Mind Research Fellowship (6 months)
Applications for Mind 6-Month Research Fellowships 2020-21
Applications for the 2020-21 academic year Mind Fellowships are now closed. Details of the 2021-22 application process will be posted here in due course.
About the Fellowships
The fellowships are intended for early and mid-career academics in post, part-time or full-time, in an institution of higher education in the UK or Republic of Ireland who are engaged in research in any area of philosophy. For the purposes of these awards, ‘early and mid-career’ is understood as staff who are not full professors. If potential applicants wish to discuss their eligibility for these awards, they should contact the Director, Daniel Whiting, at MindAssoc@gmail.com.
One of the aims of the fellowships scheme is to support academics who are substantially burdened with teaching or administrative duties. The fellowships may be used to fund research leave for projects at any stage of completion, including initial stages of research, however the Committee strongly advise applicants to include a timetable of work indicating clearly what the outcome of the research leave is intended to be. The grants will be paid to the universities at which the scholars are employed, and each grant will exactly cover the cost of a six-month lectureship at the lowest spinal point of the Lecturer A scale or equivalent as specified by the rules of the institution, plus on costs (National Insurance, pension, and London Allowance where appropriate). Or, in the case of a part-time award, the grant will be proportional.
An additional benefit available to the holder of a Mind Research Fellowship is Mind Association-funded attendance at, and travel to, the Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association taking place in the year in which the fellowship is held. In 2019 the Joint Session will be held at The University of Durham (see https://www.aristoteliansociety.org.uk/the-joint-session/). Applicants should state in their accompanying email or cover letter whether they intend to take up this offer if successful.
Mind Association Research Fellows, 2019-20
The Mind Research Fellows for 2019-20 are Dr Craig Bourne (Hertfordshire) and Dr Graeme Forbes (Kent). Please see the ‘Mind Fellows’ tab for details of their respective projects.
Conditions of the award
- Award of a Fellowship is conditional on the university’s agreeing, by way of a letter from the Head of Department, Dean, or other appropriate officer, that the funds will be wholly used to release the scholar from all administrative and teaching duties (with the optional exception of supervising doctoral students) by making a replacement appointment equivalent to a full six-month lectureship (as opposed to a teaching fellowship or teaching focused lectureship). Please note that since the Association intends the replacement teaching post to represent a new employment opportunity, academics whose time would be freed up for the post by taking unpaid leave from another job are not normally eligible.
- A research fellowship should supplement, rather than be a substitute for, any institutional leave for which successful candidates are eligible.
How to apply
Applications should be sent as soft copy by email to the Director at MindAssoc@gmail.com.
The deadline for applications for the 2020-21 Fellowships has now passed. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by the end of April 2020.
Applications should consist of:
- A CV (covering the last five years) which includes: the names of two referees (not more than one of which may from the applicant’s home institution); details of administrative and teaching duties; periods of research leave; any non-academic commitments curtailing research time, such as career breaks, maternity or paternity leave, prolonged ill-health, or caring for a sick relative; a statement of what institutional leave, if any, the applicant expects to have during the current academic year and the next academic year; a statement of the applicant’s entitlement to research leave under his or her institution’s current policy; a statement of other sources of financial support for which the applicant intends to apply and which would cover terms/semesters consecutive with the period of research that would be covered by the Mind Fellowship. (The fellowship may be held consecutively with institutional leave, but not with any other funded research fellowship).
- A research proposal of not more than 1200 words saved as a separate document with no name on it and anonymised throughout as far as possible (as per blind review). The review process will be in two stages and in the first stage reviewers will only look at this element of applications, thus these research proposals should be independent documents and should not make reference to material which occurs elsewhere in the application.
- A letter from the scholar’s Head of Department, Dean, or equivalent university officer stating that the funds will be used only to fund a replacement six-month lectureship, with the fellow being wholly released from all teaching and admin duties for the duration of the fellowship (with the optional exception of continuing to supervise no more than their normal number of doctoral students).
Application data will be kept for three years after the application has been completed for monitoring purposes. After the three year period has elapsed, it will be deleted.
Referees
Applicants should supply the names of two potential referees whom the sub-committee may consult if need be. Applicants should seek the referees’ permission for their names to go forward, and should send them the final version of the research proposal for information.
The Executive regrets that it is not possible to offer feedback to applicants.
Selection Process
In any given round the selection procedure is normally as follows: the selection is made by a sub-committee of three members of the Mind Executive Committee possessing a suitable spread of expertise between them (but not the Director or Treasurer); the membership of the sub-committee tends to alter by at least one member from year to year; applicants’ research proposals are read in anonymised form and provisionally ranked prior to other application materials being introduced into the decision process.
Post-award reporting
A report on the work supported by the fellowship should be sent as soft copy to the Director, Prof Daniel Whiting, at MindAssoc@gmail.com no more than three months after the term of the fellowship. This report should have two elements:
- Confirmation from the Dean, Head of Department, or appropriate officer of how the money was spent, and giving the name of the replacement lecturer appointed.
