Call for Proposals: Graduate Seed Grants 2023-2024

Overview

Deadline: March 1, 2023
Award: up to $1,000 (maximum)
Funding/Project Period: April 1, 2023–March 31,
2024

The Rutgers Digital Humanities Initiative (DHI) invites proposals from graduate students in any Rutgers–New Brunswick humanities department or program for seed grants of up to $1,000 to support digital humanities projects in research and/or public outreach. These projects may, but need not, be related to the applicant’s dissertation research. Grants will support projects conducted during the 12 months from the date of award (i.e. April 1, 2023–March 30, 2024).

Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to attend a workshop on formulating digital humanities projects, which will be led by DHI faculty in February at a date to be announced (see video from the 2022 workshop at https://dh.rutgers.edu/cultivation2022/).

Digital humanities encompasses scholarship that applies computing technologies in humanistic inquiry or studies computing technology humanistically. Examples of digital humanities work include:

Creating digital editions (of literary works, historical documents, etc.)
Performing computer-assisted analyses of texts, images, or other historical/cultural documents in support of a humanistic argument
Presenting humanistic scholarship in novel digital forms (interactive websites, etc.)
Creating and curating humanistically-relevant datasets
Producing digital exhibitions or archives, whether conceived primarily for scholars or as a form of community collaboration or public outreach
Studying new media and digital technologies with humanistic methods

The committee will prioritize applications for new projects and for projects that make use of the existing resources of the Digital Humanities Lab in Alexander Library; for a list of available equipment
and software, see dh.rutgers.edu/lab. Joint proposals will be considered; awards in such cases will be made to each collaborator.

A detailed budget is required for all applications. The award may be used for living expenses, for costs associated with conducting or disseminating research, for purchasing technology (limited to a maximum of 30% of total budget) or for hiring specialized technical development (programming, etc.).

Application Package and Process

All applications must include a Project Narrative of up to 1,500 words. The narrative should describe the guiding premises of the project clearly, provide a clear overview of the project’s structure (components, personnel, tasks), and describe in concrete terms what the project hopes to accomplish by the end of the 12-month period.

Applications must include a separate, detailed budget, with clear explanations for each item and a justification of their importance to the project.

Applications must include a separate timetable that outlines the expected stages of the work and a date of completion.

Applications must include a CV from the primary investigator on the project and from any other individuals who will play a leading or critical supporting role (i.e. outside programmers, other specialized contributors).

Applications should take the form of a PDF file containing the primary applicant’s last name in the filename. Applications should be submitted to Francesca Giannetti and Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan, co-directors, Digital Humanities Initiative, at francesca.giannetti@rutgers.edu and kristin.obrassillkulfan@rutgers.edu by March 1, 2023. Applications will be reviewed by a committee of faculty associated with the DHI.

All applicants will be notified by April 1, 2023.

Report on Outcomes

All funded applicants must submit a report of 1,500 words by March 31, 2024 that describes the outcomes of their project. Awardees will present their work at a symposium to be held in Spring 2024.

Contact

To learn more about the Rutgers Digital Humanities Initiative, visit dh.rutgers.edu. Questions about the Graduate Seed Grants should be directed to Francesca Giannetti and Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan, co-directors, Digital Humanities Initiative, at francesca.giannetti@rutgers.edu and kristin.obrassillkulfan@rutgers.edu.