April 2021 Newsletter

APRIL 2021

The Grants Office is pleased to highlight the following accomplishments and updates in our April newsletter! Any suggestions for future newsletters, questions or comments can be directed to grants@vassar.edu.

We would also like to invite interested faculty to an information session on April 28 at 4:00pm to hear about The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s new Humanities for All Times Initiative. This initiative will support curricular development projects that increase humanities enrollment among broad and diverse undergraduate populations by engaging them in humanistic methods and analysis around social justice objectives and could support faculty-led projects that include innovative curricula, pedagogies, projects, and, where relevant, scholarship. The Dean of Faculty and Grants Offices are hosting this information session to answer questions and discuss early stage ideas.

Mellon Foundation: Humanities for All Times
Dean of the Faculty Office - Grant Information Session
Wednesday, April 28 from 4:00-5:00
Via Zoom at https://vassar.zoom.us/j/7919342036

RECOGNITIONS

Brian J. Godfrey, Professor of Geography, is author of “Preserving Whose City?: Memory, Place, and Identity in Rio de Janeiro,” forthcoming in May from Rowman & Littlefield. With this monograph Professor Godfrey explores how historic designation and urban rebranding have shaped Rio de Janeiro’s distinctive sense of place, defining both the city and its country. “Godfrey’s book is timely, urgent, and very much in line with the current conversations and inflection points with which we are living in Rio de Janeiro today,” writes Theresa Williamson, Ph.D., Brazilian urban planner and founder of Catalytic Communities. “All of the forces he describes continue to shape the city, often in conflict with each other. But he defends the prospect of a more inclusive and compassionate Rio.”

Haoming Liu, Professor of Chinese and Japanese, was awarded a grant by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in 2019 for the project “Lyric in Transition”, hosted at Universität Trier. “Lyric in Transition” centers on “poetical forms of intercourse as are defined by genre, language, culture, and society between Europe, Asia, and America.” It invites well-known international and interdisciplinary specialists on lyric poetry from over 40 countries to participate in research. Hosted by the Slavic Department at Uni-Trier, “Lyric in Transition” has become an international node for comparative study of contemporary lyric poetry. Pandemic considerations initially forced postponement of the project, but Haoming is at last on-site at Trier conducting his work.

Elizabeth Nogrady, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programs, and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center have secured grant support from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation to support the upcoming exhibition Changing Forms: Metamorphosis in Myth, Art, and Nature 1650–1700, on view from September 28 through December 19, 2021. The exhibition, which explores the concept of “metamorphosis” through its various manifestations in myth, art, and science in the Netherlands during a defining moment in the late 1600s, will center upon the loan of five paintings from The Leiden Collection, a preeminent private collection of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings in the U.S., and a select group of prints, drawings, and rare books drawn from the collections of the Loeb, Vassar’s special collections library, and several local university libraries.

Ismail O.D. Rashid, Professor of History, is co-editor of “Researching Peacebuilding in Africa: Reflections on Theory, Fieldwork and Context”, newly published by Routledge. Co-edited with Amy Niang, its many contributors show how peacebuilding research covers a whole range of questions that go beyond concerns for post-conflict reconstruction strategies. Drawing on conceptual framings in the study of peace and conflict, and anchored in African-centered perspectives, “Researching Peacebuilding in Africa” encourages and promotes high-quality interdisciplinary research that is conflict-sensitive, historically informed, theoretically grounded and analytically sound.

Vinay Swamy, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, was awarded a Franklin Research Grant by the American Philosophical Society, which has been awarding grants to scholars in support of progress toward publication in all areas of knowledge since 1933. Vinay’s current project, entitled “Devenir Non-binaire: Beyond the Gender Binary in the French Republic”, considers the current debate on gender non-conformity and the politics of the French Language in France.

