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Finding a faculty sponsor

You must find at least one faculty sponsor to support you and help you shape your IC. Your primary sponsor must be a full-time professor with a rank at or above senior lecturer (this includes Distinguished Senior Lecturers, Assistant, Associate, and Full professors; research professors and emeritia professors are also eligible). Primary sponsors cannot be visiting or adjunct professors, lecturers, clinical professors or professor of the practice. It can also be useful to have multiple faculty sponsors if you are drawing heavily from two fairly disparate fields, and you find the sole expertise of one formal advisor doesn’t quite meet the needs of your IC. To find a sponsor, we recommend checking out vivo.brown.edu to see what professors are doing research in the field(s) you are interested in and going to their office hours. Professors are often excited to talk to potential ICers because their work is innovative and unique! The Faculty Sponsor Info Sheet provides more information about the faculty sponsor role.

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Faculty letter

You will need a letter of support from your faculty sponsor. Your faculty sponsor must be a senior Senior Lecturer, Distinguished SL, Assistant/Associate Professor, or Professor. 

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Things to think about when connecting with a faculty sponsor: 

  • Academic/research background – does their research align with IC field? Especially if your thesis/capstone will revolve around research, your advisor's research may be relevant to your own work.

  • Advising style – some advisors are very hands on, others are not. For example, do you want to meet with your advisor once a month or once a semester?

  • Teaching style – have you enjoyed their courses? 

  • Preexisting relationship – faculty sponsors are often professors with whom ICers have good relationships with. If your favorite professor has nothing to do with your IC, we encourage you to speak to them about your IC anyway, as they might have a colleague who they think you will click with in the area of your interest.

 

Submitting

Submit the completed application to this Google Form in PDF form by the deadline. Depending on the month and the volume of proposals we receive, you should expect to hear from us with a decision and feedback within a few weeks.

 

Please label your file "[first name] [last name]_[IC title]_[date of submission]."

Example: "Josiah Carberry_Innovative Critical Pedagogy IC_November 2021” ​

 

Optional

  • Students who are interested in applying for honors in their concentration should read the IC Honors Thesis Guidelines found in the Resources for Current ICers page.

    • Note that an Honors Thesis is not necessary for an IC—senior ICers are required to do either a thesis or a capstone. Capstones are less formal than theses and can include creative elements such as documentaries or performances. All honors theses must be finished over the senior year in two independent study courses. Capstones for an A.B. can be finished in one independent study course senior year, and Sc.B. captones require two semesters of independent study. More information can be found in the Honors and Capstone Overview.

  • ICers are eligible for the Engaged Scholars Program (ESP), and proposal writers should indicate an interest in this in their proposal. For more information, please visit the Swearer Center website or talk to IC Co-Coordinator Ann.

  • If you are an international student, we recommend that you talk to Dean Peggy Chang and/or the Office of International Student Scholar Services about the relationship between concentration choice and how it is classified for practical training and work visa purposes. Many ICers have been international students, and we’ll do our best to make sure you can too!

  • If you plan to go abroad, consider applying before you leave. While you can apply for an IC while abroad (the entire application process is online!), finding a sponsor and capstone or honors advisors is definitely easier when on Brown’s campus.

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NOTE: Approved IC proposals must include a statement about how the student plans to fulfill the writing requirement during their 5th-7th (or penultimate semester) when they upload their approved proposal in ASK.

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