Please see the program webpage for complete information about the funding opportunity. Below is a summary assembled by the Research & Innovation Office (RIO).

Program Summary听

Mellon seeks to support institutions with a demonstrated record of excellence in the humanities, and we particularly welcome concepts from institutions that are minority-serving (MSIs) and/or have not received Mellon funding in the last five years.听The Higher Learning program at the invites ideas for research and/or curricular projects focused on any of the following three areas:

  • Civic Engagement and Voting Rights: Differential access to the ballot box has been a defining feature of the US polity throughout the nation鈥檚 history, and contestation over voting rights has only intensified during the last decade. Because broad participation in the democratic process is essential to the achievement and maintenance of a just and equitable society, it is crucial that we understand both current and historical challenges to its realization. The Higher Learning program thus invites ideas for scholarly and/or curricular projects that illuminate the significance of voting rights controversies in any period of US history, from any of the various angles of approach that characterize work in the humanities. While proposals might address many different issues related to struggles for enfranchisement鈥攊ncluding property requirements, poll taxes, literacy tests, race- and gender-based prohibitions, redistricting systems, voter registration and ID protocols, felony disenfranchisement laws, and recent instances of election interference from the federal executive branch鈥攚e especially welcome those that focus on the role of college and university communities in expanding voter access, whether historically or in the contemporary moment.
  • Race and Racialization in the United States: Recent national controversies have reminded us both that race is a primary fault-line in US society and that, consequently, serious consideration of its significance remains a matter of intense urgency. Figuring simultaneously as genetic inheritance, physical appearance, historical construction, social custom, cultural practice, and systemic law and policy, among other things, race is a complex and incoherent phenomenon that accordingly demands analysis along multiple axes. In keeping with the Mellon Foundation鈥檚 mission of building just communities empowered by critical thinking, the Higher Learning program aims to promote rigorous humanities scholarship and pedagogy on past and present effects of racial differentiation across the entire spectrum of national life. We seek fresh perspectives that can expand and deepen the national conversation, recognizing that conventional tools used in analysis of race鈥攅.g., chronologies, geographies, linguistics鈥攈ave inevitably been shaped by the very phenomena they purport to study, and recognizing, too, that deep study of US racialization may well extend far beyond the nation鈥檚 boundaries. We welcome ideas for collective research, curricular innovation, and/or program development focused on any aspect of race and racialization in US culture and society, and are particularly interested in projects that would investigate the relationships and tensions between the social- structural constitution of race, on the one hand, and subjective experiences of it, on the other.
  • Social Justice and the Literary Imagination: Poetry 鈥渕akes nothing happen,鈥� and 鈥測et men [sic] die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there.鈥�* As part of its social justice work in the humanities, the Higher Learning program welcomes concepts dedicated to the role of the literary imagination in making and remaking worlds and societies, past and present. Literature has the power to convey more complete, accurate, and emotionally resonant narratives of the human experience than tend to circulate in mainstream discourse. In the contemporary context, for example, Toni Morrison鈥檚 fiction, Art Spiegelman's graphic novels, and Joy Harjo's poetry all harness the artifice of literary forms to make their communities鈥� stories visceral and clear without sacrificing complexity; comparable effects have been achieved by literary works in all historical periods. Literature can also speculate about what else could be: proposing social thought experiments and dreamed-up inventions in science fiction, fantasy, and other genres that invite readers to encounter the world with fresh eyes and dare the next generation to build different systems than the ones they have inherited. Through the combination of such revelatory, reparative, and imaginative work, literature has a role to play in laying the foundations for more just and equitable futures. Inquiries might outline curricular development, new scholarship, community engagement, writer convenings, and other efforts that highlight and advance the role of literature鈥攆rom canonical works to less-studied popular writing鈥攊n truth-telling and social change.

Deadlines

CU Internal Deadline: 11:59pm MST April 25, 2022

Sponsor Application Deadline: May 16, 2022

Internal Application Requirements (all in PDF format)

  • Project Concept Note (approximately 1,000 words; no more than 8,000 characters): Please describe your ideas for a potential project, including the rationale and specific activities it might involve. The note should clearly state the necessity of the planned work, its goals, potential impact, and the fitness of the institution and/or network to the proposed work.
  • PI CV/Resume (1-2 pages maximum)
  • Budget Overview (up to 1 page): A basic budget outlining project costs is sufficient; detailed OCG budgets are not required.

To access the online application, visit:

Limited Submission Guidelines

Each institution may submit no more than three applications for this call.

Eligibility

The Principal Investigator (PI) should be a faculty member or dean in a program or department in the humanities or humanistic social sciences, or the institution鈥檚 provost, and should have the support of the institution鈥檚 senior academic leadership.

Award Information

Up to $10 million with anticipated grant amounts ranging between $250,000 and $500,000. Grants will start on January 1, 2023 and may have durations of up to three years.