The following funding opportunities notice is being sent to department chairs and administrators in the Arts & Humanities.  We have enabled a sign up option so that faculty and administrators who wish to do so can receive these announcements directly.  Please distribute as appropriate.
FAS Research Development
Opportunities in the Arts, Humanities, and Humanistic Social Sciences
December 2014
Opportunities:
Funding Opportunities
Unless otherwise noted, all full proposals to external sponsors must be submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) for review five business days in advance of the sponsor deadline.  For questions regarding any of the opportunities listed below, please contact Erin Cromack, Research Development Officer, at cromack@fas.harvard.edu or 617-496-5252

elsonElson Family Arts Initiative
Deadline: January 23, 2015 or April 3, 2015
Award Amount: Up to $5,000

The Elson Family Arts Initiative fund supports undergraduate education in the arts and humanities and the integration of the arts into the curriculum within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.  Course proposals may (but need not) involve collaborations across departments and divisions of the FAS. The updated application guidelines are below.  The Committee will only consider proposals that have a curricular connection and that show the prudent use of funds. As a general rule, priority will be given to proposals for art-making in courses where art-making has not traditionally been inserted.

For more information, see here.

enhancing_lifeUniv. of Chicago & Ruhr-University Bochum/Germany
The Enhancing Life Project

Letter of Intent Deadline: February 1, 2015

Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): April 20, 2015

Award Amount: $50,000 for early career researchers; $100,000 for advanced career scholars

Target Disciplines: Religious Thought/Theology/Philosophy; Philosophy of Biology/of Science/of Technology; Social Sciences (e.g., Anthropology/Law/ Political Science/ Psychology/Sociology); Communications and Media Studies


The purpose of The Enhancing Life Project is to explore essential aspirations of human beings that move persons and communities into the future.  Because human aspirations are often implicit in a society's culture and are intertwined with, for example, media narratives, political symbols, or religious rituals, it is not surprising that the desire to enhance life is as pervasive as it is overlooked in the academy and even in public life. The Project explores this rich but widely unexamined dimension of human aspiration and social life. The Project's goal is to address the following Big Questions: (1) "What does it mean to enhance life, including spiritual life?" (2) "Correlatively, what are the "spiritual laws" for the strategies, social mechanisms, and technologies that enable us to enhance life in its many dimensions and in measurable ways?"

 

The key components of the Project are research fellowships (20 will be awarded to early career researchers and 15 to advanced career scholars) and three scholarly seminars in the summers of 2015, 2016, and 2017.

 

For more information, see here.

mccMassachusetts Cultural Council
Artists Fellowships
Deadline: January 26, 2015
Award Amount: $10,000

The Artist Fellowships provide direct, unrestricted support to Massachusetts artists in recognition of exceptional original work, to foster the creation of new art in the Commonwealth. Artist Fellowships in a range of disciplines are awarded to primary creators of original works of art.  The categories considered for the January 2015 deadline are Film & Video, Music Composition, and Photography.  An applicant must have been a legal resident of Massachusetts for the last two years at the time of application and all Artist Fellows/Finalists must be legal residents of Massachusetts when the grants are awarded.

For more information, see here.

pficHarvard University
Provost Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration
Deadline: February 20, 2015
Award Amount: Up to $25,000

The Provost's Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration (PFIC) was developed to promote discussion and collaboration on topics and activities of mutual intellectual interest that involve faculty from two or more Harvard Schools. The Provost has limited funds to support a variety of faculty collaborations, including but not limited to cross-School interdisciplinary courses, working groups, and small-scale conferences.

To be eligible for support, the designated leader and faculty involved with the proposal must hold primary Harvard faculty appointments at the rank of Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor. Additionally, the faculty involved must be from at least two different Schools or two different divisions within FAS. Priority will be given to applicants who have not previously received funding from the grant.

For more information, see here.

neh_digitalNational Endowment for the Humanities
Digital Humanities Implementation Grants
Deadline: February 18, 2015
Award Amount: $100,000 to $325,000 over 1-3 years

This program is designed to fund the implementation of innovative digital-humanities projects that have successfully completed a start-up phase and demonstrated their value to the field. Such projects might enhance our understanding of central problems in the humanities, raise new questions in the humanities, or develop new digital applications and approaches for use in the humanities. The program can support innovative digital-humanities projects that address multiple audiences, including scholars, teachers, librarians, and the public.

For more information, see here.

neh_summerNational Endowment for the Humanities
Summer Seminars and Institutes
Deadline: February 24, 2015
Award Amount: Awards for seminars range between $75,000 and $150,000 for a grant period of twelve months.  Awards for institutes range from $90,000 to $200,000 for a grant period of fifteen months.

These grants support faculty development programs in the humanities for school teachers and for college and university teachers. NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes may be as short as two weeks or as long as five weeks.  NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes extend and deepen knowledge and understanding of the humanities by focusing on significant topics and texts; contribute to the intellectual vitality and professional development of participants; build communities of inquiry and provide models of civility and excellent scholarship and teaching; and link teaching and research in the humanities.

For more information, see here.

grahamGraham Foundation
Production and Presentation Grants
Deadline: February 25, 2015
Award Amount: Up to $30,000

These grants assist organizations with the production-related expenses that are necessary to take a project from conceptualization to realization and public presentation. These projects include, but are not limited to, publications, exhibitions, installations, films, new media projects, conferences/lectures, and other public programs.  An organization applying for publication support should have a committed publisher for the work with a contractual agreement to publish the proposed project. 

Note: An academic department/unit may only apply for one grant per year.

For more information, see here.

doris_dukeDoris Duke Charitable Foundation
Fund for National Projects
Letter of Inquiry Deadline: February 27, 2015
Award Amount: Grants range from $60,000 to $200,000 and cannot exceed 50 percent of a project's total cost
Eligible Disciplines: Dance, jazz, presenting or theatre fields

The fund supports projects that strengthen the national infrastructure of the dance, jazz, presenting or theatre fields; or improve conditions for the national community of performing artists in dance, jazz and theatre, such as but not limited to:
  • Research projects assessing the national health of professional nonprofit arts groups or of individual professional artists;
  • Special national convenings for entire professional nonprofit performing arts fields (beyond traditional national annual conferences);
  • Special projects that address unique circumstances that affect an entire professional nonprofit field.
National projects engage a broad national constituency, occur once (or periodically) rather than annually, and have the potential to significantly impact a field. Highest priority will be given to projects that improve the health of the Arts Program's priority performing arts fields and do not duplicate ongoing efforts or existing services. 

For more information, see here.  

neh_scholarNew Program!
National Endowment for the Humanities
Public Scholar Program
Deadline: March 3, 2015
Award Amount: $4,200/month for 6-12 months

The Public Scholar program supports well-researched books in the humanities intended to reach a broad readership.  Such scholarship might present a narrative history, tell the stories of important individuals, analyze significant texts, provide a synthesis of ideas, revive interest in a neglected subject, or examine the latest thinking on a topic. Books supported by this program must be grounded in humanities research and scholarship. They must address significant humanities themes likely to be of broad interest and must be written in a readily accessible style.  Making use of primary and/or secondary sources, they should open up important and appealing subjects for wider audiences. The challenge is to make sense of a significant topic in a way that will appeal to general readers.

NEH especially welcomes applicants who are in the writing stages of their projects or who already have a commitment from a publisher. However, the Public Scholar program also supports projects in the early stages of development.

For more information, see here.
Contact
Erin Cromack
Research Development Officer
617-496-5252

For previous funding opportunity announcements, view our email archive

Unless otherwise noted, all applications to external sponsors must be submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) for review five business days in advance of the sponsor deadline.