Junior Faculty Research Seminar

What is JFRS?

At the start of every Fall term, ten faculty members from across the university will join a seminar. It is intended to foster productive research and scholarship, and to break through the sense of isolation that may accompany the period of building one’s dossier for the tenure decision year with a particular focus on preparing for the Fourth Year Review.

The seminar will provide opportunities for participants to review and present their work to seminar colleagues and to benefit from the research and tenure experiences of senior colleagues on particular topics of interest. It is facilitated by two tenured faculty members from different colleges. 

Faculty who successfully complete the seminar will receive a $500 stipend. 

Who may apply?

Full-time, tenure-track faculty from all of the University's colleges who have completed at least 2 full years of teaching and are preparing their Fourth Year Review dossier are welcome to apply.  New faculty to the University with years of teaching and research applied toward tenure are encouraged to apply as well.

The seminar will be particularly useful to faculty who work well by exchanging ideas with and getting feedback from colleagues in other fields and disciplines. We welcome applications from tenure track faculty in all Colleges and Schools at UMass Boston whose work is likely to benefit from cross-disciplinary dialogue.

What will happen in the seminar?

The seminar will meet monthly throughout the academic year. You will be provided with opportunities to explore—together with colleagues from across the university—both the generic, and the campus-specific research challenges that face untenured faculty. 

Participants will set the agenda for specific topics to be discussed. Topics chosen by past seminar members: 

• Getting Tenure at UMass Boston:  Rules of the Game
• Your Research Agenda as a PRACTICAL Priority
• Integrating and Balancing Research, Service and Teaching
• Effective Professional Networking
• The Struggle to Achieve Healthy Work-Life Balance
• Seeking and Securing Support
• Antiracism & Scholarly Work
• Advice from Successful Grant Writers
• Preparing for the Fourth Year Review

In the course of the seminar, participants will be expected to achieve significant progress toward completion of a specific research project (or projects). Using a schedule that we will collectively construct, every seminar participant will share a piece of research work in progress and then receive peer review and support for strengthening and completing that project.

Note: All seminar discussions are strictly confidential, and may not become part of personnel decisions or reviews of any kind

Suggestion to applicants: 

Invitations will be issued at the end of the Spring term for the upcoming fall semester seminar start date.

Applications due: April 15

Hear what past participants have said about JFRS

Participatory feedback on JFRS can be found here.

Seminar Syllabus from AY 2021-2022