The Syracuse University Art Museum is now accepting applications for the 2026-27 Faculty Fellows program. The program supports faculty across all disciplines in bringing the museum’s collection of over 45,000 objects into their teaching.
Now in its fifth year, the Faculty Fellows program centers on object-based teaching and research through an active, experiential approach that asks students to make close observations, analyze evidence and develop their own interpretations in real time. Up to four fellows will be selected and paired with museum staff—including curators Melissa Yuen and Kate Holohan—for a hands-on introduction to the collection and ongoing curricular support. Each Faculty Fellow receives a $2,500 stipend or research subsidy.
What’s Involved?
Fellows work with museum staff to develop a museum visit lesson plan, at least one object-based student assignment and a collection-based teaching guide tied to a 2026-27 course.
The bulk of the work takes place during the summer of 2026 (total time commitment of approximately50 hours).
Who can apply?
The Faculty Fellows program is open to all University tenured, tenure-track and full-time non-tenure track faculty teaching in 2026-27.
Proposals from any school, college or discipline are welcome.
For fall 2026 courses, the museum especially welcomes proposals engaging in themes of ecology, climate change, consumption and material culture in connection with our upcoming exhibitions.
Students working directly with prints by Helen Frankenthaler from the museum’s collection.
What you need to know
More information including the entire call for applications andr equired application materials can be found on the Art Museum’s website.
The museum’s collection can also be viewed on the website.
Previous Faculty Fellows
Colleen Cameron, professor of practice in human development and family science in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a Faculty Fellow for 2025-26 who integrated museum materials into her course, Healthcare Communications: Research, Theory and Practice this past fall. As part of the course, students selected an object that connected to death notification and presented their research at the end of the semester.
Omar Cheta, a 2023-24 Faculty Fellow and assistant professor of history in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, utilized a carpet, painting and 19th-century photograph in his course, The Middle East Since the Rise of Islam. Cheta encouraged his students to explore traces of the past through material objects, rather than just through textually transmitted ideas.
Elizabeth Wimer, assistant teaching professor in the Whitman School of Management, was a 2024-25 Faculty Fellow. She explored how artistic representation of African culture relates to the continual evolution of the interconnectedness of the global economy through objects in the museum’s collection as part of her Managing in a Global Setting course. Her work culminated in a Spring 2025 exhibition along with a separate exhibition organized by Lindsay Gratch, a 2024-25 Faculty Fellow.
The Faculty Fellows program is made possible with the support of the Office of Strategic Initiatives and Office of Research.