Research, Pedagogy, and Engagement for a World on the Move
With support from the Mellon Foundation Just Futures Initiative and Global Cornell, the Migrations initiative invites proposals for four separate competitions:
- Interdisciplinary Team Research Grant
- Small Research Collaboration Grant
- Course or Curriculum Development Grant
- Community Engagement Grant
We seek proposals that center the connections between racism, dispossession, and migration in interdisciplinary, innovative, and impactful ways. The Migrations initiative will also support work that either adds or focuses on multi-species and international aspects of migrations.
1. Interdisciplinary Team Research Grant
Funding Priorities
We expect to fund up to four proposals, which can be focused on one of three thematic areas:
- Authority, Governance, and Racial Injustice
- Climate, Dispossession, and Natural and Built Environments
- Trafficking, Displacement, and the Right to Stay Home
Competitive proposals will bring together Cornell’s strength of building innovative approaches to address cutting-edge questions around racism, dispossession, and migration through multiple and relatively disparate fields. Research teams will convene meetings with university and community partners, co-designing and executing projects and discussing/disseminating results. Teams will advance research on relevant migration topics from an interdisciplinary perspective—especially humanistic—elevating antiracist and anticolonial research approaches. We are especially interested in advancing efforts leading to emerging collaborations with outside funders and supporting working groups both in and beyond academia across the themes. Teams will be invited to disseminate their work via seminars, workshops, social media, and academic and public writing.
Funds can be used for a range of national and international research expenses, including but not limited to: up to $90,000 for graduate student and post-doctoral fellowships, as well as up to $60,000 for summer salary, workshops, data-gathering, travel and communication, and publication costs. Funds may not be used for computers and student tuition.
We are interested in proposals that
- Demonstrate a clear interdisciplinary perspective and articulate why the project theme (either focusing on dispossession-racism-migration or focusing on multi-species and international aspects of migrations) likely cannot be investigated adequately using a single disciplinary lens.
- Have a team led by co-principle investigators that come from at least two colleges or departments on campus.
- Prioritize the formation of a sustainable research team whose work is likely to extend beyond the grant period, and result in multiple, high-impact publications and/or opportunities for real-world change related to relevant migration topics.
- Lead to emerging collaborations with outside funders and supporting working groups both in and beyond academia across the themes.
- Provide research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, as well as postdoctoral fellows.
- Generate new knowledge that addresses cutting-edge questions around racism, dispossession, and migrations as well as around multi-species and international aspects of migrations as identified in the Migrations Taskforce Report.
- Conform to the highest academic standards.
2. Small Research Collaboration Grant
Funding Priorities
We expect to award up to five grants to provide pilot funding to leverage new or emerging collaborations with outside organizations, collaborators, or funders. Strong projects will relate to one of the three thematic areas listed above.
Funds can be used for data gathering, workshops and meetings, travel, and student assistance. Funds may not be used for salary offset or summer salary, computers, and student tuition.
We are interested in proposals that
- Provide seed funding for the preparation of external funding requests that show high potential for continued funding for research on racism, dispossession, and migrations as well as on multi-species and international aspects of migrations beyond the grant period or support the advancement of existing high impact research initiatives.
- Build on existing strengths at Cornell University while extending work on racism, dispossession, and migration as well as on multi-species and international aspects of migrations into new areas or collaborations.
- Advance research on racism, dispossession, and migrations as well as on multi-species and international aspects of migrations by junior faculty.
- Create networks and platforms for the study of racism, dispossession, and migrations as well as for the study of multi-species and international aspects of migrations that facilitate connection among scholars from across the university and from around the world.
- Have long-term, discernible benefits to the study of racism, dispossession, and migrations as well as for the study of multi-species and international aspects of migrations.
- Conform to the highest academic standards.
3. Course or Curriculum Development Grant
Funding Priorities
We expect to fund up to three proposals for one year, with courses expected to launch the following year. We seek to build a transformative new curriculum co-developed with scholars and community partners that exposes the role of racism, dispossession, and migration in the academy while working towards racial and immigrant justice on campus and beyond. Funding will support initiatives that advance an interdisciplinary "pedagogy beyond borders" based in multiple sites within and beyond New York State. Proposals should include collaborative, interactive, and reflective pedagogy with local community members, including migrants, refugees, and communities of color (including Black people, native peoples, Latinxs, Asian Americans, and other diasporas). Applicants are encouraged to directly address the role of racism, dispossession, and migration in the university's history and higher education more generally.
