Call for Applications: 2024 Anti-Racism Research & Community Impact Faculty Fellowship

The National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) is home to the Anti-Racism Collaborative (ARC), a strategic space created to facilitate University of Michigan (U-M) community engagement around research and scholarship focused on racial inequality, racial justice, and anti-racist praxis. The ARC supports a variety of activities to catalyze innovation in research and scholarship, as well as informed practice, public engagement, and action to advance anti-racist principles and organizing. The Collaborative was created to recognize, honor, spotlight, and elevate the work of our current research community related to racism and racial justice. 

In May and December 2021, we convened a series of conversations with intergenerational, multidisciplinary groups of scholars at the U-M to garner feedback on future directions of the recently launched Anti-Racism Collaborative (ARC), learn about the ongoing needs and challenges faced by U-M faculty whose research/scholarship centers issues of race and racial justice, and to build community and a sense of shared purpose. Across the various conversations, several themes emerged around how the ARC can address the specific needs of anti-racism scholars and to support them and their scholarship. These recommendations included:

• Provide resources to support faculty engagement in racism-related research/scholarship, particularly among junior faculty;
• Ensure that anti/racism and racial justice research is valued – as reflected in disciplinary and institutional structures and recognition/reward systems;
• Support and recognize engaged work with communities – including the the commitment, disposition, skill, and time required to successfully engage and to connect/integrate academia and working with marginalized, under-resourced communities; and
• Protect time for working with community partners and/or preparing anti-racist curricula.

The 2024 Anti-Racism Research & Community Impact Faculty Fellowship will provide instrumental support to early career faculty to advance their anti-racism scholarship in ways that can lead to successful tenure/promotion AND support their efforts to utilize their expertise to fight systemic racism through policy advocacy, practice, teaching, and/or community partnerships. While our interest in power relationships that perpetuate white supremacy is foundational to the call, we welcome projects grounded in broad perspectives on anti-racism, prior to and in parallel with the concept’s current popularity.

We are seeking applications from early career faculty (defined as pre-tenure or, for those not in tenure track appointments, within 8 years of receiving their PhD) for projects that do not easily meet the criteria of traditional funding sources for research and scholarship but are critical to supporting a scholar’s work in the academy as well as in dismantling systemic racism. Projects should align with the vision, mission, and priorities of the NCID’s Anti-Racism Collaborative.

We recognize anti-racism scholarship as not only consisting of knowledge production and scholarly inquiry, but also requiring community- and public engagement in ways that may challenge and operate beyond the parameters of tradition.

Such work may include (but is not limited to):

• Investing time to cultivate community relationships
• Writing pieces for public audiences
• Developing new and innovative pedagogical materials
• Using academic expertise to develop tools that impact policy or enhance community capacity and resources to fight systemic racism.

• The fellowship will provide early career faculty with one summer ninth of salary, up to $7,500 in project funds (to be expended in accordance with policies and procedures for your respective school/college, department and U-M), and $5,000 for student support. 
• Funds may be used for a new project or to support an ongoing project.
• We will fund up to 5-6 projects starting Spring 2024 for a one-year grant period.
• Fellows will be invited to participate in NCID/ARC activities to amplify their work and support their professional development.
• At the end of the grant period, fellows are expected to submit a final report summarizing progress and outcomes as related to their proposed project narrative, as well as how funds were used. We request acknowledgement of the sponsorship of NCID’s Anti-Racism Collaborative on any publication(s) and/or deliverables resulting from the funded project.

Successful project narratives will address the following (using no more than 5 single-spaced pages, excluding references, tables or figures, or attachments):

1. Proposed scope of work (project) that this funding will support and projected objectives, deliverables, one-year timeline, and budget.
2. Address how this project fits into your program of scholarship and broader anti-racism work.
3. Projected impact of this project, including how this project aligns with the ARC’s vision, mission, and priorities.
4. Other funding sources you have attempted to attain or the limitations of currently existing sources of funding in your field for this work. Please include any other sources of summer salary for the PI.

Please also include an updated CV.

Applications will be accepted via InfoReady and are due by Friday, March 22, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET. We anticipate announcing decisions by the end of April 2024 with funds to be disbursed to departmental shortcodes in May 2024.

Funds will be transferred to a specified project grant within the fellow’s home department. The recipient is responsible for coordinating with NCID staff and their home department to arrange for good stewardship of the funds. Recipients must adhere to any applicable policy and procedures established by their school/college, department, and the University. All activities must be done in accordance with any COVID-related spending restrictions at the time of the project.

Applicants who receive funding must submit a two-page final report within 30 days of the end of the funding period (report template will be provided) and any grant funds that are unused by the end of the grant period must be returned to NCID within 90 days to allow time for financial reconciliation processes to be completed. Any changes in budget items or project period must first be approved by the NCID.

We welcome discussion with interested early career faculty about the goals of this fellowship and potential project ideas. Please email Alford Young, Jr., ARC faculty director, at arc-faculty-director@umich.edu.