Notes on the NEH Humanities Connections GrantLed by Program Directors Julia Nguyen & Jinlei Augst

Slide 1
How the NEH defines humanities (via fields)

• Ethics & Law
• Languages & Linguistics
• Archaeology
• Philosophy & Religion
• History
• Literature
• Art History

 
Interestingly, there's no room for writing in here. There's also little room for practitioners (e.g., no lawyers, no artists, no writers). Instead, there's a focus on modernist notions of critique and critical engagement.

Slide 2
Humanities Connections focuses on how the humanities connect with other fields
 
Slide 3
Deadline: 5 October
Funding: Up to $100,000
Duration: 18-36 months
 
Slide 4
Humanities Connections is a new program, so there's no data to draw from in terms of defining what works in past proposals.
 
Slide 5
The Basics
1.  At least 3 linked courses at a single institution
2.  Collaboration between fields/schools
3.  Student engagement outside the classroom
    
     Examples

• UG research (involving communities, archives or other organizations or locations off campus, etc.)
• service learning
• civic engagement projects
• internships

5.  The funding cannot be used to send faculty or
     students oversees
6.  The funding cannot be used to pay students
 
Slide 6
Resources

• NEH website
• Humanities Connections grant guidelines
• Program officers
  • bounce ideas off
  • help think through articulation/clarify thoughts
    

Slide 7
Stages of the review process

1. Peer review panel

• comprised of academics and reps from educational orgs
• provide ratings and rationales for each proposal

2. NEH staff

• go over panel results
• write funding recommendations
• present results to national council

3. National Council

• 26 people appoint by the president and confirmed by Senate
• make decisions n staff recommendations
• send decisions to chairman for approval

4. Chairman

• decisions announced in March

 
Slide 8
Grant Writing Tips
1. Prepare

• Read guidelines
• Talk to program officers
• Submit a draft proposal (due Sept. 5, 2016) to humaitiesconnections@neh.gov

2. Make your case

1. Start from the review criteria (section 5 in the guidelines)
   1. Intellectual quality
   2. Design quality
   3. Impact
2. Show the project's intellectual significance
   • First portion and most important part (but don't overlook the others)
3. Demonstrate the significance of your work plan and make sure to show how it's doable
   • Make it as concrete as possible
   • Walk through the project carefully
4. Demonstrate likely impact

 
Slide 9
Think about Your Audience

• Writing to the "educated generalist"
• Make your writing accessible and clear
• Avoid disciplinary jargon
• Address the review criteria
• Show reviewers that you know what you're doing

Make sure to demonstrate both a curricular Impact & Interdisciplinary Impact
 
Slide 10
Attend to Details

• Include all the necessary supporting materials, e.g., letter from admin supporting the grant initiatives
• Draft early and get feedback
• Proofread
• Ask for comments and reapply if the grant isn't accepted

 
Slide 11
Contacts

• Jinlei Augst: jaugst@neh.gov 202.606.8396
• Julia Nguyen: jnguyen@neh.gov 202. 606.8213
• humanitiesconnections@neh.gov

 
Questions
1. Only 1 proposal per institution?

• No

2. What does "long-term support" from admin
    mean?

• No projects that die when funding period ends
• Show buy in from the university and address long-term institutional impact

3. What counts as "linked" courses?

• Defined as connecting humanities to other fields
• Should be the crux of your intellectual rationale
• Can take place in one semester or across semesters
• The linked course should address a similar theme or question.

4. Deadlines?

• Final proposal: 5 October 2016
• Draft proposal (emailed to humanitiesconnections@neh.gov): 5 Sept

5. Can we submit drafts earlier?

• Yes, 5 Sept s the cut off.

6. Budget question

• Look at guidelines and sample
• Cannot use money for foreign travel
• Cannot use it to play students
• Not replacement pay for teaching
• Can use for things like summer stipends for faculty, to buy out courses for directors, etc.

7. How many proposals get accepted?

• New grant, so there's no data to base this on.

8. How substantial must course revision be (in lieu
    of creating new courses)?

• No firm guidelines
• They don't fund something that already exists or something that you will already be doing
• Consider how the funding will make something new possible    

9. Question about student engagement component
    related to study abroad

• Study abroad is excluded in the sense for funding travel, but you could set up prep courses for the study abroad

10. Budget question about seminars and outside
      speakers

• Bulk of the funding should be for infrastructure and planning, so that infrastructure continues to exist after the grant period ends
• Could use funding for a pilot or partnership
• Can use some funding for seminars and speakers, but it shouldn't be the bulk of the budget

11. Does the engagement have to be part of the
      courses?

• It needs to be a high-impact experience.
• It can be a companion to the course(s), but it needs to be substantial.

12. Question about PI

• Should be faculty member, not administrator
• Should be the Project Director/Co-Directors

13. UG or grad?

•  Has to be UG

14. Is there any UG research that isn't experiential
       learning/engagement?

• Yes, and that's not acceptable for the grant.
• (Think action research.)

15. Is cross-institutional collaboration ok?

• No. It should be within one university, but can be cross institutional in the sense of working with
  
• A community partner organization, archive, etc.

16. Do all students have to take all three courses?

• Not necessarily; it depends on how your institution wants to work that out.
• Be sure to make the case for your model.

17. Can faculty apply who are not on the tenure
      track?

• Yes

18. Another linked courses question...

• They need to be in different disciplines (and not all humanities)
  

19. Use funds for students?

• No

20. Working with NTT faculty...

• They can be included in the budget based on the amount of work they'll do.

21. Do all students have to do the engagement
      component, e.g., if they take one course and not
      the others?

• Yes. Don't design fail models. CE is REQUIRED! In fact, it's one of the main components of the grant, not simply interdisciplinarity.

22. Can the same person be on multiple proposals?

• Don't be stupid, and don't ask stupid questions.
• Of course you can; you just look unserious and hurt both proposals.