New fund to provide $1.1 million for collaborative research in the humanities
BY KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN
In an effort to stimulate new research endeavors among the university's humanities faculty, President John Hennessy last week announced a $1.1 million program to fund collaborative, multidisciplinary projects.
Hennessy discussed the program, called the Presidential Fund for Innovation in the Humanities, during Thursday's Faculty Senate meeting.
Stephen Hinton, senior associate dean for the humanities, will serve as co-chair of the faculty committee overseeing the program.
"What we're doing with this fund is internally challenging people in the humanities and people outside the humanities to get together and come up with collaborative projects that have a humanities focus," Hinton said.
"I know one group that is working on an international initiative with a humanities focus—that is the kind of thing that will come our way as a proposal for funding. Or maybe a group of people will decide they want to bring all medievalists from all departments together and work on a medieval program. I'm sure we'll get quite a few proposals. You never know. You send out a call for papers and you see what turns up."
Hinton said a request for proposals would be sent to faculty within a few days. Guidelines for the fund state that:
The eight-member committee, co-chaired by Hinton and John Bender, director of the Humanities Center, will review proposals and make awards.
The other committee members are Michael Friedman, Philosophy; Roland Greene, English; Heather Hadlock, Music; Josiah Ober, Political Science; Aron Rodrigue, History; and Gabriella Safran, Slavic Languages and Literatures.
The committee will award "seed fund" grants ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 for up to one year, and project grants ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 per year for a maximum of three years.
The deadline for submitting proposals is April 1. Grants will be announced in May.
