Visiting  Scholarship

Duration: one academic year.  Begin in late August and end in early May.

Stipend: $6,000 (housing & meals are included)

Teaching is negotiable

Eligibility: recent M.A.  or Ph.D graduates (or their equivalents)

Application deadline:

Application form:   please, download here

Contact person: Dr. James A. Sheppard (james.sheppard@sckans.edu)

Program description

The Center for Belarusian Studies at Southwestern College, Kansas (USA),  supports one or more visiting scholars annually.  To date the Center has hosted four scholars.  For a variety of reasons, including those of personal privacy, the Center does not ordinarily post personal information about its visiting scholars on this web site.

The purpose of this program is to encourage the professional development of carefully selected Belarusian scholars through a variety of activities at the Center, located in Winfield, Kansas, USA, and elsewhere in the United States.

Typically, the visiting scholars are recent graduates of master’s or doctoral programs (or their equivalents), are native speakers of Belarusian, and have a demonstrated commitment not only to returning to Belarus following the program but to working actively toward that country’s societal renaissance.

Candidates should also demonstrate professional knowledge of spoken and written English, including the ability to give lectures and do other public speaking in English. Visiting scholar may expect to spend up to one year in the United States under this program.

Visiting scholars will be expected to carry out activities including the following:

1)      Lecture at the Center and elsewhere within the Southwestern College academic community, at civic gatherings in the local community and regionally, and at other institutions of higher education in the United States on topics related to the professional competencies of the scholar as well as, more generally, on Belarus-history, culture, current events. The Center facilitates these events.

2)      Meet with media representatives to discuss Belarus.

3)     Meet, as invited, with communities of the North American Belarusian Diaspora to brief them on developments in Belarusand to publicize widely the existence and activities of the Center for Belarusian Studies.

4)       Attend professional conferences as a Center representative, such as the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), presenting papers where appropriate and developing contacts with scholars in the United States.

In addition, the visiting scholar will devote approximately 20 hours per week to supporting the work of the Center. Specifically, the scholar will be involved in:

-         Editing and proof-reading manuscripts submitted to the Center for publication;

-         Translating documents from Belarusian to English and vice versa;

-         Cataloguing books and other materials received at the Center’s library;

-         Assisting in the preparation of grant proposals;

-        Promoting the Center’s visibility and image in the academic and public policy communities, under the direct supervision of the Center’s managers;

-       Preparing for meeting of the Center’s advisory board.

Student stipends

In early July, 2008, CBS managers held working meetings with their counterparts in the Belarusian Studies program at the European Humanities University (EHU),Vilnius, Lithuania.  Among the many areas for cooperation discussed, the issue of stipends for incoming students into the program emerged as a critical one, given the high cost of living in Euro-zone Lithuania.

CBS thereupon sought financial support in the U.S. donor community.

The Orsa Romano Cultural and Education Foundation for Belarusan Affairs has responded generously.  It is providing CBS with funds to allot stipends for four of the incoming EHU Belarusian Studies students:  100 Euros per month per student for up to the entire academic year (ten months). CBS administers these funds through established academic channels directly with the EHU Belarusian Studies program.

Inter alia, CBS assures quality control over  selection and academic progress by each recipient student, as well as control over the disbursement process.

Professor M. Paula Survilla, CBS Executive Director, expressed the Center’s gratitude to the Orsa Romano Foundation and personally to its President, Dr. Alla O. Romano.

“With EHU’s Belarusian Studies program under severe financial and possibly other pressures,” Prof. Survilla stated, “the Center for Belarusian Studies is extremely pleased to assist in enabling worthy students to commence their academic work at EHU focused on Belarus.  Our effort is directly in keeping with CBS’ mandate and mission.  I wish to express sincere thanks to the Orsa Romano Foundation for its financial assistance and for working through CBS to assure successful implementation of the stipend effort.”