Funds can be used for salary offset or summer salary (up to $20,000) as well as for other course related expenses including travel, student assistants, interns, and community partners' time (up to $10,000). Funds may not be used for computers and student tuition. Additional funding will be available for student fellowships for internships and research projects.
We are interested in proposals that
- Use a collaborative, interactive, and reflective pedagogy.
- Are co-developed and create new partnerships with community partners focusing on racism, dispossession, and migrations.
- Advance an interdisciplinary "pedagogy beyond borders" based in multiple sites within and beyond New York State.
- Generates a transformative new curriculum that exposes the role of racism, dispossession, and migration in the academy and can be launched in the following year.
- Have long-term and discernible benefits addressing racial and immigrant justice on campus and beyond.
- Conform to the highest academic standards.
4. Community Engagement Grant
Funding Priorities
We seek to support inclusive and participatory collaborations with community partners dedicated to applying research and/or pedagogy to further positive social justice or impact. We will fund four to eight proposals for one year.
With this work, we seek to support migrant rights and representation in public discourse. Proposals should include cross-disciplinary research and learning teams working towards artistic, policy, and technological innovations that will improve the lives of racialized minorities and migrants in an era when rights and public benefits are under attack. Team participants will come together with community partners to work on tangible products to benefit society. We aim to support collective learning strategies such as those that deploy public art, social media, podcasts, and other rich digital content for students. This public engagement should break down elite university spaces via interactive art installations, open-access media projects, or co-designed practical applications. These community-oriented projects will highlight the university's historical and contemporary role in facilitating racism, dispossession, and migration while developing useful tools for accountability and redress.
Funds can be used for collaborators' salaries, materials, communication, programming, interns, and travel.
We are interested in proposals that
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Have cross-disciplinary and participatory research and learning teams with U.S. community partners.
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Develop collective learning strategies, such as those that deploy public art, social media, podcasts, and other rich digital content for students.
- Support migrant rights and representation in public discourse in the U.S.
- Develop artistic, policy, and technological innovations and tangible products that will improve the lives of racialized minorities and migrants in the U.S.
- Develop useful tools for accountability and redress given the university's historical and contemporary role in facilitating racism, dispossession, and migration.
- Have long-term and discernible benefits addressing racial and immigrant justice on campus and beyond.
- Conform to the highest academic standards.
Application Process
Eligibility:
All PI-eligible faculty are able to apply (including tenured, tenure-track, professors of practice, senior research associates, and clinical-track faculty), as are faculty-led programs and centers within the university, irrespective of their college or school. We are particularly encouraging underrepresented, junior, and female faculty to apply.
How to Apply:
- All applications and supporting materials must be submitted electronically via Qualtrics
- All proposals must be submitted by Cornell faculty who are PI-eligible
- The completed application must be received by the application deadline of April 25, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Applicants will be informed of their funding status no later than May 31.
Proposals must include:
- Description of the proposed project:
- Title, background, objectives, activities, outputs, and impacts (maximum of three pages for all grants, except for team research grants which can be five pages).
- PDF format, single-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins.
- The proposal should be free of disciplinary jargon so that its significance and contribution towards advancing research on migrations (i.e., the movement of people, plants, and animals) can be easily evaluated by faculty reviewers representing diverse disciplines.
- CVs of the applicant(s) and key collaborators in PDF format (maximum of two pages for each individual)
- Research approvals (IRB, IADCUC, etc.) are not required for proposal submission but are required to accept an award or receive funds.
- Detailed budget with justification of expenses (budget template)
- We cannot accept research proposals from recipients of 2020 Migration initiative grants whose projects are still in progress. Faculty are still able to apply for curriculum or engagement grants.
Awardee Responsibilities:
- Participate in occasional Migrations initiative events, including presenting at one research seminar during the grant period
- Submit annual grant reports and a final report using a provided template
- At the end of the grant cycle, prepare a press release announcing your results (in coordination with Global Cornell communication staff)
- Acknowledge the Cornell University Migrations Global Grand Challenge and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in all project products (reports, publications, presentations, etc.) that were made possible, in whole or in part, through this grant.
Questions?
Please direct any questions about the grants or the application process to migrations@global.cornell.edu.
Cornell Migrations and the Mellon Just Futures Initiative
Slavery, colonization, Indigenous dispossession, and war have driven migration and other patterns of racial violence, urban segregation, and health disparities. Funded teams will bring together expertise from multiple disciplines, temporal periods, and geographic scales to analyze the many intersections and implications of racism, dispossession, and migration.