Shoenberg Fellowship
Supporting Our Part-Time Faculty Through the Shoenberg Fellowship
The Institute for Part-Time Faculty Engagement and Support is proud to offer the Shoenberg Fellowship to qualified part-time faculty at Montgomery College who are interested in pursuing full-time faculty positions in higher education. Dr. Robert Shoenberg has served as a member of the Board of Trustees and Foundation board, helping to transform Montgomery College into an institution that continues to attract great faculty and talented students. Through Dr. Shoenberg’s generous support, this fellowship is intended to support a fully paid, one-semester sabbatical for up to 3 part-time faculty members.
2024 Shoenberg Fellowship group from left to right: Professor Wyckham Avery, Dr. Robert Shoenberg, Dr. Susanna Ya Xu Sunn, and Professor Erika Bucciantini.
Interested in applying for the 2026 Shoenberg Fellowship?
Montgomery College part-time faculty applicants will be asked to submit a plan to complete a research-based project within the term of the sabbatical. Fellows will be provided with mentoring and professional development support.
Requirements
- Prospective Fellows must apply through an online fellowship proposal process
- Preferred applicants will have a doctorate or other terminal degree in their field
- Four semesters of teaching are preferred
- Part-time faculty would be eligible to receive the Shoenberg Fellowship award only one time during their employment at Montgomery College
Apply for the Shoenberg Fellowshipnew window
Submit a Shoenberg Fellowship Application.
Due date is Sunday, October 19, 2025.
2024 Fellowship
2024 Fellow: Wyckham Avery
Nonbinary Representation in Media Wyckham Avery is a adjunct professor teaching Film courses for the Visual and Performing Arts Department. They also are a WRLC-GT tutor, a PACEI member, a MCRPA member, and a MC Pride and Allies member. Their Shoenberg Fellowship sabbatical research explores nonbinary representation in media through a multi-faceted approach, including surveys, interviews, and case studies. It examines the authenticity, development, and audience reception of gender-fluid characters while identifying best practices for positive representation. The project integrates auto-ethnographic methods along with an online resource hub. Its goals are to contribute to cultural understanding, advocate for inclusive storytelling, and provide actionable guidelines for content creators to improve representation of non-binary individuals in media.
2024 Fellow: Susanna Sunn
Fostering Algebraic Thinking for First Graders Susanna Ya Xu Sunn is faculty of Mathematics, Statistics, and Data Sciences. The transition from arithmetic to algebra represents a critical milestone in a student’s mathematical development, contributing substantially to their long-term career opportunities. However, this transition has remained a persistent global challenge. Dedicated to mathematics education, Professor Susanna Sunn examined successful pedagogical approaches worldwide during her Shoenberg sabbatical. Her findings highlighted the importance of fostering algebraic thinking from earliest stages of elementary education, beginning in first grade. At the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Conference in May 2024, she presented six key strategies for cultivating this mindset. She further designed resources for immediate classroom and home use, helping learners navigate this crucial transition with confidence.
2024 Fellow: Erika Bucciantini
Rome on the Potomac: The Legacy of Imperial Architecture Erika Bucciantini, M.A., is a professor of Latin language and literature, English, and Humanities with an interest in the impact of neoclassical architecture and monuments in the American landscape. Her Shoenberg Fellowship sabbatical creates advanced analytical assignments for the Latin 102 curriculum and a StoryMap project, “Rome on the Potomac: The Legacy of Imperial Architecture,” in collaboration with MC’s Applied Geography Program.
Past Fellowship
Dr. Serena Gould Personal Narrative and Pedagogical Practice
Serena Gould Ph.D. is a storyteller whose research is focused on using personal narratives as a theoretical lens to examine traumatic affect and identity formation arising from racial and intracultural histories in immigrants and survivors.
Her Shoenberg Fellowship sabbatical resulted in an interactive autoethnographic case study between two previously oppositional participants, German and Jewish; the publication of Yitzchak von Schweitzer’s memoir; and her presentation and accompanying documentary film at the 2023 International Digital Storytelling Conference.
Bridging the Gapnew window, documentary film of Yitzchak von Schweitzer
Sarah Kate Jorgensen Artistic Syncratism Along El Camino Real De Tierra Adentro
Sarah Kate Jorgensen, M.A., has a degree in Art History and Museum Studies, and has also done work towards a Ph.D. in Anthropology of Art (incomplete). She is a professor of Art History and a painter.
Her Shoenberg Fellowship sabbatical sought to demonstrate that culture is not lost,
but rather it is transformed along migration routes, such as the El Camino Real de
Tierra Adentro, and is reflected in contemporary
art and craft today.
Tara Tetrault Early African American Community of Sugarland: Archaeology & Educati
Tara Lilian Tetrault, M.A., M.A.A., has a degree in Anthropology/Archaeology, and she and Suzanne Johnson and the Sugarland Ethnohistory Project, won the 2021 Montgomery County award for historic reservation. As an adjunct professor, she has 20 years of academic teaching experience. She integrates museum studies and material culture into Anthropology and Women’s Studies courses.
Her Shoenberg Fellowship sabbatical focused on an excavation of one of the earliest
African American farms in
Sugarland, MD, dating to 1874.