Arts and Sciences Initiatives

Arts & Sciences Advisory Council

The Arts & Sciences Advisory Council was formed in 2010-11. This group of faculty works with the Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences to plan initiatives for the School. Tenured faculty members from across the disciplines in the School, at various stages of their academic careers, serve on the Council. The Council consists of nine members in addition to the Dean. Members serve up to a three-year term on a rotating basis to broaden participation and ensure fresh perspectives.

The Council has been invaluable to the School as a resource to evaluate ideas and provide suggestions. To date, the Council has helped to develop proposals for the assistant chair pilot program, now well established, and the Summer Scholar Program, which has provided funding for faculty members to focus on their scholarship. Among its many initiatives, the group helped to plan and carry out the first meeting open to all School of Arts & Sciences faculty, held in February 2013; results from that meeting are now driving planning initiatives for the School. Every proposal brought to the Advisory Council has been immeasurably improved with their input.

Summer Scholars Program

Since 2011, the School of Arts & Sciences has awarded grants to support faculty research efforts during the summer months. Participating faculty members receive a grant equivalent to the stipend for teaching one course, reducing the need for faculty to teach in the summer, so that they will be able to dedicate more time towards scholarly work. At least one of the awards will be reserved for mid-career to senior-level faculty. Faculty who can demonstrate the direct impact of the grant on their ability to complete scholarly work in the summer, and/or complete a project in anticipation of upcoming tenure/promotion, will be given preference in the selection process. Recipients will be chosen by the Summer Scholar Selection Committee comprised of faculty from across the School of Arts and Sciences.

Recipients of Summer Scholar awards will not teach a summer course during the summer award period and will be required to submit a brief (2-4 pages) report by October 1, describing their accomplishments during the award period. They will also present their work to a peer audience in an informal venue during the subsequent academic year. The annual call for applications for the Summer Scholars Program for Ordinary faculty in the School of Arts & Sciences will be announced late in the Fall semester. Announcement of the awards will be made early in the Spring semester.

Publishing Workshop

In May 2017, the School of Arts & Sciences hosted “Meet the Editors,” a publishing workshop designed to support faculty in the dissemination of their research and scholarship.  Guest editors Beatrice Rehl, Book Acquisitions Editor and Hal Moore, Journals Acquisitions Editor of Cambridge University Press, led a day-long workshop on book and journal publishing in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. This event was designed to help faculty prepare book and journal manuscripts for publication.

Liberal Arts Task Force

The Liberal Arts Task Force was constituted in October 2013 to support the liberal arts mission of the School of Arts & Sciences and Providence College and charged with the following:

To recommend initiatives that can be taken by the Providence College School of Arts & Sciences to promote the liberal arts at Providence College to current and prospective students, parents, faculty and staff, alumni, donors, and the general public. The Task Force recommendations will ideally include short-, medium-, and long-term initiatives requiring a range of resources. Best practices and the current literature on the value of a liberal arts education should guide Task Force members in their work.

Click here to see the task force membership and recommendations.