The Academy for the Study of Aids in Culture in Mexico City offers academic courses on post-graduate and doctorate levels in cooperation with public universities in Mexico and abroad. The Academy offers courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences focusing on cultural responses to AIDS in different cultures and societies across a wide range of perspectives. Students who sign up for a course, receive academic credit at their home institutions and the Academy functions as a resource center for public universities in Mexico and other countries. 

The Academy does not have permanent faculty positions, but international scholars who have presented papers at any of the Aids in Culture conferences will be invited to propose courses of a duration of 4 weeks, 8 weeks or 12 weeks. 

The first courses will start in October 2007. 

1. Proposing a Course:

Scholars from any university or academic institution anywhere in the world, are welcome to submit an application to teach one or several courses at the Academy for the Study of Aids in Culture as Invited Scholar. 

These course proposals should include information about:

A. the course title and a one paragraph course description describing course content and teaching methods. This will be used in publicizing and attracting students to your course and the program. 

B. the academic level of the course

C. A syllabus of the course(s), including information on

a. an outline of courses' subject matter

b. student assignments

c. textbooks or other needed materials

d. evaluation procedures

D. the type of student that would be attracted to the course, such as required academic background, major etc.

E. a statement of interest on serving as the on-site faculty coordinator and ombudsmann (optional - One faculty member per semester will serve as faculty coordinator and ombudsmann, and will spend the entire semester on site.) 

2. Scheduling Considerations:

Each semester is divided into three teaching blocks of four weeks each. The Spring/Summer Semester starts every year on the Monday following 25 February and the Autumn Semester starts every year on the Monday following 25 September. Faculty should identify those teaching periods in which they are available for assignment and fill out the information requested on the application form 

3. Faculty Development:

Attach a description of how you plan to utilize your stay as invited scholar at the Academy for the Study of Aids in Culture for your own professional development.

4. Curriculum Vitae:

Attach a current curriculum vitae

There are a number of factors that come into consideration in the selection of courses for the Academy.

Is the subject matter and the approach of the course appropriate for the center? All submissions must, of course, fit under the theme of Aids in Culture, which the center defines as a broad theoretical outlook on disparate themes and phenomena utilizing a multidisciplinary approach and a comparative methodology.  Courses should take a multidisciplinary approach, and they must be comparative in nature.

Do the subject of the course and the discipline of the instructor fit well with other courses offered in the same semester and block? The center tries to offer courses from a wide range of disciplines each semester. 

Does the course fit into our teaching schedule? Unfortunately, we sometimes get a lot of course proposals for some blocks and rather few for others. We must offer a good selection of courses in each block. If we think that your course is a good one, but you have proposed to teach it in a very full block, we may ask you if you are available at another time.

From which institution or country do you come? We try to offer our students a variety of options concerning their classes and instructors, and we like to offer a mix of institutions/nationalities for each of the blocks.

In order to help prospective faculty tailor their proposals to fit our needs, the Board of Directors has created a framework guide. Proposals do not have to fall under these broad categories-indeed, your proposal may spark new ways of conceptualizing Aids in Culture, but these are categories that in the past have attracted academics and students to our different activities. You should consider the following as a framework for considering the ways in which your proposal may fit within our programme, not as a strict set of requirements. If you are in any doubt, contact our academic coordinator for more guidance.

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