Teacher. Scholar. At Wellesley, it’s not an either-or proposition.
Faculty Research and Scholarship
As a research college, Wellesley College is dedicated to advancing knowledge, engaging with issues of global importance to address the pressing problems of the day. In the sciences, arts, humanities, and social sciences, Wellesley professors conduct a wide variety of research, making leading-edge discoveries, publishing papers, and exhibiting and presenting at conferences together. As befits both a research college and one of the preeminent liberal arts colleges, faculty work side by side with students in a multitude of ways. The Faculty Research Spotlight serves as a hub for the influential research and scholarship of Wellesley faculty. This webpage highlights a sampling of the path-breaking and creative work of faculty from across the College and celebrates the recent competitive fellowships, grants, and contracts Wellesley faculty have been awarded.
After all, those who seek to nurture academic excellence must be motivated by intellectual inquisitiveness themselves. Wellesley's commitment to academic distinction shines through the caliber of our faculty. Our students have the rare opportunity to learn from elite scholars and researchers whose engagement in their fields illuminates the undergraduate experience. Faculty like Orit Shaer are exploring new human-computer interaction techniques, while poet Frank Bidart won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and a National Book Award, and Kathy Moon is a much sought-after expert on North Korea. In the sciences, humanities, or social sciences, Wellesley faculty are doing fascinating and significant research, often bringing their students on the journey.
Internal Resources
Wellesley supports its faculty’s scholarly activities with a range of internal research grant opportunities, ranging from small travel-related grants to larger research grants for two-year projects. There are also field-specific grant opportunities, such as the Davis Award for Russian Area Studies, as well as awards to help with dissertation activities or defray the costs of the use of Harvard’s Widener Library.
Time to conduct research, is also a resource Wellesley accords its faculty members, an investment with direct benefits to faculty and students alike.
External Resources
Faculty seeking external research funding can turn to the Office of Sponsored Research, which supports faculty members in all disciplines. The Office of Sponsored Research manages assists faculty with searching for funding opportunities, preparing and submitting grant proposals, negotiating collaborative relationships and agreements, assuring compliance with sponsor and College policies. The Assistant Provost and Director serves as the liaison between faculty, College administrators, and funding agencies.