The Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities (CEAH) supports Iowa State faculty research and activities in the arts and humanities. Currently CEAH offers funding for Faculty Learning Communities, Symposium Grants, Research Grants, Digital Humanities Summer Institute Support, and the Donald R. Benson Memorial Lecture. See individual grant programs below for the most recent descriptions, deadlines, and guidelines. For additional funding opportunities from the Office of the Vice President of Research visit Grants Hub.
The Grants Hub is a centralized unit at Iowa State University within the Office of the Vice President for Research that provides a broad range of services, resources, and training to help the ISU research community obtain and manage external funding. In particular, the Grants Hub aims to assist new researchers’ pursuit of funding and help experienced researchers reach higher levels of funding.
Support for ISU arts and humanities faculty needing to find funding opportunities, write successful grants, and submit applications to external funding agencies is also available through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences External Research Support team (LASERS) and the Institute for Design Research and Outreach (IDRO) in the College of Design. Please contact Sandra Norvell for additional information and assistance.
Research Grant
Proposals are due by 5:00 p.m., October 4, 2024 for fall submissions and 5:00 p.m., February 7, 2025 for spring submissions
CEAH provides grants for research and creative activity that makes a significant contribution to the scholarly development and academic career progression of faculty in the arts, design and humanities. Projects should employ predominantly artistic and humanistic approaches and have outcomes clearly falling within the arts and humanities disciplines.
Digital Scholarship Research Grant
Proposals are due by 5:00 p.m., October 4, 2024 for fall submissions and 5:00 p.m., February 7, 2025 for spring submissions
To foster innovative digital scholarship, the CEAH provides grants for research and creative activity that incorporates a substantial digital component and that will make a significant contribution to the scholarly development and academic career progression of faculty in the arts, design, and humanities disciplines. Projects should employ predominantly artistic or humanistic approaches and have outcomes clearly falling within the arts and humanities disciplines. Funds will be awarded to individual tenured and tenure-track faculty for projects completed within one fiscal year, with publishable outcomes expected after a period normative for the discipline. Preference will be given to projects that initiate new areas of research or launch new phases of ongoing research for individual faculty. Funds may not be used to complete a project previously funded by CEAH.
Symposium Grant
Proposals are due by 5:00 p.m., October 4, 2024 for fall submissions and 5:00 p.m., February 7, 2025 for spring submissions
CEAH provides Symposium Grants to support the creation of artistic and scholarly conferences, symposia, or seminars on ISU’s campus that will attract significant national attention and bring recognition to the scholarly work being done by ISU’s arts and humanities faculty. In addition to enhancing the ISU research mission these symposia should broadly benefit the intellectual environment at ISU, offering a public event, such as a keynote address, that will attract a broad audience. Preference will be given to proposals that promote innovative or emergent themes, and that contribute to advancing arts and humanities research at ISU.
Digital Humanities Summer Institute Support
Applications are due by 5:00 p.m., January 27, 2025
As an institutional partner of the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, CEAH is able to award five free registrations to Iowa State faculty and graduate students.
The Digital Humanities Summer Institute offers nearly fifty separate courses and a number of short workshops on all aspects of digital humanities. Courses run for one week (usually mid-June), while workshops are held the preceding weekends. An extensive range of topics are covered, appropriate either to those just entering the field of digital humanities or to those with more experience, and online registration is available.
Faculty Learning Communities
Application submission is ongoing
The Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities (CEAH), in collaboration with the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), is initiating a program that seeks to bring together potential collaborators interested in a particular topic through Faculty Learning Communities. These new learning communities are designed to lay the groundwork for long-term, collaborative, interdisciplinary research partnerships. The goals of the learning communities are manifold. One goal is to create durable research teams that emerge out of mutual interest that holistically address problems from different disciplinary perspectives. Another is to develop an ecosystem of interlinked interdisciplinary faculty researchers that is both broad and deep. Yet another is to begin breaking down the many silos that exist on campus, to improve information flows, and set the stage for future high impact research projects that cut across disciplinary boundaries. The outcome of the learning communities is to build interdisciplinary teams of researchers from multiple disciplines across the University, who will be positioned to develop long-term collaborations that address major societal issues facing Iowa, the United States, and beyond.
This RFP seeks proposals from either individual faculty or small groups of faculty from any discipline(s), interested in developing and convening a learning community. Proposals for learning communities can be formed around any potential research topic. The primary stipulation is that topics should be framed in ways that emphasize their breadth, interdisciplinarity, and inclusivity, and written so that scholars from the arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences, and technologies may be equally engaged. Examples of topics include, but are by no means limited to, science fiction, artificial intelligence, or food systems.
The point is to begin at the beginning, with few restrictions or prescribed outcomes. The hope is that after initial support from CEAH and OVPR, learning communities will become self-sustaining. Eventually, we hope to see members of these communities develop collaborative publications, symposia, grant applications, courses, and other expressions of scholarly output. The emphasis at this point is helping individuals with overlapping interests find one another and begin the process of building intellectual fellowship.
Applicants are encouraged to contact the CEAH Director, Matthew Sivils (sivils@iastate.edu) for guidance prior to submitting proposals.