Doctoral Fellow-Seminar Series (Student GRA Search) at InsideHigherEd

Position OverviewThe Hall Center for the Humanities seeks a PhD candidate in a humanities or humanities-adjacent discipline to serve as the Doctoral Fellow for a seminar series that will run from January 2026 – November 2027. The selected student will work under Hall Center Director, who serves as the Principal Investigator for the 2-year seminar program entitled Navigating Academic Freedom and Democracy on a Public University Campus in America’s Heartland. The Graduate Fellow will gain valuable experience in project management (program development and execution), grant management (assessment and reporting), collaborative interdisciplinary research, and will participate in the substantive intellectual work of the project. These highly marketable job skills will add to their academic research and teaching portfolios, benefiting anyone interested in exploring ways they can apply the skills they have acquired in graduate school to career paths within and beyond the academy.

Seminar Description:
The central aim of the seminar series is to engage in comparative research on the historical and cultural sources of contemporary developments. In the upcoming 250th anniversary year of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the 50th anniversary of the Hall Center for the Humanities, the series will excavate how democracy and academic freedom are understood, taught, and tested on college campuses, focusing especially on the current moment, and specifically at the University of Kansas.

The interdisciplinary team of co-Principal Investigators understands academic freedom in accordance to Ralph F. Fuchs’ critical 1963 essay on the subject, in which he concludes that academic freedom rests on three foundations: (1) the notion of intellectual freedom, which is most frequently taught on U.S. campuses through the writings of philosophers from ancient Greece and Europe’s Age of Reason; (2) the idea of autonomy for communities of scholars, which arose in the formation of universities around the world; and (3) the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Bill of Rights in the Constitution, as elaborated by the courts. Over the course of the seminar series, we will examine these facets of academic freedom and demonstrate how the humanities are particularly well positioned to ensure that each aspect is considered from a variety of perspectives. As we interrogate how democracy and academic freedom on KU’s campus have been taught and modelled over the past half-century, providing an important intellectual, civic, and cultural education for thousands of students and employees, we will also contemplate how these concepts might need rearticulation, revision, and/or different pedagogical strategies for the years and generations to come.

• Matching KU GTA/GRA salary levels for .5 FTE, currently ~$26,000 per year (12/15/2025 – 10/31/2026 and 11/1/2026 – 10/31/2027), including fringe
• Tuition and fees for 1 dissertation hour per semester, including Summers 2026 and 2027

Job DescriptionThe selected Doctoral Fellow will work with the Hall Center Director, Hall Center staff, and the Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow to plan and carry out the programming details for each of the linked seminars in the series. Assigned tasks may include, but are not limited to:

• Make strong progress on dissertation project (40%);
• Attend all seminar sessions and take detailed notes on the proceedings for future use in (1) developing the KU Sawyer Seminars website, (2) capturing key insights gained throughout the 2-year series; (3) writing monthly briefs, an interim report, and a final report (i.e. grant reporting), (4) program assessment (20%);
• Schedule and facilitate each seminar session in consultation with the Postdoctoral Fellow and the Hall Center Program Coordinator and Events Specialist (10%);
• Research, write, copyedit, proofread, and distribute related marketing and publicity materials in consultation with the Hall Center Communications Coordinator (10%);
• Plan a summary session for co-PIs and the seminar cohort of participants at the end of Year 1, and a half-day capstone event near the end of Year 2 (10%);
• Assist the Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow and website technician in designing, developing, launching, and maintaining the Seminars website (5%);
• Other (5%).

Required Qualifications

1. Excellent written and oral communication skills, as evidenced by application materials and/or work history.
2. Excellent organizational and administrative skills; strong attention to detail as demonstrated by application materials.
3. Ability to prioritize tasks, manage conflicting responsibilities, organize time wisely, and consistently meet deadlines as demonstrated by application materials.
4. Ability to work independently in a team environment, take ownership of the resolution of problems, be flexible and accountable as evidenced by application materials.
5. Computer skills in a PC/Windows environment, including MS Word and MS Excel, as demonstrated by application materials and previous experience. Familiarity with an Apple environment.

Preferred QualificationsN/APosition Requirements

1. Must be a doctoral student enrolled at the University of Kansas, with departmental affiliation in the humanities, arts, or interpretative/qualitative social sciences;
2. Must be ABD (coursework completed, dissertation proposal reviewed and passed, enrolled in no more than 1 credit hour per semester);
3. Must be engaged in research involving the major themes of the seminar series (e.g., democracy/democracies, academic freedom, higher education, state or local politics as affecting universities, campus policies, freedom of speech, censorship).

Employment Conditions(1) Student employees are not eligible for remote work arrangements unless an exception is approved by the unit leadership and HR.

(2) This is a salaried GRA position. A student employee cannot hold an hourly/non-exempt position and a salaried/exempt graduate or undergraduate position (GRA/GTA/GA/RUA/RGA) concurrently.Additional Candidate Instructions

1. Resume or Curriculum Vita;
2. Cover Letter addressing how the student’s research fits the topic of the seminar series (Academic Freedom & Democracy on University Campuses) and why applicants desires the position;
3. Contact Information for 2 professional references.

To ensure consideration apply before the application review date 11/15/2025. A review of applications will continue until a qualified candidate is identified.Contact Information to ApplicantsAndrew Hodgson, Assistant Director, Hall Center for the HumanitiesAdvertised Salary Range~$26,000 per yearAnticipated Start DateMonday December 15, 2025Apply to Job