Slots: 1
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, September 13th, 2024, 5pm PTClosed.
LOI: N/A
External Deadline: Wednesday, November 20th, 2024. Proposals will be
completed in their online grant management portal, Fluxx.
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: 20
Anticipated Award Amount: $300,000
Who May Serve as PI:
Link to Award: https://www.mellon.org/article/sawyer-seminars
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
The 30th anniversary of the Sawyer Seminars program arrives amid national turmoil over complex, existential topics that have the potential to affect university operations. Our present moment has created much uncertainty, but it also provides us with opportunities for deep thinking and intervention. Such opportunities are made possible through freedom of intellectual inquiry, which allows our society to think
critically, dissent when necessary, and build more equitable, just futures.
In this vein, for the 2024 Sawyer Seminars, Mellon invites proposals that meaningfully engage faculty, other academic leaders, and visitors from a variety of fields in the study of academic freedom and democracy in the American university. We seek to support seminars that demonstrate through humanistic methods the ways in which a higher education system featuring a multiplicity of perspectives, thoughts, and voices is essential to a functional democracy.
Program Activities
Each seminar normally meets for one year, though some have continued for longer periods. To allow for planning, seminars need not be scheduled for the coming academic year. The seminar should be led or co-led by humanities faculty; however, the proposed seminar should be a collaborative effort involving participation by scholars and administrators from across disciplines and units, with varying perspectives on the problem being addressed. In addition, we encourage you to invite participants from nearby institutions, such as community colleges, liberal arts colleges, museums, research institutes, and local organizations to achieve interdisciplinary and community-engaged collaboration.
As Mellon reviews proposals, preference will be given to those that seek to:
- Bridge the gap between the socially equitable world envisioned in much humanities scholarship and the policies and practices characterizing today’s universities;
- Empower humanists to be active participants in the strategic conversations and planning that many universities are engaged in or preparing to undertake;
- Imagine new and revised university structures that would enhance the growth of the humanities and promote the realization of more just futures. Grant recipients would be expected to highlight and disseminate findings across campus units using a medium that best fits their campus context, such as a white paper or town hall.
Budgetary Requirements:
Funding requests should not exceed $300,000 for each seminar. Budget periods should align with reporting dates that work for the institution, but the first budget period must begin with July 1, 2025. For this reason, the first period may be longer or shorter than 12 months. Funds may support: one postdoc; up to two dissertation research fellows (in the form of graduate tuition or supplemental funding); travel and living expenses for short stays by visiting scholars; costs associated with coordinating seminars, including meals, honoraria, consulting fees, and stipends. Unlike in previous years, there are no required
expenditures. Funds may not be used to cover released time for regular faculty participants, rentals of university space, or indirect costs.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.