Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities, 2019-20

PROVOSTIAL FUND FOR THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES
ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-20 APPLICATION GUIDELINES
Proposals for the spring semester 2020 (and beyond) are due by 9AM on Monday, October 7, 2019
Proposals for the fall semester 2020 (and beyond) are due by 9AM on Monday, February 24, 2020

Proposals must include the application form found on page 4 of the linked PDF.

We are pleased to announce that the Provost’s Office will continue to make Provostial Funds available for initiatives in the Arts and Humanities. In 2019-20, approximately $200,000 is available for distribution. We are grateful to the Provost’s Office for this increase. The updated application guidelines are below.

This fund is intended to support creative, innovative initiatives in the arts and humanities, for projects led by members of the faculty within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and/or other schools. Proposals might include performances, master classes, conferences, workshops, seminars and visits by outsiders. They may involve collaborations across departments and divisions of the FAS and the University as well as with colleagues beyond the University. Although a direct tie-in with the curriculum is not an absolute requirement, proposals that have a clear connection to existing courses, new courses, or pedagogical activities more broadly construed will be favored.

Because Rothenberg Funds are now fully depleted, the Provostial Fund will also welcome applications to support faculty research, particularly for projects smaller than those now considered under the Dean’s Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship.

The committee for the Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities consists of faculty from various departments in the Arts and Humanities, and is chaired by Professor Stephanie Sandler of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Applications for the following spring semester (and beyond) are due 9AM on Monday, October 7, 2019. Applications for the following fall semester (and beyond) are due 9AM on Monday, February 24, 2020. The Committee will meet within one month of the deadline and awards will be announced as soon as possible thereafter.

The maximum amount to be awarded is $7,500 per proposal, and the Committee strongly encourages proposals that are more modest in nature. Normally, proposals received after the deadline cannot be considered.

For initiatives, events, and projects, the Committee will favor proposals that:

• foster a sense of intellectual community among faculty colleagues and students; 
• have a curricular connection; 
• indicate undergraduate and/or graduate student participation in the intellectual content of an event; 
• lead to or support existing sustained activities rather than one-time events whose trace on campus life is soon erased; 
• promote innovation and interdisciplinarity; 
• propose the prudent use of funds. Honoraria, while necessary in some circumstances, should be kept as modest as possible.

For research proposals, the Committee will make awards in part based on need, thus prioritizing applications from faculty whose own research funds are relatively depleted, and prioritizing applications from faculty who were not recipients of Rothenberg funds in the past. 

Projects may be individual or collaborative, and costs associated with travel to collections, film festivals, symposia, etc. are eligible. So are publication expenses, but applicants are reminded that tenure-track and tenured faculty have access to funds through the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as well; Provostial awards associated with publication costs would normally be made only to those who had exhausted that additional allocation. Expenses to pay research assistants are permitted, although faculty are asked to hire Harvard undergraduates or graduate students as research assistants. The Committee hopes that it can fund proposals across all these categories, but if forced to choose, it will give priority to funding travel to do research over travel to present findings.

Please note that proposals must be for activities that have not taken place yet and may not be for retroactive support.

Proposals must include:

• A completed cover sheet, which includes a one-sentence abstract. 
• A 1-3 page account of the event with the following information
  • Colleagues involved: if the proposal involves collaboration, please identify the lead faculty member responsible for all communication with the Committee
  • Goals of the project
  • Anticipated beginning and end date of the project 
• Courses with a direct or indirect connection to the project (not required for research proposals) 
• A detailed budget for the entire project, indicating how the Provostial funds will be allocated. If travel is requested, please specify destinations and all related costs. 
  • N.B. The Committee's expectation is that, where other standard sources of funding are available, applicants should also apply to these sources; budgets should list such sources and the amounts requested. 
  • It is expected as well that departments will contribute, to the extent that their budget allows, to the activities proposed by their faculty members. 
  • Budgets should include specifics, and lack of budgetary detail will harm an application's chances. 
• The department chair's signature. If proposals come from faculty in more than one department or division, all chairs' signatures should be supplied. 
• In the case of research proposals, no department chair signature is required. However, the balance of the faculty member’s research account should be included in the proposal.

If granted, recipients will be required to:

• Submit a report on their activities, including the expenditure of all funds, within 3 months of the project’s termination. 
  • Applicants who have received prior Provostial awards will need to have submitted a report on their previous award before a new proposal is forwarded to the Committee for review. 
• Return any unused funds to the Committee. If the funds awarded are for an event to be held in the upcoming academic year, unused funds need only be returned after the event is complete and all expenses covered by the award have been paid.
  • If there is a question about timing for the detailed report or return of funds, please have your financial administrator contact our office. 
• Please note that research funds may be expended over more than a one-year period and are retained for the duration of the expected grant. Applications should explain the timing of planned expenditures in the proposal.

Proposals should be submitted as an electronic attachment, including the cover sheet, to arts-hum@fas.harvard.edu Attn: Maysoon Hamdiyyah; Subject: Provostial Fund Proposal.