2021 Center for Environmental Futures Andrew W. Mellon Summer Faculty Research Awards
Purpose
With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center for Environmental Futures (CEF) is pleased to announce the Summer Faculty Research Awards. CEF will offer five summer stipends of either $4,500 summer salary plus OPE, or $5,000 for travel and other research related expenses, to support faculty research and writing in the environmental humanities and creative works in the environmental arts. The grant period is June 21, 2021 to August 31, 2021.
The awards program is intended to advance the mission of CEF, which is as follows:
The Center for Environmental Futures (CEF) is an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students that reflects a longstanding investment in environmentalism and social justice at the University of Oregon and in the larger Oregon community. We engage the environmental humanities, social sciences, art, and architecture, in dialogue with allied fields. Our mission is to encourage faculty and students in interdisciplinary environmental studies research and teaching, to encourage and support members of the community to participate in the University’s environmental studies programming and problem-solving, and to cultivate relationships and build projects to address our most pressing environmental and social problems.
Applications are welcome from faculty who study or develop creative projects addressing the environment from any perspective in the humanities, arts, or allied fields. For example, ecological approaches to literature, gender, religion, politics, philosophy, the arts, and/or race; animal studies; indigenous studies, environmental justice, ethics and sustainability; environmental history, cultural geography; anthropology, or sociology.
Submission
Applications should be submitted to Alison Mildrexler in Environmental Studies (amildrex@uoregon.edu) by April 5, 2021 according to the following application format. Awards will be announced by May 15, 2021.
Full application is attached here: CEF MELLON FAC RES AWARDS 2021 (3)
Basis of Evaluation
Proposals will be judged on the following criteria:
- Significance and originality
- Extent to which the project addresses environmental, ecological, or environmental justice concerns and uses the methods of the Humanities, humanistic Social Sciences, or the Arts in advancing understandings of these concerns
- Visibility of project at the culmination of grant period or potential long-term visibility of project outcome (it is recognized that early research for a book project, for example, may not be visible for some time to come)
Additional consideration is given to those applicants without other significant summer or start-up support.
Eligibility and Conditions
Award funds may be used for summer salary, travel, hiring student workers, equipment, or other expenses.
If the recipient chooses to take the award as summer salary, the award would be subject to regular payroll deductions and taxes. The OPE expense will be taken out of the Mellon grant.
- Faculty are not eligible who resign from the University prior to the effective date of the award (b. contingent Faculty are eligible, so long as they are scheduled to teach at UO in the Fall quarter after the grant)
- Only current UO faculty are eligible to apply
- Those teaching in the summer session are eligible to apply as long as their teaching schedule allows for the timely completion of the work outlined in the application
Applicants are to immediately notify CEF of other support or of any conflicts with the conditions or restrictions of this awards program.
Application Guidelines
The proposal should be written in plain, jargon-free language and is limited to four double-spaced pages, in a standard size typeface (11 to 12 point), with one-inch margins. The proposal should include a cover sheet (see template below), a budget (see template below), and a 2-page CV. Note: these materials are not included in the 3-page limit. The proposal narrative should include:
(1) Conception of the project, including the specific research and/or creative intervention the scholar proposes; the environmentally humanistic ideas, questions, or problems to be explored; the methodology the scholar or creative practitioner will use; and the relationship between the project and the author’s past research and future research agenda
(2) Discussion of the significance of the work relative to the existing body of research or creative work in the field, including a brief literature review, as appropriate
(3) Plan of work and schedule. If travel is involved, indicate how it is essential to the conduct of the research or creative work project. Please include a contingency plan in the event that travel remains restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(4) Description of other funding, from external and UO sources, that this project has received within the last three years
(5) Expected results
Conditions of Award
Award winners shall:
(1) Give one work-in-progress presentation at a CEF Interdisciplinarity 101 gathering during the following academic year
(2) Submit a fellowship report to CEF by October 1, 2021
(3) Acknowledge CEF and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in all work resulting from research or creative work during the fellowship period
(4) Donate a copy of any resulting publications to CEF, unless this imposes a financial hardship on the author