2024 OBEL Award Teaching Fellowship program now accepting joint applications from potential fellows and host universities
IFLA is happy to inform its own members and the public at large that the 2024 OBEL Award Teaching Fellowship program is accepting joint applications from potential fellows and host universities.
From IFLA’s perspective the fellowship, organized and provided by the Henrik F. Obel Foundation, is highly relevant for landscape architecture professionals and academia. Indeed, the themes and the focus on global exchange across world regions are fully adherent with the current preoccupations of IFLA. The Foundation seeks to support transformative programs that contribute knowledge and understanding of the relationship between the built and natural environments and how architecture, design, and related fields can have a positive impact in the face of serious challenges such as climate change, immigration, inequality, well-being, and the development of cities, among others.
The Foundation has informed IFLA about the launch of the second edition of the teaching fellowship program to allow professionals to participate in an academic setting and universities to host professionals who can teach new subjects and explore new pedagogies. This year the call for applications will feature two possible themes for the university-level courses: seminal solutions for cities or adaptation as it refers to coastal resilience.
The fellowship program seeks to provide the necessary funding so that universities (located in Australia, Africa, and ten Asian countries) may incorporate new voices to develop impactful courses for university-level students. Professionals, from many fields related to cities and/or coastal resilience, often have valuable experience and knowledge to contribute to the intellectual culture of a university, faculty, or school. The Obel Award Teaching Fellowship program aspires to bring these facets together for mutual benefit and knowledge sharing.
While the targeted countries for the 2024 edition are clearly defined, fellows may come from anywhere in the world and will teach (ideally) two courses within a recognised university-level program. The budget, up to 75,000 euros, managed by the university via a signed agreement, will provide the funding necessary for a fellow to teach at the host institution.
Applications for the teaching fellowships will be evaluated based on the relevance of the courses to the themes and the university setting, the potential for short- and longer-term benefits, the impacts and integration of knowledge beyond the classroom, the experience and suitability of the proposed fellow, and the university's needs and the support it will give to the fellow.
Applications are currently being accepted for the 2024 teaching fellowships, which require teaching to start in 2025. The deadline to apply is July 1, 2024, and announcement of the winning candidates will take place in September 2024. The brief can be found here and more information is available through the dedicated website of the Foundation: https://obelaward.org/initiatives/2024-teaching-fellowships/.
Due to the aspiration of the Fellowship to bring practitioners and academia together across different regions of the world, IFLA is also delighted to inform that it is available to offer support for both practitioners and academia if they miss a partner to develop a proposal. Indeed, IFLA holds a global professional and academic network that officially covers 80 world countries and constantly works to expand its own reach through the activity of the 5 regional charters, i.e. IFLA Europe, Americas, Africa, Middle East, and Asia Pacific Region.