19 2004	Orientation and Goal Setting Emory Conference Center, Atlanta
August 2004	Research Exchange Visits begin
October/November 2004	Mid-term Meeting
March/April 2005	Final Plenary Seminar
* Preliminary deadlines for non-U.S. Scholars vary from country to country. Interested applicants should contact their local Fulbright office to ascertain the relevant date.

General Selection Criteria

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Applications will be reviewed and NCS Fellows selected on the basis of the following criteria:

• Qualifications of the applicant, including academic degrees, training, rank and position; national/international reputation in his/her field; quality of professional accomplishments as demonstrated through publications, research grants, other professional achievements
• Potential of the applicant to contribute to interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration related to the NCS research theme
• Merits of the research proposal, including its significance, methodology, feasibility and relevance to the New Century Scholars research theme
• Potential of the applicant's proposed research to develop or add new approaches or perspectives to the New Century Scholar research topic
• Potential of the proposed research to contribute to a better understanding of the research topic at the national and international level
• Justification for the proposed international research visit, including its significance for advancing the proposed research, especially in terms of adding a comparative or international dimension and contributing to the development of new collaborations
• Ability of the applicant to carry out the project

Final selection will be based on the referenced criteria as well as on the need for a diversity of projects, disciplinary fields and geographic areas represented in the program.

Privacy Act of 1974

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In compliance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-579), persons interested in Fulbright grants are informed of the following:

The solicitation of the information requested in application forms is authorized under the Fulbright-Hays Act; the information is intended to be used in screening and selecting grantees and in the administration of the grants; it may be released to appropriate U.S. governmental agencies, the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, binational Fulbright commissions, foreign host institutions, Congress, the news media, and relatives of the grantee trying to reach the individual for bona fide personal reasons.

Contact Information

Micaela S. Iovine, Ph.D., Senior Program Officer
E-mail: NCS@cies.iie.org
Tel (202) 686-6253

Stacey Bustillos, Senior Program Coordinator
E-mail: NCS@cies.iie.org
Tel (202) 686-6252

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