College Support and Award Opportunities

The annual Gary Lindberg Award was established by the College of Liberal Arts in 1986 in memory of Professor Gary Lindberg of the Department of English. Professor Lindberg was an exceptional scholar and outstanding teacher whose dedication and service to the University of New Hampshire as well as the wider community exemplified the highest academic standards and ideals.

In memory of Professor Lindberg and as a means of publicly supporting superior faculty accomplishment, the College of Liberal Arts annually recognizes one truly outstanding scholar and teacher within the College. The award carries a $5,000 stipend. The recipient is invited to present the Liberal Arts Lecture to the public during the following academic year.

Lindberg Nomination Information

Go to Lindberg Nomination Page

2021 Lindberg Award Recipient

John Mayer, Professor of Psychology, has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the Lindberg Award, given annually to the outstanding teacher-scholar in the College of Liberal Arts.

Professor Mayer, who joined the UNH faculty in 1989, is a luminary in the field of personality psychology. He is widely considered (along with his collaborator Peter Salovey) to be the father of the field of emotional intelligence, and his groundbreaking work on the topic has earned him international acclaim. His original ideas gave rise to a cottage industry of research on emotional intelligence, both theoretical and applied, and the term he coined has become part of the popular vernacular. Professor Mayer and his colleagues developed the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), a widely used test that measures emotional intelligence that has now been shown to predict critical outcomes across many life domains. In more recent years, Professor Mayer has developed the construct of Personal Intelligence. This is an entirely novel construct and Professor Mayer has developed and refined the Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI), which he has shown to be reliable and valid using large populations.

Consistent with his wide-ranging impact, Professor Mayer is a prolific and award-winning researcher. He has published five authored (or co-authored) books, including a foundational textbook in personality psychology, three additional edited volumes, scores of chapters and more than 125 peer-reviewed articles. Among his awards, Professor Mayer has won the Excellence in Research Award from UNH, several Research Excellence Awards from the Mensa Education and Research Foundation, and has been elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Society.

Professor Mayer’s work as a mentor and teacher is no less impressive. At the graduate level, he has mentored 17 students working toward masters and/or doctoral degrees, several of whom have gone on to careers in academia. His success in mentoring is reflected in the fact that six of the 20 papers Professor Mayer has published in the last five years included graduate students as co­authors. His undergraduate courses are first-rate. Students consistently note they are impressed by his mastery of the material as well as his engagement, eloquence and joviality.

Professor Mayer has demonstrated that he possesses the highest qualities of scholarship and teaching and is most deserving of the Lindberg Award. 

Previous Lindberg Award Winners

This award recognizes curricular innovations through the use of technology. Examples may include (but are not limited to) new ways of teaching that promote student engagement, reorganization of a course that improves students’ ability to apply what they learn either inside or outside the classroom, and/or the promotion of inclusive group-learning activities. The award carries a $1,000 stipend.

All teaching faculty are eligible to apply. Self-nominations are encouraged.

Criteria:

• Creative use of technology begins with solid pedagogy: applicants must exhibit extensive knowledge and mastery of the subject matter
• Technological innovation in course and curriculum design
• Ability to inspire, guide and engage students in achieving their academic goals

Applicants should submit:

• A 1-2-page (single spaced) statement demonstrating award criteria and a Box link to a smartphone video self-presentation (up to 2 minutes) demonstrating the effectiveness of technological integration in their course curriculum.
• Up to date/current CV

Please send your nomination(s) by March 5, 2021 to Amanda Ouellette Amanda.Ouellette@unh.edu.

Award Recipients

Ivo van der Graaff, Art and Art History, 2020 (inaugural award)
Melinda White, English, 2021 (first place) and Ekaterina Burvikova, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, 2021 (second place)

The College of Liberal Arts provides limited support (up to $500) for research-related activities, with particular preference given to those that will advance efforts to secure external grants and fellowships, such as travel to funding agencies in Washington, DC. There is no deadline for applications, but once funds have been depleted for a given year, requests will be deferred until the following fiscal year. To apply, please briefly describe your project and proposed budget in less than one page, indicating what if any support your department will provide. This should be addressed to Dean Michele Dillon and submitted electronically. We ask for your chair's endorsement, only in the form of a signature, so please send a copy of your application to him or her. If your request is approved, support will take the form of reimbursement of documented expenses. Please address any questions to Michele Dillon.

For summer 2021, COLA gift funds will support the research/artistry of Associate Professors in the College of Liberal Arts. These awards are intended to accelerate the scholarship of associate professors and help strengthen their cases for promotion to full professor. Up to three award recipients will be selected; each will receive a stipend of $10,000. (It is expected that recipients will not be teaching or receiving any other UNH stipend during the summer.)

Please submit the following materials to Peg Kirkpatrick in a single application packet/pdf by March 17, 2021.

1. A current CV with post-tenure accomplishments highlighted in yellow. 
2. (a) A brief summary of your current scholarly/artistic project; (b) specific progress already achieved; (c) plans to advance it; (d) a concise explanation of how a summer award would accelerate the project; (e) the progress envisioned by the end of summer 2021; and (f) your intended publication/exhibition plans for the project.

Applications will be reviewed by the COLA Executive Committee who will advise the Dean on the faculty selections.

Limited funds are available to faculty members on an ad hoc basis to support their professional development. Proposals should be made through one’s chair and support from other sources should be sought as well.

Request for Ad Hoc Faculty Development Funds

John and H. Irene Peters Professorship in Education
This award recognizes a faculty member in the Department of Education and is intended to provide support for teaching, research, service and other activities. The award carries an annual allowance for a three-year term, which may be used to support any bona fide professional expense.

Lamberton Professor of Justice Studies
This award recognizes outstanding achievement in scholarship and teaching in the field of justice studies. The award carries an annual allowance for a three-year term.

Pamela Shulman Professorship in European and Holocaust Studies
This award recognizes an outstanding tenured faculty member who will contribute to the study of European and Holocaust studies in the classroom as well as in research in this area. The Professorship carries an annual allowance that is intended to support outreach and networking initiatives that foster professional relationships with other centers of study, as well as lectures on campus and in the region.

• Liberal Arts Burnham Faculty Fellowship Summer 2021 application:  PDF format   Word format
  General Information
  Link to photos of Burnham Estate

• Guidelines for Externally Funded Fellowships and Leaves

COLA's Center for the Humanities hosts and sponsors interdisciplinary conferences; supports faculty programs, projects, and lectures; and offers faculty fellowships, an endowed chair, stipends, and workshops.

Center for the Humanities