Visting Scholars

Call for proposals 2024 - 2025 Visiting Scholars & Events  
 
The Valente Center hosts and facilitates scholars visiting our campus. These visits to campus, which may range from a day to a week, offer many opportunities to our campus community as our visiting scholars typically are distinguished leaders in their fields. Visiting scholars are expected bring subject matter expertise to campus by making class visits, delivering public lectures, hosting faculty workshops or work-in-progress seminars, and by holding office hours for anyone on campus who would like to meet with them. We often ask visiting scholars to attend events offered on campus and to interact and engage with our students and faculty members.
 
We usually invite one or two of such scholars to campus each semester. For equity and fairness, we rotate co-sponsorship opportunities among departments, so that we may enrich the intellectual life for everyone in the arts, humanities, sciences and beyond. Such co-sponsorship with departments allows us to provide a stipend, an allowance for travel, and coverage of hotel costs and some expenses. In addition, we offer an office space at the Valente Center and to access library privileges. However, as we have learned in the last years, we may also opt for other ways of facilitating dialogue with audiences, such as through videolink or zoom. This could apply to both the visitor or the audience. We are flexible with formats and open to discussing any interesting proposal.
 
If you would like to suggest a short-term visiting scholar or propose another event, we request support from your department. The Valente Center for Arts & Sciences looks for broader coalitions of sponsors and sets out to find co-sponsors. However, for a strong proposal, please demonstrate faculty and student interest in the scholar and help us identify potential audiences for events.
 
For information about how you can propose a visiting scholar or similar events at Bentley University and any other questions about exciting programming at the Valente Center for Arts & Sciences, please contact the Director of the Valente Center for Arts & Sciences Johannes (Hans) JEIJMBERTS@bentley.edu