Shared Intellectual Inquiry Program (SIIP): Cross-Cutting Areas of Excellence
In 2020, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) launched a broad, three-year strategic planning process to define the structures and resources needed to support long-term excellence in teaching and research within, and across, its many fields and disciplines.The process puts a particular focus on a forward-looking vision for excellence in graduate education, faculty support and development, and the organization of academic communities.
As part of this process, the Science Division was charged with identrifying ways to enhance intellectual agility and effectiveness by establishing robust cross-cutting areas of excellence and conducting searches that cut across departmental lines. With lessons learned from current and previous interdisciplinary centers and initiatives in the Sciences, we are proposing the establishment of the Shared Intellectual Inquiry Program (SIIP). This program would support term-limited intellectual interdisciplinary projects to support faculty interest and research, development of new curricular areas, and to nurture the evolution of new areas of scholarly inquiry across the FAS. SIIP projects would receive funding, space access, and centralized administrative support. Funds could be used to support post-doctoral and visiting scholars, to host events and workshops, and to facilitate other forms of engagement across the FAS community.
Throughout spring 2023, we plan to engage with community members across the FAS with a goal of further refining the SIIP deisgn and implementation plan to ensure it will enable broad and nimble intellectual inquiry. Members of the FAS community are invited to review a white paper overviewing the program and to provide feedback via a brief survey, both of which are linked below. For any additional questions related to SIIP or the Science Division's charge within the FAS Strategic Planning process, please contact Erin Collins, Divisional Administrator for Science at erin_collins@fas.harvard.edu.
Review the SIIP White Paper: CLICK HERE
Complete the SIIP Feedback Survey: CLICK HERE