Visiting Scholar Program: Applications, Approvals, Workflow and Integration

The Science & Justice Research Center offers opportunities for visiting scholars, practitioners, activists and artists at all levels of their career to join us in residence and participate in our community. More information is available on the Center's Webpage: Visiting Scholar Program.

In addition to camaraderie, networking, and the opportunity to host and organize an event or project, we offer visitors office space, typical office and campus resources, and people to help visitors coordinate institutional logistics and bureaucracies; opportunities to present research to an intellectually diverse audience and attend courses; all on a beautiful campus that is ideal for thinking and writing. Faculty Sponsors should help facilitate such activities. Find more information on Faculty Sponsors Hosting Visiting Scholars.

Applicants are encouraged to look at our affiliate profiles, research, projects and events when developing their proposals — SJWG events and informal gatherings have a unique format that may be unfamiliar. Applicant should obtain a letter (can be a simple email) of support from the faculty who is interested in working with them and willing to act as faculty sponsor.

If the applicant doesn't know the proposed faculty sponsor, the applicant should write to them to discuss the potential visit to gain their support before applying. The proposal should reflect mutual interests to be as generative as possible. Start cultivating ideas in which how the visitor could be integrated into the community before the visitor arrives. The applicant and the Faculty Sponsor should be in conversation with the Center Manager who can help guide them in the S&J methods of conceptualizing visitor/sponsor organized Working Group meetings/events or works-in-progress sessions; link them to Center research themes and projects; and advise how the proposal could fit into Center programming or recommend other affiliates and SJTP fellows who could benefit from the visit or inform their research.

While any length of stay will be considered, we encourage scholars to visit for at least one full term, as official campus appointments to be granted, the stay must be at least one full term. Visitors in residency on visa have a 30 day window of entering and leaving the country (30 days before date of appointment beginning to 30 days after appointment ends). This is helpful for visitors to know if they plan on visiting other places before arriving or going home.

Campus appointments are facilitated through academic departments; which the Science & Justice Research Center is not. Regardless of the Faculty Sponsor's home department, all visitor appointment files are compiled and submitted by the Center Manager to the Sociology Department Manager who liaises with the department chair, divisional and campus staff to facilitate visa and appointment processes. Refer also to Center Appointments.

The following process will take place:

    1. Applicants apply via a Google form. Refer to the website for the application and required materials they will email to scijust@ucsc.edu.

    2. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, compiled and reviewed by the Center Manager who sends it to the Director flagging:

      • dates of potential visit

      • proposed faculty sponsor

      • purpose of visit and research foci/question

      • any accompanied funding /grant requests (ie: Fulbright, dissertation fellowship)

      • suggestions on office space

    3. The Center Manager will send the potential visit proposal to the UCSC faculty member(s) named in the application for review and approval ensuring they will be on campus and available to sponsor the proposed visit. Begin imagining how to integrate them into the S&J Community.

    4. Upon verifying the faculty member is willing to act as their official Faculty Sponsor, the Center Manager will draft the appointment request letter to the faculty sponsor for review and any potential edits.

    5. Upon the Faculty Sponsor's approval the Center Manager prepares the appointment packet. Appointment packets are due to the Department Manager the term prior to the visit (if visa, allow at least 20 weeks before visa is needed).

    6. The Center Manager will follow up with the applicant letting them know they've been approved and accepted into the program; and they should expect to receive a letter from the Social Sciences Division's Human Resources.

VISITOR APPOINTMENT PACKETS & REQUESTS

SJRC submits the below items to the Sociology Department in PDF format via email by the deadlines set by the department in conjunction with division deadlines. Written into the email, the request for a visitor appointment should include: the visitors name, what term(s) the appointment is for and if a visa, shared office or other department resource is included in the request.

  1. Visitor's CV.

  2. Visitor Appointment Request Letter addressed to the Chair - on SJRC letterhead.

      • Update the SJRC Visiting Appointment Request Letter template using compiled language from the applicant's responses in the application.

      • The letter should include: details the request, introduces the applicant's work, explains the campus benefit, names the Faculty Sponsor and what resources the Center will provide.

  3. Visitor Appointment Request Letter addressed to the Division - on Sociology letterhead.

      • Because the current Center Manager is also the Sociology Department Assistant, they also include a draft appointment request letter (in Word format) as from the Sociology Department Chair to the Dean of the Social Sciences Division.

  4. If Visa is needed, include:

      • a complete a DS-2019 request form, signed by the faculty sponsor and visitor.

        • the Faculty Sponsor will need to certify that the visitor can effectively communicate in English. An in-person, phone, or remote (Skype or Zoom) session will need to be conducted with the applicant. The date of the session is required on the visa form.

      • the passport information pages and financial certification for each DS-2019 (including any accompanied family members).

  5. To ease labor from the Sociology Department Manager, the Center Manager will follow these instructions to upload the documents through DivData.

Current University of California Graduate Students

Each UC campus has its own requirements and application process set by their Graduate Divisions. After visitors are approved to be a part of the SJRC Visiting Scholar Program, they apply through the UC Intercampus Exchange Program and provide the necessary approved forms to the Center Manager who will help facilitate the application.

Visitors through the UC Intercampus Exchange Program will not receive an official campus appointment because they will be a registered student.