The Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation invites proposals for its Collaborative, Cross Institutional Research Working Groups in Latino Humanities Studies. Part of the consortium of the Research 1 Hispanic Serving Institutions, the Initiative seeks shared knowledge creation and new ways of thinking to impact the field of Latino Humanities Studies. It proposes a model of deep collaborative, comparative, and cross-regional research to reflect on the changing configurations of Latinos/as/x in the United States.

General Information

Each Award Amount: $310,000

Number of Awards: Ten

Each Award includes:

Amount for Research: $100,000

Summer Stipend for Faculty Members: Three stipends of $10,000 each*

Six Pre-dissertation Research Fellows: Three in Year One, and three new fellows in Year Two. Each fellowship carries a 11 month (9 + 2 summer-month) $30,000 stipend* with tuition, fees and health insurance covered by fellow’s institution (max of 3 per year per institution)

PI Eligibility: Tenure-line faculty in the humanities or humanistic social sciences

PI Course Release: One per year for two years provided by home institution. *Administered by UIC

How to Submit: Proposals should be emailed as a single PDF to CrossingLatinidades@uic.edu

Key Dates

Project Period: August 16, 2022 – August 15, 2024

Optional Three-page Preproposal: Feb 1, 2022

Application deadline: April 1, 2022

Notification of Award: May 1, 2022

Information Webinar via Zoom: December 3, 2021, 1 pm CST and on demand.

Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, proposed Research Working Groups must:

• Conduct humanities or humanistic social science comparative cross-regional and crossinstitutional research on US Latinos/as/x utilizing humanities methodologies

• Include members from at least three Crossing Latinidades consortial universities

• Include a Principal Investigator (PI) who is tenure line faculty in one of the 16 consortial member institutions in disciplines within the humanities and the arts or whose research is in humanistic social sciences.

• Be composed of at least three tenure line faculty from consortium members. Non-faculty staff (specialized faculty, research associates, etc.) may be able to participate with eligibility determined by their home university’s policies

• Include six consortial pre-dissertation PhD students, (three in Year One, and three new fellows in Year Two) who have completed the Summer Institute on Latino Humanities Studies Methodologies and Theories to experience academic research as part of the mentoring component of the initiative

• Plan to offer public events such as presentations, symposia, workshops, or dissemination of outcomes including publications that will also engage undergraduate students in the consortium.

Consortial Universities

CUNY Graduate Center, Florida International University, Texas Tech University, University of Arizona, University of California-Irvine, University of California-Riverside, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of California-Santa Cruz, University of Central Florida, University of Houston, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, University of New Mexico, University of North Texas, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at El Paso.

Topics in the Humanities

This Research Grant emphasizes the humanities and humanistic social sciences that employ humanities research methodologies. Topics in history, art history, philosophy, comparative literature, languages, drama and music, visual culture, performance studies, theater, sound studies, film studies, gender studies, critical race studies, human geography and other humanities will be considered as well as humanistic approaches to the social sciences with humanities qualitative methodologies.

A non-exhaustive list of possible topics include: Crossing and intersecting Latinidades; climate change and the humanities; arts and the environment; material culture; new approaches to creative writing; precarity; transcultural Latinos/as/x; border histories; heritage languages; changing identities; Latino/x intragroup relations; Latino soundtracks; Latina/o/x resistance; transnational ties; pan-Latino / pan-ethnicity; citizenship (broadly defined); Indigeneities and settler colonialism; critical consciousness; critical race theory; policing and carcerality, etc.

Application Requirements

• Complete cover sheet with the name of the institution that will receive the funds, including Principal Investigator (PI), department level financial grant management contact, and additional contacts

• Complete Signature Page and Application Checklist

• Abstract of proposal (200 words or less with a clear and concise summary of project or proposed work)

• Proposal narrative with rationale, research question(s), description of proposed research work, and outcomes (2,000 words or less), indicating why the work is important to the field of Latino Humanities Studies, expected outcomes and products, and plans for public programming engaging undergraduate students

• Timeline and work schedule describing major activities to be carried out

• Detailed budget with all grant expenses and budget narrative describing and justifying expenditures by category with breakdown of costs for activities

• Description of the criteria to be used to assess progress and success of Working Group research activities

• Short bios for all research team participants and external consultants including contact information

• CVs for PI and all research participants (2-pages per CV)

• Statement of diversity and inclusion from PI’s home institution

• Statement of anti-discrimination from PI’s home institution

• Cover Letter on university letterhead from PI with title, a summary of the project, amount, and indicating responsibility for managing and reporting on the activities and expenditures of grant funds (Administratively, we require a designated PI when there are co-PIs)

• Letter of Institutional Endorsement from PI’s university referring to proposed grant, project title, budget, and time time (Vice Chancellor for Research or equivalent).

• If funded, commit to credit Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative in all products and publicity with logo and credit line:

        This project is supported by the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative based at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Crossing Latinidades is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

• Proposals should be emailed as a single PDF to: Crossinglatinidades@uic.edu

Allowable Expenditures in Budget

Domestic Travel (air/ground transportation, meals, lodging/hotel accommodations, mileage reimbursement and university-based per diem payments)

Meetings (non-travel cost, including catering and facilities costs)

Materials and supplies

Consultants (paid to third parties in exchange for services)

Symposia and public programs to present outcomes

Speaker fees/honoraria

Venue fees

Copying/reproduction costs

Publicity costs

Publication design and printing that benefit scholars, students, and the public

Copyright permission expenses (images, artworks, etc.)

Copyediting

Equipment: purchase of digital recorders, microphones, and similar are allowed if essential to conduct proposed research. Expenses should be explained in budget narrative and project reporting

Food: catering for conference, symposia, and other food cost should be moderate following home institution’s upper spending limit per meal. Please consult with your university if food is allowed in sponsored funds.

Not Allowed

• Course buyouts

• Computer, laptop, printer purchases

• Tuition & fee remits for graduate students

• Hourly graduate students

• Postdoctoral fellowships

• Alcohol

• Indirect cost recovery or discretionary fund pools

• pre-award project costs incurred prior to grant start date of August 16, 2022, or after the grant end date of August 15, 2024

• Collection acquisition

Evaluation Criteria

• Does the proposal advance the humanities and the field of Latino Studies?

• Does the proposal enhance the growth of Latino Humanities Studies?

• Is the proposal well-crafted with excellence of proposed research with a humanities or humanistic social science focus and methodology?

• Does the proposal clearly articulate a cross-regional and cross-institution collaborative and comparative Latino humanities and humanistic social science research?

• Does the proposal include applicants with a track record in collaborative Latino humanities and humanistic social sciences research?

• Is the proposal’s workplan realistic with realizable stated goals within the two-year period of the grant?

• Is the budget well thought out and reasonable for the proposed work? Does it consider cost of collaboration and public dissemination?

• Are research outcomes clear and with activities with effective impact on individual working group members and the field of Latino Humanities Studies?

An independent anonymous panel of experts with wide knowledge, experience, and intellectual interest in Latino Humanities Studies will evaluate, rate, and make recommendations for funding. The panel will be diverse regarding geography, race, ethnicity, and points of view.

For questions about this CFP contact: Olga Herrera at oherre15@uic.edu