Micro-Seminar Information for Faculty

What is a micro-seminar

A micro-seminar is akin to a reading or discussion group based around a specific topic. It meets for 5 weeks and each session is 2 hours long. Micro-seminars can revolve around speaker series, film screenings, new book publications, or other points of focus. All micro-seminars should evaluate the topic or subject of choice while integrating gender analysis with issues of class, race, culture, ethnicity, and sexualities, and consider the practical implications of feminist theory. The workload is significantly less demanding than a full semester course and there is no grading component.

If you have any questions about micro-seminars or the submission process, please contact the GCWS Program Manager, Melanie Robinson (melrob@mit.edu).

Previous microseminars have included:

Eligibility and Compensation

• Instructors must be contingent, adjunct, or full-time faculty from any discipline at any of our member institutions.

• Instructors will receive an honorarium of $2,000 at the completion of the microseminar.

• Faculty may teach one micro-seminars every three years.

• All micro-seminar proposals must be unique.

schedule & LOgistics

Faculty can propose a 5-week micro-seminar schedule for any general date range, including summer and winter breaks.  We ask that micro-seminar meeting dates avoid finals weeks and are considerate of major holidays. We will take all facilitators’ availability into account when finalizing the schedule, though please be somewhat flexible with your preferred date range. 

Micro-seminars can be held on the MIT campus, your home campus, or remote.

Students 

Microseminars are comprised primarily of Masters and PhD students at our member institutions and will be capped at 20 participants. Space permitting, we will review applications from other types of students.

Deadlines

We accept proposals for micro-seminars throughout the year. The proposal should be submitted at least 3-4 months prior to when the faculty member wants to teach it. The GCWS Program Manager can provide you with the dates of upcoming board meetings.

Review process

The GCWS Board of Representatives will review micro-seminar proposals at their meetings throughout the academic year. They may approve a proposal at its first draft or they may offer feedback and request a revision prior to approval.

To submit a proposal, please review and download the submission guidelines and complete the form on this page.