- A summary of the research done during the fellowship.
Current Fellows
Mind Association Research Fellows, 2019-20
The Mind Association is delighted to announce its two six-month research fellows for 2019-20. Fellowships have been awarded to Dr Craig Bourne (Hertfordshire) and Dr Graeme Forbes (Kent). Brief abstracts of their respective projects are set out below:
Craig Bourne (Hertfordshire): Truth in Fiction: A Contextualist Account
Some fictional truths are determined by what is explicitly stated in a book or shown on a screen, such as the fictional truth that Harry Potter wears glasses. One central concern in the philosophy of fiction is accounting for fictional truths which aren’t explicitly stated or shown (such as that Harry Potter has the same internal organs as we have). My project develops a new way of understanding how such fictional truths are determined, proposing an account of the dynamics of truth in fiction which explains why certain things can legitimately be assumed to be fictionally true, and how these assumptions can sometimes be revised. This will also involve giving an account of how decisions to cast particular actors in particular roles affect the mechanics of determining what is true in a fiction.
Graeme Forbes (Kent): A Defence of the Growing-Block
The fellowship provides time to work on a larger project – a monograph – that sets out to answer three questions: 1. ‘does time (objectively) pass?’; 2. ‘Is there an objective difference between past and future?’; 3. ‘If we answer yes to questions 1 and 2, what account of time should we hold?’. In doing so, the project aims to unify perhaps the most fundamental divide between science and the humanities. Science tends to view the passage of time as variation over a dimension of space-time, and to be understood by analogue with variation over space. The humanities tend to emphasise how humans are inescapably time-bound creatures, and treat time as passing in a way that has no spatial analogue. By adopting a pragmatist approach, wherein the world science investigates and the world in which humans live are one and the same, I will synthesise these contrasting perspectives.
The Mind executive congratulates Dr Bourne and Dr Forbes, and also thanks all applicants for submitting their proposals. As always, the field was extremely strong and speaks very well for the health of philosophy in the UK.
Previous Fellows
2018-19 Stephen deWijze (Manchester): Dirty Hands: A Philosophical Analysis; and Mona Simion (Cardiff): Epistemic Norms: a Function-First Account.
2017-18 Stephanie Collins (Manchester): Modelling Collective Obligations; and Mark Jago (Nottingham): Developing Truth-maker Semantics
2016-17 Gerald Lang (Leeds): Strokes of Luck; and Lubomira Radoilska (Kent): Knowledge in Action
2015/16 Matthew Tugby (Durham)
2014/15 Anastasia Scrutton (Leeds); and Stephen Barker (Nottingham)
2013/14 Elizabeth Barnes (Leeds)
2012/13 Fiona Leigh (UCL); and Jason Turner (Leeds)
Other recipients include Simon Kirchin (Kent); Penelope Mackie (Nottingham); Sarah Patterson (Birkbeck); Cynthia Macdonald (Queen’s, Belfast); Murali Ramachandran (Sussex); Komarine Romdenh-Romluk (Nottingham).
Mind Senior Research Fellowship (12 months)
Applications for Mind 12-Month Research Fellowship 2021-22
Applications for the 2019/20 Mind Fellowship are now closed. Details of the 2021-22 application process will be posted here in due course.
About the Fellowships
This award is intended for academics in post, part-time or full-time, in an institution of higher education in the UK or Republic of Ireland. Competition for these awards is open in terms of both philosophical area and career stage of applicant. One of the aims of the fellowship scheme is to support academics who are substantially burdened with teaching or administrative duties. The fellowship may be used to fund research leave for a project at any stage of completion, including initial stages of research, but the Executive strongly advises applicants to include a timetable of work indicating clearly what the outcome of the research leave is intended to be. The grants will be paid to the universities at which the scholars are employed, and each grant will exactly cover the cost of a twelve-month lectureship at the lowest spinal point of the Lecturer A scale or equivalent as specified by the rules of the institution, plus on costs (National Insurance, pension, and London Allowance where appropriate). Or, in the case of a part-time award, the grant will be proportional.
An additional benefit available to the holder of a Mind Research Fellowship is Mind Association-funded attendance at, and travel to, the Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association taking place in the year in which the fellowship is held. Applicants should state in their accompanying email or cover letter whether they intend to take up this offer if successful.
Mind Association Research Fellows, 2019-20
The Mind 12-month Fellowship for 2019-20 was awarded to Professor Maria Rosa Antognazza (King’s College London) for her project, Thinking with Assent: Renewing a Traditional Account of Knowledge and Belief. Please see the ‘Mind Fellows’ tab for details of Professor Antognazza’s project.
