Faculty Grant Opportunities Through the Mellon Initiative
In 2018, Trinity University was awarded an $800,000 grant by the Mellon Foundation to improve access to and expand opportunities for undergraduate research in the arts and humanities. The following grants are intended to help Trinity integrate undergraduate research more fully into the curriculum and to expand the number and diversity of students participating in high-impact research experiences in the arts and humanities.
CURE Development Grant
This grant supports faculty who will significantly revamp lower-division courses that fulfill Pathways requirements by including course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). CUREs provide opportunities for students to go beyond learning individual components of the academic research process, and beyond working on traditional research papers, by giving them opportunities to learn about research by working directly on a relevant and unfinished research projects that might even be new to the professor. An effective CURE will use the methodologies employed in the particular field, include an element of discovery, be relevant to the wider scholarly community, and include collaboration.
The grant will require faculty to: 1) analyze the courses first and second year students take in their department and identify where they will be able to create undergraduate research experiences that will reach the most students, which could be a single course taught by multiple faculty, or several courses offered by multiple faculty members; 2) create the CURE, which will include consulting research on CUREs, working with the library and Collaborative staff, and may also include attending a workshop on CUREs; 3) teach the course(s) in the 3rd semester after the grant is awarded; and 4) provide written assessment after teaching the course the first time.
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Details
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up to 3 faculty from a single department
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$2500 stipend for each faculty member
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funding to attend a workshop
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more information on CUREs is available on the Resources page
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Spring 2021 proposals due April 5
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Apply for a CURE Development Grant
Humanities/Arts Lab Grant
The Humanities/Arts Lab Grant will support disciplinary and interdisciplinary working groups that will create labs for individual or interrelated projects that will run during the academic year. The purpose of Arts/Humanities labs is to create opportunities for students with various levels of experience to earn course credit and develop research skills while working with faculty on long-term research projects. Labs will also provide opportunities for more experienced students to mentor students who are just learning new research skills.
The grant will require faculty to: 1) plan the lab, which includes determining the focus of the research, the number of students they will allow into the lab, the scaffolded research tasks that will take place within the lab, how the students will be evaluated, and the pedagogical framework for each semester (e.g., orientation, readings, work done together in the lab versus work done out of lab time); 2) work with department chairs to make sure the lab will count towards requirements for the major; 3) submit the lab to the UCC as a new course that fulfills at least one Pathways requirement; 4) commit to teaching the lab over multiple semesters beginning in the 3rd semester after the grant is awarded; 5) provide written assessment after teaching the course the first time.
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Details:
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up to 3 faculty
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$2500 stipend for each faculty member
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funding to attend a workshop and/or buy materials for the lab
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Spring 2021 proposals due April 5
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Apply for a Humanities/Arts Lab Developement Grant
Regional Research Project Development Grant
This grant supports faculty who will develop and implement a regionally focused research project (in the South Central Texas area) that includes opportunities for undergraduate researchers. Creating these research projects will provide opportunities for faculty and students to participate in projects that link Trinity University with our local community, while enriching the entire community by demonstrating the relevance and possibilities offered by Arts and Humanities research.
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Details:
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$2500 stipend
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project must be new to the faculty’s research agenda
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faculty required to apply for a Mellon SURF to work on the project
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Spring 2021 proposals due April 5
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Apply for a Regional Research Project Development Grant
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Archive of Course-Embedded Research Grant Reports
From 2013-2017, the Mellon Initiative awarded twenty-four stipends to arts and humanities faculty to revise existing courses and create new courses that explicitly guided students in the process of producing original research. The following are a collection of reports from many of these grants.
- COMM 3442: Visual Communication, Patrick Keating, Fall 2017
- COMM 3326: History of Mass Media, Patrick Keating, Spring 2017
- SOC 3391-5: Special Topics in Advanced Interviewing, Sarah Beth Kaufman, Spring 2017
- CLAS 1317: Classical Traditions in Science Fiction, Benjamin Stevens, Spring 2017
- MUSE 1186: Voix d'Esprit - Gary Seighman, Fall 2016
- HIST 3433: The Middle Ages in Film - Nicole Marafioti, Spring 2016
- MUSC 3341: Antiquity through the Baroque - Kimberlyn Montford, Spring 2016
- MUSC 1340: Intro to Music History - Kimberlyn Montford, Fall 2015
- CLAS 1309: Pirates, Merchants, and Marines: Seafaring in the Ancient Mediterranean - Nicole Hirschfeld, Fall 2015
- ARTH 3354: Mexico City - Kathryn O'Rourke, Spring 2015
- GREK 3390: Homer's Iliad and the Homer Multitext - Corinne Pache, Spring 2015
- ENGL 3384: The American Novel - Michael Soto, Spring 2015
- PHIL 4391: Topics in Contemporary Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Performing Arts - Andrew Kania, Fall 2014
- SPMT 3316: History of American Sport - Jacob Tingle, Spring 2014
- HCOM 3364-1: Communication and Effective Leadership - Jamie Thompson, Spring 2014
- ARTH 3391: Topics in Art History: Abstract Expressionism, Michael Schreyach, Fall 2013
- HIST 4430: Senior Seminar in European History - Nicole Marafioti, Fall 2013
Archive of Course-Embedded Research Grant Reports (2nd grant)
After receiving a second five-year grant through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the spring of 2018, the Mellon Initiative began awarding stipends to arts and humanities faculty for
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redesigning lower-division courses that fulfill Pathways requirements by including course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs),
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creating labs for individual or interrelated projects so students with various levels of experience to earn course credit and develop research skills while working with faculty on long-term research projects, and
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develop and implement regionally focused research projects that include opportunities for undergraduate researchers.
The following are a collection of reports from several of these grants.
CUREs
- RELI 1320: Ethical Issues in Religious Studies, Sarah Pinnock, Fall 2019
- COMM 2302-1 & COMM 2302-2: Media Texts, Aaron Delwiche, Spring 2020
- RELI 1360: Religion in the US, Angela Tarango, Spring 2020
- HIST 1360: U.S. History Through Reconstruction, Erin Kramer, Spring 2020
- CLAS 1315: Afterlives of Antiquity, Benjamin Stevens, Fall 2020
- SOCI 130: Introduction to Anthropology, Alfred Montoya, Fall 2020
HUMANITIES LABS
- CLAS 3161/ENG 3161: Early Book and Manuscript Lab, Corrine Pache & Andrew Kraebel, Fall 2019
- HCOMM 3180-1/COMM 3180-1: Healthy Relationships Research Lab, Sarah Erickson & Erin Sumner, Spring 2020
REGIONAL RESEARCH
- Emma Tenayuca and the Language of Protest in South Texas, Jennifer Henderson and Maya Alarcón (‘22)
- A Dynamic Understanding of Family and Mental Health for LGBTQ Youth, Amy Stone and Noelle Barrera (‘21)
- Shakespeare in the Borderlands, Kathryn Santos