The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation of New York City has invited Bates to join a select group of institutions participating in a program that provides a year-long sabbatical for research and scholarly development to pretenure faculty in the humanities.

The $100,000 Whiting Teaching Fellowship will be awarded to one Bates faculty member a year for the next four years.

"This award reaffirms the connection between great teaching and productive scholarship that forms the foundation of a successful career as an educator at a selective liberal arts college," said Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen.

The Whiting Foundation is well-known for its support of writing and the humanities. In addition to the teaching fellowship, the foundation supports dissertation-year research grants to doctoral students at a small group of top research institutions, and also operates the Whiting Writer's Awards program to encourage emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise.