Center for the Humanities

Center for the Humanities Grants

2025-26 Academic Year

The Center for the Humanities offers competitive grants to support faculty scholarship and intellectual communities in the humanities and interpretive social sciences at Wesleyan University.  All full-time Wesleyan faculty appointed in Divisions I and II are eligible to apply.  Taken together, the Center’s fellowships and grants comprise the means by which the Center distributes resources to support humanistic inquiry at Wesleyan. 

Event Co-Sponsorship Grants 

The Center offers grants (up to $500) to co-sponsor scholarly events organized by faculty, academic departments, and official student organizations that take place on campus and in the Middletown community.  Requests for more than $500 will be considered but may not be approved due to limited funds and a desire for equitable distribution of funding. 

Applications:

1. In 500 words, applications must address how the event is aligned with the intellectual mission of the Center and explain how it contributes meaningfully to scholarship and intellectual communities in the arts, humanities, and interpretive social sciences.
2. Applications must include the full budget for the event including a list of all other confirmed co-sponsors and their contributions.
3. Applications must include a feasible plan for event promotion including the identification of student and faculty groups (e.g., course attendees, research groups, etc.) that will be invited and/or required to attend. How many people to you reasonably expect will attend and be impacted by this event?

Deadlines: Applications are considered on a rolling basis but they must be submitted at least 45 days prior to the planned event.  Co-sponsorship funds are limited.  Please email all applications to jmfowler@wesleyan.edu.

Fellowship Development Grants

The Center offers $2,500 fellowship development grants for faculty pursuing extramural fellowships and grants in the humanities, creative arts, and interpretive social sciences.  The goal of these grants is to support Wesleyan faculty members who are actively developing fellowship and grant proposals for public and private funding opportunities.  Grant funds may be used for a modest summer stipend, to convene a workshop aimed at reviewing a draft proposal, or for a combination of activities that lead directly to a submitted application.  These grants are primarily although not exclusively intended for assistant professors in their 2^nd year and for associate professors seeking promotion to full professor at rank—they are meant to take effect during the year that a professor is developing their primary application.  We will fund up to three grants per academic year.  

All grantees are required to submit a post award report and provide progress updates to the Center staff.  We require that applicants consult with staff in the Office of Corporate, Foundation and Government Grants prior to submitting this application.  Submitted grant applications may be shared confidentially with the Office of Corporate, Foundation and Government Grants.

Applications:  

1. In 750 words, outline your plans for your fellowship and grant application, taking care to describe your research or creative project in clear and concise terms that are aligned with your prospective funding institution. Your narrative must identify and describe specific outcomes that are expected from the grant and explain their significance for your overarching program of scholarship.  You must also describe any funding you have pursued and/or received to support this body of research. 
2. Applications must include a budget for the grant period.
3. Your CV and updated research statement.

Deadline: Applications are due January 10, 2026.  Please email applications to jmfowler@wesleyan.edu.

Grant Period:  For AY25-26, we expect that the Fellowship Development Grant funds will be dispersed as early as February 1, 2026 and be available through August 2026, although arrangements can be made to adjust this dispersal depending on successful applicants’ unique circumstances.

Collaborative Research Grants 

The Center offers $30,000 multi-year grants designed to initiate new collaborative research projects and sustain research collectives organized by Wesleyan faculty.  These grants are designed to lead to a major piece of scholarship, create research opportunities for students, and support faculty research collectives and intellectual communities.  These grants may extend for up to three (3) years with a maximum award of $30,000 (up to $10,000 per year).  We seek to fund up to three (3) collaborative grants in any academic year.  

All grantees are required to submit an annual post award report and provide progress updates to the Center staff.  We require that applicants consult with staff in the Office of Corporate, Foundation and Government Grants prior to submitting this application.  Submitted grant applications may be shared confidentially with the Office of Corporate, Foundation and Government Grants.

