Deadlines

August 21, 2015 (Friday) for fall 2015 projects
November 6, 2015 (Friday) for winter or spring 2016 projects
February 12, 2016 (Friday) for summer 2016 projects and sabbatical 2016-2017 projects
August 19, 2015 (Friday) for fall 2016 projects

Mellon Digital Humanities Fund Awards

The Mellon Digital Humanities Fund supports Dickinson humanities faculty, including those in the social sciences who use humanistic methods, by funding various types of scholarly activities and projects. For the purposes of the grant we adopt the broad definition of the humanities that is used by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which explains that the humanities includes, but is not limited to, the study and interpretation of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life. Faculty may apply for more than one type of support as part of a single application.

1. Sabbatical Supplement Grants:
   One sabbatical supplement grant per academic year (up to 80% of regular salary) is available to a humanities faculty member who proposes a year of intensive work to develop a project with a significant digital component. This grant is intended to supplement a one-semester sabbatical taken in the usual sabbatical cycle, extending it to a full year.
2. Professional Development, Project Development, or Teaching Project Grants:
   These grants support faculty activity for scholarly or professional development, project development, or teaching projects (new or ongoing). Potential activities under this category might include (but are certainly not limited to): a single course of reassigned time (subject to approval of department chair and Provost), travel and fees for workshops and training programs in digital humanities, travel to digital humanities conferences, travel to meet with collaborators at other institutions, consultation of site-specific materials, and the hiring of external consultants or speakers. The typical award is $1,500 to $3,000, though with sufficient supporting rationale and documentation may go as high as $5,000. Different humanities faculty may apply for individual grants that relate to the same scholarly or teaching project.
3. Summer Student-Faculty Collaboration Grants:
   These grants support projects in any aspect of digital humanities that engage a student and faculty member as collaborators over the summer in a significant digital project, collaborative research activity, scholarly project, or development of a digitally-based pedagogical approach. The project should aim to result in a sustainable web site, a peer-reviewed publication, presentation, exhibition, performance, or other scholarly output. Both the student and faculty role must be substantial at every stage of the project, and the faculty member should be present to supervise, guide, and mentor the student. Projects take place in the summer when there is enough time for students and faculty to focus in a concentrated way on a shared project. They usually last 8 weeks, but in some circumstances may be shorter. Funding includes a faculty stipend, student stipend, and student campus housing.
4. Grants for Databases, Materials, and Supplies:
   These grants cover material costs associated with digital projects, such as databases, software applications, subscriptions, or other supplies. The typical award is around $1,500 to $3,000, though with sufficient supporting rationale and documentation may go as high as $5,000.
5. Academic Year Student-Faculty Collaboration Grants “Digital Danas”:
   These grants support projects in any aspect of digital humanities that engage a student and faculty member as collaborators during the academic year in a significant digital project or the development of a digitally-based pedagogical approach. The project should aim to result in a sustainable web site, a peer-reviewed publication, presentation, exhibition, performance, or other scholarly output. Both the student and faculty role must be substantial at every stage of the project, thought the student role may not be as substantial as it would be in a summer project. The faculty member should be present to supervise, guide, and mentor the student. The student will normally be paid to work for the duration of a single 14-week semester (not including final exam week), between 8 and 10for a maximum of 8 hours per week. Grants for two-semester collaborations will also be considered. It is highly recommended that faculty seek out students who have participated in the Digital Boot Camp, or encourage students with whom they wish to work to participate in the Boot Camp ahead of time. The pay rate for Digital Danas is the same as that for other Dana Research Assistantships. For AY 2014-15 that rate is $7.55 per hour. Additional costs include 7.65% of total wages for FICA/MEDI. Students are paid for the hours that they work, and they are responsible for submitting that information to the Payroll Office via Banner.

Eligibility & Award Criteria

Who Can Apply?

