Fellowship & Grant Opportunities
The Bucknell University Humanities Center provides several fellowship and grant opportunities for both faculty and students who wish to study and work in the humanities. These opportunities are made possible through the generosity of the Mellon Foundation and the President's Office.
Fellowship & Grant Opportunities
Mellon High-impact Teaching (MHIT) Grant
The Humanities Center offers Mellon High-impact Teaching Grants of up to $5,000 to allow faculty to experiment with collaborative course-related activities that are not typical or not fully covered by any other campus resource. All faculty members currently teaching a course in the humanities or humanistic social sciences are eligible to apply for these Mellon High-impact Teaching Grants regardless of departmental affiliation.
Applications closed: Funding for this grant has been exhausted for this academic year.
More information:
Interim Director, John Penniman (jdp033@bucknell.edu)
Administrative Assistant, Kathi Venios (klv006@bucknell.edu)Mellon Theme Year High-impact Teaching Grant
The Theme Year Mellon High-impact Teaching (TY-MHIT) grants of up to $5,000 allow faculty to experiment with course-related activities that align with and amplify the 2022–23 Bucknell Humanities Center (BHC) theme: “Pandemic: Contagion and the Body Politic.”
All faculty members currently teaching a course in the humanities or humanistic social sciences are eligible to apply for the Theme Year Mellon High-impact Teaching grants regardless of departmental affiliation. The faculty cluster leading themed programming is also eligible to apply. Collaborations between humanities and non-humanities faculty are encouraged.
Applications open: Aug. 29, 2022 – March 31, 2023
More information:
Interim Director, John Penniman (jdp033@bucknell.edu)
Administrative Assistant, Kathi Venios (klv006@bucknell.edu)Faculty Research Fellowship (FRF) Grants
Humanities Center Faculty Research Fellowships are intended to provide faculty in the humanities with the resources needed to support and enhance ongoing research leading to publication in peer-reviewed venues (print and/or digital). For one academic year, the fellowship provides an award of $3,000, which must be taken as a reimbursable account for research-related expenses, not as a stipend.
Tenured and tenure-track faculty whose research focuses on the humanities and humanistic social sciences are eligible for the fellowship regardless of the faculty member’s departmental affiliation. When sufficient funds are available, applications from VAPs will be considered.
Application Deadline: The application period has closed for this academic year.
More information:
Interim Director, John Penniman (jdp033@bucknell.edu)
Administrative Assistant, Kathi Venios (klv006@bucknell.edu)High-impact Research (HIR) Grants
The Humanities Center offers grants of $150 to $1,500 to assist faculty to engage in short-term research-related activities that are not fully covered by any other campus resource. Such activities may include, but are not limited to, research-related trips to archives, libraries or museums; purchasing books or software that are not available on campus; meeting with research collaborators; or any other worthwhile, potentially high-impact short-term research activities that require a budget and will lead to scholarly results that can be specified.
All tenured and tenure-track faculty members whose research focuses on the humanities or humanistic social sciences are eligible to apply for these High-Impact Research Grants regardless of departmental affiliation. When sufficient funds are available, applications from VAPs and adjuncts will be considered.
Applications open: Aug. 29, 2022 – March 31, 2023
More information:
Interim Director, John Penniman (jdp033@bucknell.edu)
Administrative Assistant, Kathi Venios (klv006@bucknell.edu)Pre-publication Workshop (PPW) Grants
The Humanities Center provides Pre-publication Workshop grants of $500 to $1,000 to assist faculty in bringing their research to publication. The PPW grant supports workshops on an article, chapter, book proposal or other work in progress with an external scholar in the faculty member's field of expertise. Workshops must include a minimum of two additional faculty participants and may be conducted via Zoom. (Students may also be invited to attend where appropriate.) When sufficient funds are available, applications from VAPS and adjuncts will be considered.
