Deadline: April 4, 2025

The John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) seeks proposals from graduate student-led working groups organized around topics of cross-disciplinary concern in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences. We are especially interested in projects that relate to our projected 2025-26 Annual Theme, the Future of Critical Thought, as well as ongoing FHI projects such as Entanglement (on race, health, and climate), Black Archives, and our Humanities Labs.

To be eligible for an award, a group needs to be convened by two or more PhD students in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences. Conveners may also include MFA (e.g. in Experimental and Documentary Arts, Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis) and MA students (e.g. in Critical Asian Humanities, Digital Art History). Group members may include faculty, staff, and other constituencies, but conveners should be graduate students.

There is no prescribed format for FHI Grad Working Groups. The format of past and present Graduate Working Groups have varied depending on the need of each group and its conveners. For example, many operated as reading groups, invited guest speakers, or had group members present their own work to each other. We are open to supporting any format that suits your collective intellectual interests.

If selected, working groups will receive up to $2,000 in financial support. Funds may be used for meeting expenses (including meals), guest speaker travel and honoraria, books/media/other shared materials. Groups are eligible to apply for supplemental funding from the FHI, if members decide, for example, to stage an event that exceeds the standard $2,000 budget – please note however that additional financial support cannot be guaranteed in advance.

Current FHI GWGs are welcome to apply.

To apply, please complete this online form by Friday, April 4, 2025 (https://duke.is/gwg-25-26). You will be asked to provide the following:

  • Basic information and CV (1-2 pages) for each co-convener
  • A brief description (maximum 3000 characters or ~500 words) of the Working Group’s intellectual project. In addition to describing the WG topic, please include brief discussions of the group’s likely format (e.g. reading group meetings, viewing/listening sessions, speaker visits, etc.) as well as your sense of who will likely be interested in participating. For current GWGs applying for a second year, please comment on your work this year and how you envision the project growing in the future.
  • A simple, preliminary budget proposal: note that you are not required to ask for the maximum $2,000 if that is not necessary

Questions? Email FHI Associate Director christina.chia@duke.edu and FHI Program Coordinator michael.pascual@duke.edu.