Applications:

1. Applications must include a 1000-word concept paper that outlines your multi-year research plans and describes your organizational structure. Please describe how your grant will lead to new scholarly outcomes, create research opportunities for students, and build and sustain intellectual community.  Collaborative teams must include at least two full-time faculty members, preferably those at different career stages.  You must also describe any funding you have pursued and/or received to support this body of collaborative research. 
2. Applicants must include a year-to-year budget and with an accompanying budget justification.  No more than $2,500 in grant funds may be allocated towards faculty stipends in any year.
3. CVs for all faculty and updated research statements.

Deadline:  Applications are due by January 10, 2026.  Please email applications to jmfowler@wesleyan.edu.

Grant Period:  For AY25-26, we expect that any funds associated with year one of the Collaborative Research Grant will be dispersed as early as February 1, 2026 and be available through August 2026, although arrangements can be made to adjust this dispersal depending on successful applicants’ unique circumstances.  Year two will begin on July 1, 2026 and year three, if applied for, will begin on July 1, 2027.

Grant Review Process

We want to inspire competitive applications by following a rigorous review process.  The Director will convene an ad hoc committee of anonymous reviewers comprised of experienced Wesleyan faculty and staff to review applications for all Fellowship Development Grants and Collaborative Grants.  The Director will review all requests for co-sponsorship and will consult with the Faculty Advisory Board for any requests over $500.  Submitted grant applications may be shared confidentially with the Office of Corporate, Foundation and Government Grants and the Office for Faculty Career Development.  The Center will not provide written feedback to unsuccessful applicants, but applicants are welcome to reach out to the Director for general feedback. 

Grant Evaluation Criteria (adapted from the National Endowment for the Humanities)

Each reviewer will be asked to evaluate proposals along a set of five criteria:

1. Significance: The intellectual significance of the grant’s vision and chosen thematic focus, including its value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both; the relevance of the grant’s proposed focus to the Center for the Humanities broad mission; the grant’s potential to stimulate new research and contribute to larger questions in the relevant fields and disciplines.
2. Grant activities and execution: The appropriateness and feasibility of the activities proposed by the grant; the quality of the grant’s methodological conception; the clarity of expression in the application; where relevant, the soundness and appropriateness of research and creative methods.
3. The participants and their roles: The qualifications, expertise, and levels of commitment of the applicant and collaborating scholars; the appropriateness of the team members for the achievement of the grant’s goals; the diversity of viewpoints included.
4. Workplan and completion: The clarity and feasibility of the work plan; the likelihood that the grant will achieve its goals within the stated time frame; and the reasonableness of the budget in relation to the proposed activities and work plan.
5. Dissemination and vision: As applicable, the plans to disseminate the knowledge produced by the grant to both scholarly and public audiences and any future plans to grow or expand the activities of the grant in the future.

Permissions and Exclusions

The Center implements certain permissions and exclusions in this grant scheme to facilitate the equitable and fair distribution of resources across the faculty.

1. Professors who hold a Faculty Fellowship at the Center for the Humanities may apply for Fellowship Development Grants or Collaborative Grants in the same academic year.
2. Professors who hold a Collaborative Grant may not apply for the Fellowship Development Grants during their grant period.
3. Professors may resubmit unsuccessful applications in subsequent grant periods, but only one resubmission is allowed.
4. Aligned with our Faculty Fellowships, we ask that professors observe a 4-year waiting period between applications for either Faculty Development Grants or Collaborative Research Grants. We will fund projects once within a five-year period for either mechanism.  So, if a professor is awarded a Faculty Development Grant in 2025, they cannot apply for another FDG until the 2030-31 cycle.  That same professor may, however, apply for a Collaborative Research Grant within the four year cycle. 

Conflict of Interest Policy

Faculty have a conflict of interest and may not review a particular application if they will gain financially or professionally if an application is funded or not funded or if they are related to the applicant.  Members of the Center’s Faculty Advisory Board may apply for grants during their term of service, but they may not participate in reviewing the category of grants for which they have applied.  The Director may not apply for any grants during their term, although they may be listed as an unpaid contributor for a collaborative grant.