Conditions of the award
- Award of a Fellowship is conditional on the university’s agreeing, by way of a letter from the Head of Department, Dean, or other appropriate officer, that the funds will be wholly used to release the scholar from all administrative and teaching duties (with the optional exception of supervising doctoral students) by making a replacement appointment equivalent to a full twelve-month lectureship (as opposed to a teaching fellowship or teaching focused lectureship). Please note that since the Association intends the replacement teaching post to represent a new employment opportunity, academics whose time would be freed up for the post by taking unpaid leave from another job are not normally eligible.
- A research fellowship should supplement, rather than be a substitute for, any institutional leave for which successful candidates are eligible.
How to apply
Applications should be sent as soft copy by email to the Director, Prof Daniel Whiting, at MindAssoc@gmail.com.
The deadline for applications for the 2019-20 Fellowship has now passed. Details of the 2021-22 12-month Fellowship scheme will be posted here in due course.
Applications should consist of:
- A CV (covering the last five years) which includes: the names of two referees (not more than one of which may be from the applicant’s home institution); details of administrative and teaching duties; periods of research leave; any non-academic commitments curtailing research time, such as career breaks, maternity or paternity leave, prolonged ill-health, or caring for a sick relative; a statement of what institutional leave, if any, the applicant expects to have during the current academic year and the next academic year; a statement of the applicant’s entitlement to research leave under his or her institution’s current policy; a statement of other sources of financial support for which the applicant intends to apply and which would cover terms/semesters consecutive with the period of research that would be covered by the Mind Fellowship. (The fellowship may be held consecutively with institutional leave, but not with any other funded research fellowship).
- A research proposal of not more than 1200 words saved as a separate document with no name on it and anonymised throughout as far as possible (as per blind review). The review process will be in two stages and in the first stage reviewers will only look at this element of applications, thus these research proposals should be independent documents and should not make reference to material which occurs elsewhere in the application.
- A letter from the scholar’s Head of Department, Dean, or equivalent university officer stating that the funds will be used only to fund a replacement twelve-month lectureship, with the fellow being wholly released from all teaching and admin duties for the duration of the fellowship (with the optional exception of continuing to supervise no more than their normal number of doctoral students).
Application data will be kept for three years after the application has been completed for monitoring purposes. After the three year period has elapsed, it will be deleted.
Referees
Applicants should supply the names of two potential referees whom the Fellowships Sub-Committee may consult if need be. Applicants should seek the referees’ permission for their names to go forward, and should send them the final version of the research proposal for information.
The Executive regrets that it is not possible to offer feedback to applicants.
Selection Process
In any given round the selection procedure is normally as follows: the selection is made by a sub-committee of three members of the Mind Executive Committee possessing a suitable spread of expertise between them (but not the Director or Treasurer); the membership of the sub-committee tends to alter by at least one member from year to year; applicants’ research proposals are read in anonymised form and provisionally ranked prior to other application materials being introduced into the decision process.
Post-award reporting
A report on the work supported by the fellowship should be sent as soft copy to the Director, Prof Daniel Whiting, at MindAssoc@gmail.com no more than three months after the term of the fellowship. This report should have two elements:
- Confirmation from the Dean, Head of Department, or appropriate officer of how the money was spent, and giving the name of the replacement lecturer appointed.
- A summary of the research done during the fellowship.
Current Fellows
Mind Association Research Fellows, 2019-20
The Mind Association is delighted to announce its three research fellows for 2019-20. The Senior (12-month) Fellowship has been awarded to Professor Maria Rosa Antognazza (King’s College London) for her project, Thinking with Assent: Renewing a Traditional Account of Knowledge and Belief. Professor Antognazza’s abstract is set out below.
Maria Rosa Antognazza (King’s College London): Thinking with Assent: Renewing a Traditional Account of Knowledge and Belief.
My aim is to propose an original account of cognition by renewing some insights deriving from the history of epistemology. Epistemology is currently in ferment. What was recently regarded as the ‘standard account’ of knowledge (namely, Justified True Belief plus some additional condition) is no longer consensual. A leading contender amongst alternative accounts is the ‘knowledge-first epistemology’ advocated by Timothy Williamson, although a new consensus has not emerged. The core of my project will propose an account of cognition according to which knowledge and belief are irreducibly distinct kinds of ‘thinking with assent’ that cannot be analysed or characterized in terms of one another. The project will: 1) rediscover an historically well-attested account of cognition significantly different from twentieth-century mainstream views; 2) employ a version of this rediscovered tradition in a fresh restatement of the relationship between knowledge and belief; 3) apply this reconceived relationship to religious belief in particular. These three sections will coincide with sections in a monograph currently under contract with Oxford University Press.
Previous Fellows
2017/18 Professor Jessica Brown (St. Andrews): Blame: Epistemic and Moral.
2015/16 Rae Langton (Cambridge): Accommodating Injustice
Alexander Bird (Bristol); Alex Oliver (Cambridge); and Quassim Cassam (Warwick).