CFP: Humanities Laboratory, beginning Fall 2013

 

Updated 9/17/2012

 

* Fall 2012 info session Wednesday October 3, 12:30pm, FHI Garage *

 

The FHI is soliciting proposals for a Humanities Laboratory in Fall 2012, for a project commencing in the 2013-14 academic year. Proposals may be for a one or two year project. In exceptional circumstances, the Lab may be eligible for a third year of funding upon written application for an extension by the Fall of the second year. The FHI Labs are supported by Humanities Writ Large, a major campus-wide grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Program Description

A Humanities Lab should be built around a theme or broadly defined idea as articulated by two to three Lab co-directors and a core team of two to three additional faculty members from the humanities, interpretive social sciences, and other Duke schools and research units. Each Lab should also encompass an expanded, "vertically integrated" group of faculty members, graduate assistants, and undergraduate students working on shared research projects. Undergraduates will be able to align their participation in the Labs to their independent study projects or in relation to individual or group honors projects. In each year of each Lab, participating faculty members are requested to teach at least one course related to the Lab project. 

 

In simultaneously focusing the work of the labs on research and pedagogy, we are seeking to bring the innovative, interdisciplinary research the FHI has long supported more fully into the undergraduate experience of students at Duke. By inviting undergraduates to participate as researchers themselves, helping to define emerging and future areas of humanities scholarship.

 

The three current FHI Humanities Labs are the Haiti Lab, BorderWork(s), and GreaterThanGames. For more information about all three Labs, please click here and follow links for more details. The new Lab will be located in the space presently occupied by the Haiti Lab in C106, Bay 4, 1st Floor, Smith Warehouse.

 

Support for the Labs

Each Lab will be provided with base funding for core operations of $50,000 annually. Core operations funds may be used for faculty course releases (limited to one course per faculty per year, contingent on chair and dean approval, and a maximum of three total courses per Lab per year), graduate participation in vertically integrated research teams, other student salaries, etc. In addition, up to $25,000 in programming funds may be provided for visiting speakers, public events, Lab research projects, and related expenditures. Each Lab is provided with a space designed to foster collaboration: Lab faculty and students are expected to work and meet regularly in this space. 

 

The FHI will provide administrative support for the Labs in the following areas: budget and financial transactions, event logistics, facilities and technology maintenance. 

 

As part of Humanities Writ Large, a Digital Humanities Technology Consultant is available to consult with the Labs on relevant research and teaching projects. 

 

Eligibility

All regular rank faculty members at Duke are eligible to propose a Humanities Lab project. Each proposal should identify two to three primary faculty members who will serve as the Lab’s co-directors, at least one of whom must be a tenured member of the Duke faculty. Proposals that involve disciplines across Arts and Sciences as well as other Schools and University Institutes at Duke are especially encouraged.

 

Proposal Guidelines

Proposals should include the following components:

Complete proposal should be submitted electronically to fhi [at] duke.edu by 5:00 PM, Friday, November 2, 2012.  Approval letters from department chairs may be submitted separately to the same email address.