Keri VanCamp, Director of the Field Station and Ecological Preserve, and her collaborators from The Fresh Air Fund (FAF), Hudson Highlands Land Trust (HHLT), and Fordham University’s Louis Calder Center (LCC) received a grant from the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (LHPRISM) to help support five Invasive Species Management Internships for summer 2021. The interns will perform invasive species monitoring, assessment, and control on Vassar’s Ecological Preserve, the FAF Sharpe Reservation, HHLT’s Granite Mountain Preserve, and LCC’s Biological Field Station as well as educate various audiences about invasive species and create outreach materials.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES & HIGHLIGHTS

Fulbright Fellowships in Fellowship Calendar

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is the largest program of its kind in the United States, awarding more than 800 fellowships annually. Over 400 different types of opportunities are available to teach, research and conduct professional projects in more than 135 countries. The Fulbright Fellowship tab in the fellowship calendar works as a tool to help you research and apply for Fulbright fellowships in your specific field of interest with support and foundational information from the Grants Office.

NSF INTERNATIONAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
Recovery, Renewal and Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World

Recovery, Renewal and Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World is a new international funding opportunity supporting social, behavioral and economic science research on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized through the Trans-Atlantic Platform, the endeavor is a partnership between the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences and scientific funding agencies in 11 other countries.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has affected so many aspects of our lives, challenging people and families around the world. It raises new questions about social and behavioral aspects of public health, the economy, education and more,” says Arthur Lupia, head of NSF’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. “Social science research on an international scale can improve our understanding of the pandemic’s effects and accelerate a robust recovery for communities large and small.”

Proposals must be submitted by July 12, 2021 through the Trans-Atlantic Platform’s website. Proposals requesting NSF funding must fit within the scientific purview of NSF’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate. Researchers are thus encouraged to contact NSF program director Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong to discuss their proposed projects prior to submission.

Please visit Recovery, Renewal and Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World for the full call for proposals including international team composition requirements and detailed instructions.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Humanities for All Times Initiative

Vassar is one of a select group of liberal arts colleges invited to participate in Mellon’s Humanities for All Times Initiative, which will provide grants of up to $1.5 million for up to three years, starting as early as January 2022.
Each invited institution may submit up to three proposals for curricular development projects that increase humanities enrollment among broad and diverse undergraduate populations by engaging them in humanistic methods and analysis around social justice objectives.

Because these are institutional grants, interested faculty should contact Chris Johnson or Gary Hohenberger in the Grants Office to discuss ideas, ask questions, and/or begin moving forward with proposal development. Since there is a relatively short time frame for submitting proposals, all interested participants should reach out to the Grants Office as soon as possible, and certainly no later than May 14. The Dean of Faculty will be working closely with the Grants Office to discuss early stage ideas, and working with faculty colleagues to develop those ideas into exciting proposals for innovative institutional grant programs.

Interested faculty teams should propose projects that include innovative curricula, pedagogies, projects, and, where relevant, scholarship; collaborations with partner organizations within and outside of higher education are encouraged.

Competitive proposals, according to Mellon, will require thinking and planning at the “supra-disciplinary level,” and all teams must include at least three full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members. Junior and mid-career faculty are especially invited to lead and participate.

Undergraduate research must be incorporated into proposals, robust communication plans – explaining how the new curricula and approaches will be shared among peer institutions – are expected, and teams are encouraged, as they develop their proposals, to “lead by example, integrating the justice aims they seek to promote into their own structure and functioning wherever possible and including these details in their proposals."

Have you ever considered applying for an NEH Fellowship? If so, check out this webinar "NEH Fellowships: Advice from Liberal Arts College Faculty," in which three NEH Fellowship awardees who received their fellowships while at liberal arts colleges (Eileen Kane, associate professor of history at Connecticut College; Roy Pérez, former associate professor of English and American ethnic studies at Willamette University, now assistant professor of ethnic studies and critical gender studies at UCSD; and Asuka Sango, associate professor of religion, chair of religion, and director of Asian studies at Carleton College), as well as one who recently reviewed for the program (Claire Oberon Garcia, dean of the faculty and professor of English at Colorado College) share information and useful tips about how they approached the grant competition.

OTHER NEH OPPORTUNITIES

April 28 NEH Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan

The Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan program is a program that aims to promote Japan studies in the United States, to encourage U.S.-Japanese scholarly exchange, and to support the next generation of Japan scholars in the United States. Awards support research on modern Japanese society and political economy, Japan's international relations, and U.S.-Japan relations.

April 28 NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication

NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication supports individual scholars pursuing interpretive research projects that require digital expression and digital publication. To be considered under this opportunity, an applicant’s plans for digital publication must be integral to the project’s research goals. NEH - Mellon Fellowships provide recipients time to conduct research and prepare digital publications.

