University of Wisconsin-Madison
Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program

Nave Research Internship Award

During 1992-93, the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS), in collaboration with Acting Dean M. Crawford Young and the University of Wisconsin Foundation, developed an endowment (the Nave Scholarship Bequest) to support a variety of financial aid initiatives. One of these initiatives, the Nave Research Internship Award, also provides major support to faculty research in the form of flexible Project Assistantship banks.

The PAship bank consists of two 40%-time academic year PAships available to assist faculty research within a five-year cycle that begins in the academic year following the granting of the Nave Research Internship Award. The faculty member may choose, in accord with his or her research needs, any four semesters within the five-year cycle to mobilize the PAships. The faculty member may grant PAships only to students whose major field of concentration or research is directly concerned with Latin America or Iberia, and the usual rules about posting the availability of PAships would apply.

Competitions for the Nave Research Internship Award will be held once every two years. The fund allows support of up to two winners in every competition. The quality standard of the awards will be stringent and comparable to that exercised in the Romnes Fellowship competitions of the Graduate School.

Eligibility

The Nave Research Internship Award recognizes and rewards outstanding scholarship and productivity by LACIS faculty in all disciplines who are in the middle-to-senior part of the scholarly career cycle. That is, the Award targets faculty sufficiently past the point of promotion to tenure to have established themselves as distinguished scholars with an ongoing track record of research productivity, yet sufficiently distant from retirement to expect a lengthy future record of scholarly research, publication, and graduate teaching.

The more specific eligibility rules are listed below:

1. LACIS faculty affiliates are eligible if:
   1. they engage in 50% or more research and teaching time on Latin America (including the Caribbean) or Iberia; AND
   2. they are at least five years past the point of tenure promotion a period sufficient to establish a second wave of scholarly productivity and reputational quality, but no more than fifteen years past the point of promotion to tenure.

      Outstanding research faculty who are not yet five years beyond tenure promotion are eligible for the Romnes Fellowship awards of the Graduate School; faculty of the highest possible caliber who are fifteen years beyond tenure are extremely competitive for endowed chairs. We seek faculty in that part of the faculty career cycle that falls in between these two poles.

2. To allow for consideration of exceptionally meritorious cases that fall slightly outside these eligibility guidelines, the definition of eligibility as 5-15 years beyond tenure shall be considered a very strong priority or target, rather than an absolutely rigid boundary.
3. To give priority to full time scholar-teachers, LACIS faculty who hold major administrative positions (defined as positions that carry partial release time from teaching) are ineligible for nomination. Faculty administrators regain eligibility upon their return to full time scholar-teacher status.

Procedures and Calendar

1. Departmental nominations will be the normal procedure for most candidates (but see point 4 below on self-nominations). Given the limited number of awards, the rigor of the competition, and the fact that a ten-year window of eligibility for individual faculty facilitates planning of future nominations, departments are urged to limit nominations to one candidate. In no case should a department submit more than two candidates.
2. Each departmental nomination packet shall include the following:
1. A nomination letter by the department chair;
2. Two to three external (off-campus) letters of recommendation by distinguished scholars in a position to assess the nominee's national standing as a scholarly leader of the middle-to-senior generation; one of the letters should be from a specialist in the nominee's subdiscipline;
3. A brief profile (2-4 sentences) of the scholarly standing of each letter writer;
4. A current curriculum vitae of the nominee, supplemented by a short autobiographical career narrative (3-5 double-spaced pages) that includes a statement of future research plans;
5. Publications supplement to the packet. The supplement shall provide copies of the candidate's most important research publications (3-5 items) that testify to research productivity and quality after the granting of tenure. These items may include page proofs or manuscripts accepted for publication.
3. Self-nomination is an acceptable procedure. Self-nominees will obviously not provide a departmental nomination letter. Self-nominees will have their letters of recommendation sent directly to the LACIS office, but are in all other respects responsible for assembling the nomination on packets and publication files in multiple copies.
4. The nominations shall be considered by the Nave Committee, chaired by the Dean of Letters and Science, in April. The Nave Committee shall select the winners of the Nave Research Internship Award. Formal letters of notification will be sent to the successful nominees as well as to those candidates the Nave Committee chooses not to fund.

Further Information

For further information, call the LACIS Program Director. See the Program Staff Page for contact information. We are very pleased that this new endowment initiative has made it possible to invest funds in support of scholarly excellence by our faculty and students.