Williams College

Position Title/Short Description

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The Gaius Charles Bolin Fellowships at Williams College help transform the academy and support multivocality on college faculties by supporting graduate students completing terminal degrees and post-MFA candidates preparing to pursue careers in higher education. The fellowship aims to create academic spaces and platforms in which a variety of perspectives are recognized as scholarly contributions, including those addressing historical inequities. The fellowship was established in 1985.

Gaius Charles Bolin was the first Black graduate of Williams in 1889. He was an active and influential member of his class who went on to a successful career as a lawyer in Poughkeepsie, New York. Bolin also was a founding member of the local branch of the NAACP and was the first African American president of the Dutchess County Bar Association. In 1969, eighty years after Gaius Bolin graduated, Joseph E. Harris, the first Black tenure-line faculty member, was hired at Williams.

These fellowships, which honor Gaius Bolin’s legacy, are two-year residencies at Williams. Two scholars or artists are appointed each year. Fellows devote the bulk of the first year to the completion of dissertation work while also teaching one course as a faculty member in one of the college’s academic departments or programs. The second year of residency, preferably with a terminal degree in hand, is spent on academic career development while again teaching just one course.

The Bolin Fellowships are awarded to applicants who show exceptional promise as scholars, who have an interest in and capacity for teaching students in a community that is broadly diverse with regard to, among other things, race, gender, citizenship, ethnicity, religion, and who are pursuing a career in higher education in the United States. Ph.D. candidates must have completed all doctoral work except the dissertation by the end of the current academic year.

The annual stipend for the position is $57,000. The College will also provide health and dental benefits, relocation and housing assistance, academic support including office space and a computer, and an annual allowance of $4,000 for research-related expenses.

During the period of residence at Williams, the Bolin Fellows will be affiliated with an appropriate department or program and will be expected to teach one one-semester course each year, normally in the fall semester of year one and the spring semester of year two.

Eligible candidates for the fellowship include all U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and U.S. permanent residents (holders of a Permanent Resident Card); individuals granted deferred action status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program; Indigenous individuals exercising rights associated with the Jay Treaty of 1794; individuals granted Temporary Protected Status; asylees; and refugees. Eligible candidates may apply to more than one academic unit.

Units that will be participating in 2025-26 are: Asian American Studies; Biology; Bioinformatics, Genomics, and Proteomics (BiGP); Classics; Economics; Geosciences; Jewish Studies; Music; Neuroscience; Physics and Astronomy; Political Science; Romance Languages (Spanish); Science and Technology Studies (STS) (PLEASE NOTE: participating units change from year to year.)

Williams College is a liberal arts institution located in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. The college has built its reputation on outstanding teaching and scholarship and on the academic excellence of its approximately 2,000 students. Please visit the Williams College website (http://www.williams.edu). Williams promotes equal opportunity and makes all employment decisions on a non-discriminatory basis. Williams College is committed to building a diverse and inclusive community where individuals of all identities and backgrounds can live, learn, and thrive.