All Dickinson humanities faculty are eligible to apply, including untenured, tenured, emeriti, and temporary faculty. Applications are encouraged from faculty in all humanities disciplines and those in social science disciplines using humanistic methods.

What Criteria Are Used to Determine Funding?

The broad intent of these grants is to enhance research, teaching, and learning at the College by the intelligent use of digital tools in humanities fields. Digital tools have the capacity to broaden access to scholarly knowledge and ideas, to facilitate scholarly collaboration and communication across fields and between institutions, and to improve teaching and learning. In our view these related goals can best be accomplished by faculty-driven and student-focused projects that meet the following three criteria as closely as possible:

1. Projects should enhance the capabilities of faculty and students for research, scholarship, or creative work, and carry real benefits for both the student and the faculty member.
2. Projects should benefit the curriculum, the wider campus community, and the scholarly community more generally by advancing digital humanities as a tool for research, teaching, and learning.
3. Projects should foster interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration in order to promote the impact, usefulness, and sustainability of the final product. In particular the committee hopes to see projects that involve collaboration with larger research institutions whose people and resources can be leveraged to improve, broaden, and sustain useful digital projects in the long term.

Application Details

For the convenience of faculty DHAC attempts to keep the application processes consistent with the practices of the Dickinson R&D committee as much as possible, and will use existing R&D application forms and reporting requirements (see below).

To apply, please follow these steps:

1. Complete the R&D application form cover sheet that corresponds most closely to the type of funding you are seeking, for example:

• sabbatical supplement grants: use “Sabbatical Support”
• professional development/project development: use “Scholarly/Creative Projects”
• summer student-faculty research: use “Student-Faculty Research”
• academic year student-faculty assistants: use “Dana Research Assistantships.”
• workshops/training opportunities: use “Conference and Travel Funds”

2. Write body of proposal: Write a brief (not more than 2–3 pages) description of the project. In the case of larger grants (Sabbatical supplements and Student-faculty research) a longer description of up to 5 pages is justifiable and desired by DHAC to get a full sense of the project. This description should include:

• nature of the problem or opportunity and goals for the project
• project plan: methodology, research design, strategy
• schedule of the project
• anticipated outcome of the project

3. Prepare a budget: Prepare a one-page budget for the project using the budget worksheet (which is included with the R&D application cover sheet).

4. Submit Forms, Proposal, and a Curriculum Vitae to the Digital Humanities Advisory Committee via email dhac@dickinson.edu before the specified deadline, as email attachments. Enter “DHAC PROPOSAL” in subject line; attach only Microsoft format documents, please.

For more information contact: Chris Francese, Director, Digital Humanities Advisory Committee Department of Classical Studies, EC 110 francese@dickinson.edu 717 245-1202.

Requirements for Award Recipients

For all DHAC awards you must submit within a month of the completion of the project:

• a final report to the chair of the committee via email (dhac@dickinson.edu). In this report, include the following: 1) A summary of the research completed, including methods and results; 2) The actual activities of the student researcher; 3) The potential long-term benefits to the student of the completed project; 4) Bibliographic citations of publication(s), presentation(s) or performance(s) resulting from this project, with actual or expected dates; 5) Total number of hours worked by student for the year; 6) And an outline of any future plans, if applicable.
• Additionally, it is now required that the student attach to the final report a brief commentary (500 words max.) stating what they accomplished as well as what they learned from this experience.
• original receipts for all expenses to Patricia Contino (Office of FInancial Affiars, Global & Sponsored Programs, Old West, 3rd floor, 717.254.8993, continop@dickinson.edu), along with an R&D Detail Worksheet/Expense Form.

Original receipts are required for all out-of-pocket expenses; copies of credit-card statements do not constitute valid receipts. Please note: As soon as your grant has been approved and you have received a DHAC award letter, you may use this form to be reimbursed for expenses you paid prior to any travel associated with your grant, such as registration and airfare. (Please complete reimbursement for expenses in 1 or 2 transactions per grant.)

Updated 11/22/2014