Distinguished Scholar Award

U22E

The Faculty Research and Development Committee offers a Distinguished Scholar Award to recognize an outstanding scholar among the Elon faculty. The Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes and honors excellence in scholarship. This excellence must be acknowledged by both the Elon community and by the larger community of the candidate’s discipline.

Nominations must originate from individuals holding faculty rank at Elon University and be supported through letters of recommendation by colleagues qualified to judge the candidate’s work.

General criteria include:

• The nominee is a full-time member of the Elon University faculty.
• The nominee has not previously won the Distinguished Scholar Award from Elon University.
• The nominee has made an original contribution to their field.
• The nominee’s contribution has been exposed to critical appraisal by professional peers through publication, exhibition, and/or personal presentations.
• The nominee has shown evidence that their creative activity has been prolonged and is ongoing. One indication of this would be a record of publications, presentations, artistic performances, and/or exhibitions spanning a period of time including the present or recent past.
• The nominee must have completed a significant amount of scholarly work during their affiliation with Elon. Scholarly activities completed prior to joining Elon may serve to strengthen a potential recipient’s nomination.
• As this award recognizes sustained excellence in scholarly contributions, preference ordinarily will be given to candidates with 7+ years of scholarly activity at Elon.
• During the fall semester, the Chair of the Distinguished Scholar Award Selection Committee will solicit nominations from the faculty. Members of the Distinguished Scholar Selection Committee are not eligible for nomination.
• During the spring semester, nominees will submit a portfolio in support of their candidacy to the Chair of the Distinguished Scholar Award Selection Committee. This portfolio will contain their department's statement of scholarship, their curriculum vitae, a summary of their scholarship-related accomplishments, samples of published works, and recommendation letters. It is the nominee's responsibility to demonstrate their scholarship's impact on both the Elon community and the larger community of their discipline.
• Nominees will solicit at least four, no more than eight, letters of recommendation in support of their scholarship from colleagues qualified to judge their work. At least one of the letters must come from a colleague of faculty rank employed by Elon and at least three from faculty colleagues not employed by Elon University. Nominees who are applying again may use letters from the previous three years.

• Each year, the Chair of the Distinguished Scholar Award, will establish a Distinguished Scholar Selection Committee of at least five teaching faculty members to select the award recipient. The committee will consist of:
  • Two members from the Faculty Research and Development Committee, the Chair and Chair-Elect of the Distinguished Scholar Award Selection Committee;
  • At least two members appointed by the Chair of the Distinguished Scholar Award Selection Committee from outside its membership; and
  • At least the previous year’s recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award (recipients from previous years may also assist in the selection process, unless they have recommended current nominees).
  • Whenever possible, the members of the Distinguished Scholar Award Selection Committee will be chosen to provide representation for the Schools of Business, Communications, Education, Health Sciences, Law, and the College of Arts and Sciences.
• If there is no recipient in a particular year, the following year the Chair of the Faculty Research and Development Committee will serve in the place of the previous year’s recipient.
• The Chair of Faculty Research and Development Committee will appoint as chair the committee member who has served on the Distinguished Scholar Award Committee the previous year.
• The Chair of the Distinguished Scholar Award Selection Committee will report the committee's decision to the Provost or designee.
• The Distinguished Scholar Award Selection Committee will select no more than one recipient per year.

The recipient will be honored at the annual faculty-staff awards luncheon with a plaque and a cash award. The recipient will deliver a plenary Distinguished Scholar Lecture during the subsequent academic year.