Applications open: Aug. 29, 2022 – March 31, 2023
More information:
Interim Director, John Penniman (jdp033@bucknell.edu)
Administrative Assistant, Kathi Venios (klv006@bucknell.edu)Working Group Start-up (WGS) Grants
The Bucknell Humanities Center (BHC) seeks to foster new and emerging working groups among faculty who are collaborating on topics in the humanities. The Working Group Startup (WGS) grants are designed to encourage the formation of these clusters, to provide resources for their ongoing collaborations, and assist in achieving their objectives. The BHC currently hosts several successful working groups, including the Environmental Humanities, Health Humanities, Public Humanities and Digital Humanities working groups. These groups have already generated two consecutive Themed-year programs for the BHC, won a major NEH grant aimed at curricular innovation, and created new research initiatives like the Bucknell Summer Institute.
In order to encourage the growth of additional humanities working groups in emerging areas of faculty interest, the BHC will offer grants of $150 to $1,500 in start-up funds. Some examples of how the funds may be used include: ordering books for a faculty reading group; as honoraria for an external consultant or visiting scholar; establishing cross-institution collaborations; funding group trips to nearby sites, archives or museums relevant to the working group’s focus.
Working groups must involve a minimum of four faculty from two or more departments at Bucknell. Funds must be spent by June 30, 2023. These grants are awarded by the Humanities Council on a competitive basis. All tenured and tenure-track faculty members whose research focuses on the humanities or humanistic social sciences are eligible to apply for the WGS grants regardless of departmental affiliation.
Applications open: Aug. 29, 2022 – March 31, 2023
More information:
Interim Director, John Penniman (jdp033@bucknell.edu)
Administrative Assistant, Kathi Venios (klv006@bucknell.edu)Mellon Student Research (MSR) Grant
The Humanities Center offers grants of up to $1,500 per project to support students who endeavor to engage in non-credit-bearing research projects in the humanities.
Funds are available only for reimbursable project expenses and may not be requested as a stipend. Examples of projects include: travel to an academic conference; organizing a film series; travel to an archive, library or museum; hosting an ethnic food night; engaging in a service-learning activity; or inviting a speaker to campus.
This grant is not intended to fund projects for which academic credit will be awarded. Each applicant must have a sponsoring faculty member whose primary field is in the humanities.
Applications open: Aug. 29, 2022 – March 31, 2023
More information:
Interim Director, John Penniman (jdp033@bucknell.edu)
Administrative Assistant, Kathi Venios (klv006@bucknell.edu)Mellon Academic Year Research (MAYR) Fellowships
Mellon Academic-Year Research (MAYR) Fellowships are intended to enable faculty-student teams to conduct collaborative interdisciplinary research during the regular academic year. The program is designed to support projects focused on humanistic inquiry and involving faculty-student teams of two to five participants from at least two disciplines.
The award provides each student researcher with up to $2,500 in wages/benefits for at least 20 weeks of work, and each faculty member with up to $2,000 in research funds. Faculty funds will be available as a reimbursement account for expenses associated with the collaborative project and may not be requested as a stipend.
These grants are awarded on a competitive basis.
Teams must include at least one faculty member and at least one student with interests and expertise in different disciplines. The grants are designed to foster collaborative work of a kind that does not normally occur when students are hired to do office work or when student involvement on a project does not include the student as a genuine collaborator. All projects that focus on the humanities or humanistic social sciences are eligible for the award regardless of the departmental affiliation of faculty and student applicants. Eligible projects may result in work that develops into a student honors thesis, but students may not simultaneously receive academic credit and a fellowship for the same work.
MAYRs are not intended to be used by faculty during either a sabbatical or untenured faculty leave. When sufficient funds are available, proposals from visiting members of the faculty who will be returning to the University for a complete academic year will be considered. Faculty are encouraged to continue collaborative relationships with students during the summer by applying for other research grants available at the University. MAYRs may not be held in conjunction with other external or internal grants that provide student support for the same project. After receiving funding for one academic year, faculty may apply for an additional year of funding to continue productive projects.
Application Deadline: The application period has closed for this academic year.
More information:
Interim Director, John Penniman (jdp033@bucknell.edu)
Administrative Assistant, Kathi Venios (klv006@bucknell.edu)
Notes About Applying
- Before seeking project funding, students should familiarize themselves with the grant application procedures.
- All materials must be submitted to the Humanities Council by 11:59 p.m. on the relevant deadline date.
- All applications must be submitted using the online application.
Contact Details
Humanities Center
Location
Hildreth-Mirza Hall