May 6, NEH Virtual Workshop — Digital Humanities

This workshop will highlight grant programs that support work in the digital humanities, both in NEH's Office of Digital Humanities and across the agency. 2-3:30 PM EDT

Teams meeting link: Join live event

Dial-in phone number: +1 202-600-8430

Conference ID: 507 646 569#

May 13, NEH Virtual Workshop — Individual Scholars

This workshop will highlight grant programs that support research by individual scholars. 2-3:30 PM EDT

Teams meeting link: Join live event

Dial-in phone number +1 202-600-8430

Conference ID: 828 416 704#

May 20 NEH Virtual Workshop — Archives and Libraries

This workshop will highlight grant programs that support the work of archives and libraries.2-3:30 PM EDT

Teams meeting link: Join live event

Dial-in phone number: +1 202-600-8430

Conference ID: 768 268 806#

June 3, NEH Virtual Workshop — all interests, in Spanish

This workshop will provide a broad overview of NEH's grant programs and provide an introductory view of the agency in Spanish. 2-3:30 PM EDT

Teams meeting link: Join live event

Dial-in phone number: +1 202-600-8430

Conference ID: 182 058 065#

September 15 Dynamic Language Infrastructure - Documenting Endangered Languages Fellowships

The Dynamic Language Infrastructure – Documenting Endangered Languages (DLI-DEL) Fellowships are offered as part of a joint, multi-year funding program of NEH and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and advance scientific and scholarly knowledge concerning endangered human languages. DLI-DEL Fellowships support individuals who are junior or senior linguists, linguistic anthropologists, and sociolinguists to conduct research on one or more endangered or moribund languages. DLI-DEL Fellowships prioritize scholarly analysis and publication, including but not limited to lexicons, grammars, databases, peer-reviewed articles, and monographs.

September 22 NEH Summer Stipends

The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Stipends program aims to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication. The program works to accomplish this goal by providing small awards to individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. While also supporting projects at any stage of development, but especially early-stage research and late-stage writing in which small awards are most effective. Summer stipends support continuous full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two consecutive months.

December 1 NEH Collaborative Research

The Collaborative Research program aims to advance humanistic knowledge through sustained collaboration between two or more scholars. The program encourages projects, in a single field of study, as well as interdisciplinary work, that propose diverse approaches to topics, incorporate multiple points of view, and explore new avenues of inquiry in the humanities.

December 1 Scholarly Editions and Scholarly Translations

The Scholarly Editions and Scholarly Translations program provides grants to organizations to support collaborative teams who are editing, annotating, and translating foundational humanities texts that are vital to learning and research but are currently inaccessible or are available only in inadequate editions or translations. The program supports continuous full-time or part-time activities during the periods of performance of one to three years.

December 15 Public Scholars

The Public Scholars program supports the creation of well-researched nonfiction books in the humanities written for the broad public by offering grants to individual authors for research, writing, travel, and other activities leading to publication. The program is intended both to encourage non-academic writers to deepen their engagement with the humanities by strengthening the research underlying their books and to encourage academic writers in the humanities to communicate the significance of their research to the broadest possible range of readers.

OTHER IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

NSF Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Announces New Broader Impacts Framework

“A new framework for articulating broader impacts in research proposals is now available from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.

... The new framework offers guidance on how researchers can better articulate the potential impacts of their proposed research and how those impacts can lead to benefits for society, including improved quality of life. The framework includes questions for researchers to consider when developing the broader impacts of their research and suggestions on how to explain them.”

Communicating Research Intent and Value in NIH Applications: Plain Language Examples

Have you ever grappled with how to make sure the value of your research goals and objectives can be clearly understood by a wide audience? NIH has made available “before and after” examples to “illustrate ways to reword the title, abstract, and public health relevance statements (elements [they] make public after award) to better communicate the value and intent of your application to nonscientists, including the public, congress, and members of the press. Peer reviewers will focus on your research strategy, which you will write for the consumption of the scientist rather than the layperson.”

See more from NIH on using plain language here.

DON'T FORGET

Check out the fellowship calendar to see upcoming opportunities and programs to apply for!