Idea Pitch Day

***repost from CARAT***

Dear CAHSS faculty member,

We invite you to submit a proposal to be nominated for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program competition, sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York. Details are below.

The purpose of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is to support high-caliber scholarship in the social sciences and humanities. The 2025 program expects to provide fellowships of $200,000 to 30 exceptional scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals. The funding is for a period of one or two years, with the anticipated result being a book or major study.
UMBC may nominate two scholars for the competition: one "senior" and one "junior." The senior scholar must be tenured. The junior scholar must have received their terminal degree in the last 10 years (2014-2024, for this round).
Please note that Andrew Carnegie Fellowships are open only to citizens or permanent residents of the United States.
The 2025 call is on the theme of political polarization in the United States. Studies of polarization in other countries will be welcomed, providing they offer lessons that can be applied to the United States. Please keep in mind that Carnegie seeks projects that will be written to communicate with a broad audience. You may find it useful to browse the projects that were awarded last year since the theme (political polarization in the U.S.) is unchanged.

If you are interested in being considered for the internal competition, please EMAIL the following application materials to: Carnegi.bs0ulrhjc4r5p385@u.box.com by 5 pm EST on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. We urge you to contact Rachel Brubaker (rbruba1@umbc.edu), CARAT Associate Director, as soon as possible to discuss your proposal.

Your application materials must include:

A 3-5 page, double-spaced prospectus describing the project, including a projected work plan and approximate time frame. Fellowships will be for 12 or 24 months and must begin on the first of the month between June and September of 2025, and no later than September 1, 2025. Note that the Carnegie program allows flexibility in how you manage your time commitment. You may opt for a regular fellowship leave, or decide to teach part-time during the semester while working full-time on your project during the summer.
Curriculum vitae
Estimate of budgetary requirement. Funds may support: salary and fringe benefits, project-related travel (research, conferences), research assistants (hourly or stipend), other project needs (i.e., data collection, surveys, transcription, project supplies, consultant, contractual service/s, etc.).

The Dean's Office will review the applications and select one or two scholars to recommend to the President as UMBC’s nominee(s) by October 23rd. The nominee(s) will work with CARAT (specifically, Rachel Brubaker) to complete the full application process and to forward materials to the President’s Office by November 1st. Nominees must submit their applications to the Carnegie Corporation of New York by November 08, 2024 (5:00 P.M. EST).

The Carnegie jury will evaluate nominations by the following criteria:

Originality and promise of the idea
Quality of the proposal
Promise to offer means to reduce harmful polarization or to enhance social cohesion
Record of the nominee
Plans to communicate findings to a broad audience

For additional questions, please contact Associate Dean Preminda Jacob, pjacob2@umbc.edu, or Rachel Brubaker, rbruba1@umbc.edu.