Research & Artistic Achievement Awards Program
In an effort to encourage and reward Research & Artistic Achievement and further promote creativity, development and lifelong learning by the faculty, Millikin University has developed the Research & Artistic Achievement Awards Program. This program is designed to celebrate the innovative scholarship and outstanding artistic achievements of full time faculty at Millikin University.
Program Goals
The goals of the Research & Artistic Achievement Awards Program are to:
- celebrate outstanding faculty research and artistic achievement at Millikin University;
- increase awareness of what constitutes excellent research & artistic achievement;
- encourage faculty to strive to meet or to exceed these standards of excellence;
- reward faculty who exemplify ongoing, outstanding research & artistic achievement excellence.
Research & Artistic Achievement Award will be available for a maximum of seven faculty members each year.
Defining Research & Artistic Achievement
The Millikin faculty embraces the notion that it should be defined as a "community of scholars." Scholars produce scholarship. Therefore, the production of scholarship is a natural and necessary activity at Millikin University and its pursuit is expected of the faculty. The Policies and Procedures manual defines common elements, which ensure uniformity across the university in the area of research and artistic achievement.
- Scholarship and artistic achievement includes exploration of new territory, or reevaluation of what is known or accomplished, or new translations, or new creative visions or performances, or the positioning of new interpretations, or the offering of new methods of conceptualization or new methods of understanding.
- Scholarship and artistic achievement includes a product, a performance, a text, a creation that is in some way put forth for review by one's peers—persons of at least equal expertise—for evaluation, review, appraisal, collaboration, affirmation, and acceptance or denial.
- Scholarship requires engagement in the activity over time and periodically comes to formal closure. These activities, whether of seminal importance or the stature of a footnote, should be something with which faculty members are engaged in an ongoing fashion. By so doing, faculty offer themselves as role models for their students and further contribute to their field.
Millikin University Criteria for the Research & Artistic Achievement Award
Outstanding research and artistic achievement requires:
- Exploration of new territory: Research and artistic achievement includes exploration of new territory, or reevaluation of what is known or accomplished, or new translations, or new creative visions or performances, or the positioning of new interpretations, or the offering of new methods of conceptualization or new methods of understanding.
- Engagement over time: Research requires engagement in the activity over time and periodically comes to formal closure. These activities should be something with which faculty members are engaged in an ongoing fashion—a program or agenda of research.
- Product, performance, or text: Research and artistic achievement results in a product, a performance, a text, a creation that is in some way put forth for review by peers—persons of at least equal expertise—for evaluation, review, appraisal, collaboration, affirmation, and acceptance or denial peers of equal expertise.
- Excellence in research/artistic achievement that is recognized or valued as excellent by peers: Excellence in research and artistic achievement is noted and recognized by peers through processes resulting in acceptance for publication, acceptance or invitation for public performance, reviews of a product or performance, awards and recognition received for the quality of the product or performance.
- A contribution to the field: Through peer review the research or artistic achievement is recognized as a contribution to the field, or example of excellence in the discipline, because of the new knowledge or territory being explored.
- A contribution to Millikin and its students: By engaging in ongoing research and artistic achievement, faculty offer themselves as role models for their students and make contributions to Millikin University as a site for intellectual inquiry and artistic development. In addition to being a role model, faculty research and artistic achievement directly result in opportunities for student collaboration and improvements to ongoing learning communities at Millikin Research & Artistic Achievement Awards Program
Research & Artistic Achievement Award
Details & Eligibility
All who have completed a minimum of three years of full time faculty service at Millikin University are eligible to apply for the Research & Artistic Achievement Award. Previous award recipients are eligible to apply two years after they received a prior RAAA award.
Application Process
To apply for the Research & Artistic Achievement Award, the faculty member prepares a letter of application in three pages or less with an appendix of supporting materials.
The application letter should address the six Criteria for Excellence in Research & Artistic Achievement. Addressed to the Committee on Faculty Scholarship and Development, the primary goal of this letter is to contextualize the scope and significance of this work as a contribution to the faculty member’s discipline.
Research & Artistic Achievement Award applications are due by March 1 to the Vice President of Academic Affairs.
Evaluation Committee
The Council on Faculty Committee on Faculty Scholarship and Development will review all applications using the RAAA rubric for evaluating the quality of each application.