Postdoctoral Program

The Department of History is proud to have launched two ambitious post-doctoral programs with emphasis on writing instruction and digital online teaching, respectively. The postdoctoral programs are intended to serve as a career-building step for the fellows while strengthening the department’s Writing in History and Digital Teaching initiatives. Among their main responsibilities, the fellows will teach one class per semester, at least one of which will be at the upper level.

Writing in History program

While strengthening their research portfolios and honing their teaching skills, our post-doctoral fellows contribute to making teaching and learning historical writing central to student academic success. Besides teaching the fellows’ will host departmental workshops for both faculty and graduate students concerning best practices in the field. Workshops are also held under their leadership to guide undergraduate students in the completion of historical writing projects.

Post-doctoral fellows also assist in training and coordinating the department’s team of writing tutors, for instance by providing useful pedagogical materials to undergraduate students to refine their critical writing skills. While the Writing in History program is unique and specific to the needs of our department, the fellows will work diligently to develop synergies with other departments at FIU as part of the Writing Across the Curriculum initiative on campus and will liaise with other stakeholders such as the Center for Excellence in Writing.

Digital and Online program

Besides working on research and teaching (of online classes), the fellows coordinate with the department’s digital instructor to ensure the expansion and enhancement of online teaching and the use of digital materials in all of our classes.

Applications

The two positions may include consideration of potential applicants requesting renewal of their FIU post-doctoral position for up to a second year. Fellows will receive $35,607 for the academic year plus benefits and $1,000 in research and professional development funds. The fellows must have the completed PhD in hand before the start of the Fall semester.

How to submit

The deadline for the receipt of applications for these fellowships will be 5pm, March 30 in every year.

To be considered, please send the Graduate Secretary (delpino@fiu.edu) the following:

A cover letter, no longer than one page in length, that addresses your suitability for the position and that details your professional activities and future objectives. Excellent candidates will relate those activities and objectives to their future work as a fellow.
A fleshed-out syllabus that demonstrates some of your ideas for the undergraduate course on Historical Writing and Research (see below).

All questions about the duties and expectations of the fellows should be addressed to the Chair, Victor Uribe (uribev@fiu.edu).

Duties and expectations

The responsibilities of postdoctoral fellows will be in four main areas: teaching (for new fellows, a 1/2 teaching load with additional workshops; for renewed fellows, a 2/2 teaching load with additional workshops); the production of pedagogical materials; the promotion and coordination of activities to enhance undergraduate writing; and, tutoring. Some details follow:

Teaching
- Design and teach during the period of the fellowship one or two undergraduate classes emphasizing historical writing and research and one or two lower division classes on a historical topic of the Fellow’s choosing that emphasize excellence in writing.
- Offer three hands-on writing workshops for 25 to 50 lower division, junior, or senior students during every academic semester. One shall address the use of secondary source evidence; another the use of primary source evidence; and the other effective revision (or related topics).
- Produce and circulate "de-briefing" write-ups (a) after every workshop and (b) once a semester, on tutoring. For the tutoring report, it should indicate the number of students served, the # of repeat clients; the kind of help most often requested; the level of students seeking help (LD, UD-non major, UD-major; Sr and Jr Sem.); qualitative observations about the nature of assignments, course formats, and teaching styles that gets students to seek out tutors. These reports would be sent to the Advisory Committee for review, and then circulated after revision to the teaching faculty.
- Organize and promote a faculty roundtable on the theory and practice of teaching writing and offer it once during the Academic Year.
Pedagogical materials
- Strengthen and update once per semester the digital materials to enhance students’ writing available in the Department’s website.
- Strengthen and update on a regular basis the pedagogical writing component of the Department’s website informing users about in-house and external opportunities to enhance one’s writing and compete for writing fellowships.
- Promote among faculty the development or enhancement of at least one major pedagogical activity per semester aimed at improving students’ historical writing.
Promotion, coordination and support
- Establish a major writing contest on an annual basis to recognize the best papers submitted in lower division classes, junior, and senior seminars.
- Assist the Undergraduate Committee in the SACS-related evaluation of written assignments completed in core courses.
Tutoring
- Coordinate in-house writing tutors in the Department maximizing their time and effort and enhancing their overall training and quality in coordination with the FIU Center for Excellence in Writing and the Department’s GAs.
- Tutor one-on-one, at least some of the students who use the tutoring services every semester.
- Tutor one-on-one, in conjunction with the Department’s tutors and GAs, no less than 10% more students enrolled in lower division classes than were tutored by the program during the previous semester.
- Promote the tutoring program by visiting lower-and upper-division classes, emailing faculty, hanging posters, coordinating with social media directors and in other ways.