Since 1963, eminent writers, critics and scholars have come to campus through this program endowed by the Faber family and members of the Class of 1915. Each literature department and program may propose one visitor each year.
The gift of Eberhard L. Faber IV is intended to support lectures, colloquia, workshops and discussions in the field of literature. We define “literature” broadly to include such topics as criticism, history, theory, and the relation of literature to society, technology, and the other arts. The Humanities Council especially welcomes proposals for innovative formats and events that might not readily be accommodated as regular departmental lectures.
Eligibility
Departments and programs eligible for Faber Lecture support are:
- American Studies
- Center for Digital Humanities
- Classics
- Comparative Literature
- East Asian Studies
- English
- European Cultural Studies
- Film Studies
- French and Italian
- Germanic Languages and Literatures
- Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities
- Italian Studies
- Judaic Studies
- Medieval Studies
- Near Eastern Studies
- Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
- Slavic Languages and Literatures
- Spanish and Portuguese
- Study of Late Antiquity
Guidelines
Requests for Faber Lectures should be submitted before formal invitations are extended. It is particularly important to check possible dates against the Humanities Council calendar or by calling (8-3690) or emailing. The Council does not typically fund proposals that conflict with other related events.
The total contribution for an individual event may amount to $3,500, although not all events will require the full amount. An invitation to a younger scholar and/or a nearby guest would normally entail fewer expenses. Departments may supplement Faber grants with their own funds. Here are the expenses to be covered:
- Economy fare transportation from home campus (or the last campus visited) to Princeton. Departments are encouraged to share these expenses with other institutions.
- Honoraria
- Meals and lodging
- Posters and advertisements
The total contribution for an individual event may amount to $3,500, although not all events will require the full amount. An invitation to an early-career scholar or a nearby guest would normally entail fewer expenses. The Faber fund is usually the primary source of support, although departments may occasionally supplement Faber grants with their own funds. Events funded by the Faber endowment are considered “Faber Lectures” publicized as “Eberhard L. Faber 1915 Memorial Fund in the Humanities Council” and will be listed as part of the Faber series on the Council’s website. Here are the expenses to be covered:
- Economy fare transportation from home campus (or the last campus visited) to Princeton
- Honoraria (typically $500 for early career scholars; $1,000/$1,500 for senior visitors)
- Meals and lodging
- Posters and advertisements
How to Apply
Requests for Faber lectures should be submitted before formal invitations are extended. It is particularly important to check possible dates against the year-long Humanities Council Calendar of Events. The Council does not typically fund proposals that conflict with other related events. To propose a Faber Lecture, email Susan Coburn, office specialist in the Humanities Council.
Faber Lecture Budget Request Form
Deadline
Before extending a formal invitation, and at least four weeks before the anticipated date. Forms are accepted year-round.
2020-21 Lectures
- Cameron Rowland, artist: Encumbrance
2019-20 Lecturers
- Branka Arsić, the Charles and Lynn Zhang Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, gave a lecture on Coral Psyches: Melville on Minds and Islands.
2018-19 Lecturers
- Lauren Berlant, University of Chicago: Being in Life without Wanting the World: On Biopolitics and the Attachment to Life
- Peggy Phelan, Rutgers University: Contact Warhol: Photography without End
- Saidiya Hartman, Columbia University
- Francesca Trivellato, Brown University, The School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study: Renaissance Florence and the Origins of Capitalism: From Burckhardt to the Digital Humanities
- Katherine Wilson, Author, actress and television commentator in Italy: Only in Naples
- John Duffy, Harvard University
- Page DuBois, UC Berkeley
- Liza Knapp, Columbia University: “Starry Skies, Awful Hieroglyphs and Eternal Silence: Philosophical Lyricism in Anna Karenina”
2017-18 Lecturers
- Verena Lepper, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: The Neues Museum of the Berlin Museum Island – Highlights and recent discoveries from the Egyptian Papyrus Collection
- David Peterson, language creator: The Art of Language Invention
- Amy Richlin, UCLA: Blackface and Drag in Early Roman Comedy
2016-17 Lecturers
- John Matthews, Yale University: Lost Monuments of Fourth-Century Constantinople
- Barry McCrea, University of Notre Dame: Language Change and Social Class in the Novel – Proust, Ó Cadhain, Ferrante
- Francesco Erspamer, Harvard University: On Chivalric Science, Honor and duels
- Adam Michnik, editor-in-chief of the Polish daily newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza: The Glory and Poverty of the ’68 Generation
- Valerio Ruiz, filmmaker/screenwriter: Behind the White Glasses
- Philippe Descola, Collège de France: Making Ontologies Visible: An Anthropological Perspective on Images
- Murray Smith, University of Kent: Putting Transparency in its Place
- Emily Greenwood, Yale University: Seeing Citizens: re-reading the ring of Gyges’ ancestor in Plato’s Republic
- Mary Favret, Johns Hopkins University: Coefficients of Disaster
2015-16 Lecturers
- Jon Whitman, Hebrew University: Encountering Scripture in Overlapping Cultures: Early Jewish, Christian and Muslim Strategies of Reading and Their Contemporary Implications
- Clare A. Lees, King’s College London: Life Classes From Anglo-Saxon England: Three Studies in the Self
- Alexander Zholkovsky, University of Southern California: “Who Organized the Standing Ovation?”: Stalin, Akhmatova, and Shakespeare
