ISSOTL Fellows Program

The ISSOTL Fellows Program is designed to provide a collaborative leadership opportunity for ISSOTL members interested in mentorship and outreach aimed at enriching and expanding the ISSOTL community.  ISSOTL Fellows join colleagues from across the globe to form a cohort of SoTL ambassadors and advocates.  Together, the Fellows contribute to the breadth and depth of ISSOTL’s support for SoTL by

• mentoring emerging SoTL scholars in ISSOTL as they develop a SoTL portfolio, form an international network, and/or explore the potential of SoTL within their career trajectories, and
• reaching out to grow the ISSOTL community, especially from new geographical and disciplinary areas, institutions, and populations.

The mentorship and outreach experiences gained through the Program expand each ISSOTL Fellow’s professional visibility and capacity for collaborative leadership and professional outreach, while the cohort—a blend of regions, disciplines, and career stages—becomes the Fellow’s community of peers with shared commitments. Through the work of the cohort and the relationships forged through its processes, the ISSOTL Fellows Program enriches each Fellow’s professional life and serves as public recognition of their exceptional contributions to an international organization.

Selection into the ISSOTL Fellows Program allows the individual lifetime Fellows status. That being said, it is expected that the active cohort-based work will extend over a two year period. In Year 1 (Induction Year), the incoming Fellows cohort will focus on community building and identification of planned points of Society impact, mentorship, and leadership. In Year 2 (Implementation Year), these Fellows will then focus on implementing their targeted action projects and assessment of the impact of this work.

Examples of mentorship and outreach activities for individual ISSOTL Fellows and the cohort as a whole include but are not limited to the following:

• hosting “office hours” (in person at the annual ISSOTL conference, virtually at other times) for mentoring emerging SoTL scholars,
• participating in the New to ISSOTL sessions for new members and first-time ISSOTL conference participants, 
• developing materials for the ISSOTL website or blog and/or for submission to Teaching & Learning Inquiry to support the goals of the ISSOTL Fellows Program,
• Serving as a reviewer for Teaching & Learning Inquiry and/or ISSOTL conference proposals
• Contributing to ISSOTL blogs, newsletters, and other avenues of communication
• Serving as ISSOTL ambassadors and advocates, particularly to mentor colleagues from underrepresented regions or academic positionalities.

Selection Process (Recognition Committee)

ISSOTL Fellows are selected through an application and adjudication process facilitated by the ISSOTL Recognition Committee, which oversees selection processes for all ISSOTL elections, awards, and recognitions.

Guidance & Substantive Support (Advocacy Committee)

The ISSOTL Fellows cohort, once established, is guided by a subgroup within the ISSOTL Advocacy Committee (i.e., two co-facilitators) with collaborative leadership also coming from the cohort as a whole. The ISSOTL Fellows co-facilitators, through their role on the Advocacy Committee, support the work of the cohort and serve as liaisons between the larger Advocacy Committee and the ISSOTL Fellows cohort.  As liaisons, ISSOTL Fellows Program co-facilitators work to ensure alignment between the shared goals of the Advocacy Committee and the Fellows, by encouraging projects and activities that build on ISSOTL’s mission-driven work while also allowing for the creativity of the cohort.