Funding

WIHR is excited to announce a new funding program for Research Clusters, or interdisciplinary teams, conducting research related to the areas listed below. This funding is designed to encourage and support collaborative, interdisciplinary research in the Humanities. We encourage applicants to view this as seed funding and to think about ways the Research Clusters can serve as an incubator for larger projects in the future (e.g. a special issue of a scholarly journal, edited volumes, digital projects, the establishment of research centers, summer institutes, etc.) in addition to programming (e.g., conferences, workshops, seminars, visiting scholars). Applicants should consider how they can leverage the seed funds to secure external funding.

For 2025-26, we invite applications from Research Clusters which align with one or more of the following themes:
•    Wyoming and Western Humanities
•    Global Humanities
•    Environmental Humanities
•    Public Humanities
•    Digital Humanities

Applicants may also propose a more specific line of research within these broad themes. We are especially interested in clusters that approach this topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and encourage clusters that are working across academic departments and divisions. Funding for research clusters in other areas may be available in future years.

WIHR and REDD will award up to $20,000 per cluster. The number of awards will depend on the number of applications, requested budgets, and the available total funds in WIHR's budget.

Proposals should be submitted by Friday, December 5th at 5 p.m., via InfoReady. WIHR will host a meeting in early November to offer additional information about the Research Clusters and to provide an opportunity for interested faculty to meet potential collaborators. If you have any questions in the meantime, please send them our way! View the full CFP in InfoReady.

In partnership with UW's College of Arts & Sciences, we provide a $1000 scholarship opportunity to undergraduates studying the humanities. Applicants must be full-time undergraduate students within the College of Arts & Scienes and majoring in the humanities. Successful candidates will demonstrate both academic excellence and community involvement during their studies. Applicants must demonstrate a minimum GPA of 3.0 and must provide a short essay on community involvement not to exceed one page. Eligible students should apply through the WyoScholarships portal. Applications are typically due in March, with the winner receiving their award in the subsequent semester.

 

With donor support, we hope to create a scholarship opportunity for graduate students in the near future.

We invite applications for subvention funds to help defray costs of publishing original research with significant humanities content. Funds may be used only for current or upcoming expenses directly related to publication, such as image preparation, permissions, indexing, proofreading, or the like. We will also consider covering open-access fees if the author provides context about a) why the journal or press requires such fees and b) why it is important that they publish in this particular venue. These funds may only be used for publications in not-for-profit presses, journals, or other venues. 

 

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. To apply, submit a contract or communication from the publishing venue stating that the work has been accepted for publication, together with a statement of no longer than one page, including an abstract of the publication, its publishing venue, the status of the publication, a brief budget describing how the funds will be used.

 

Please send questions and applications to humanities@uwyo.edu. Recipients of subventions are requested to forward a copy of the final product (book, article, resource) to WIHR upon publication. Recipients are required to credit the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research in the publication’s acknowledgments.

 

Average award: $750

We invite proposals from UW faculty and staff doing humanities-related work to help support their research travel. These awards are intended to cover the costs of travel—airfare, accommodations, access fees—aimed at conducting research (i.e. data collection, interviews, archival work). You may include materials required to facilitate research travel (data recorder, external hard drive, camera, etc.) as a budget line in a broader proposal, but we will not exclusively fund materials requests.

 

Although preference will be given to funding research travel, we will also consider funding conference travel in this category. In order to receive conference funding, applicants must be presenting research at the conference. Also, they must demonstrate that they do not receive funding for one conference per year from their home department, or that the funding they do receive does not fully cover one conference per year.

 

Applications should include a clear project plan, a description of outcomes/deliverables, and a detailed budget. You must also indicate what (if any) support you receive from elsewhere, whether you have previously received funding from WIHR and, if so, when and what the outcome was.

 

Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria: sophistication of research, feasibility of proposed project/timeline, and relevance to the important issues in the humanities.

 

Deadline: Jan. 15

Maximum award: $2000

We welcome applications for events at which research will be shared: e.g., for bringing in visiting speakers or for book launches if they involve talks/roundtables. Performances, film screenings, etc. will only be funded if they include explicit discussions of craft/research. Events should be open to all interested UW Humanities faculty (and students and community members if appropriate).

 

Funds are awarded on competitive basis; a call for applications will be made approximately every other month during the academic year. Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria: Relevance to important issues in the Humanities; research being shared at the event; clarity of event plan. Applications should include a clear description of the event, its relationship to research in the humanities, and desired outcomes (1-2 pgs.), as well as a detailed budget. We will consider funding space needs, refreshments, honoraria, travel costs for visiting speakers, costs for recording/casting, and other related expenses. Your application should also indicate whether you have applied for WIHR event funding in the past, and if so, how much you received and what the outcome was.

 

Please indicate in your budget if you have funding from other sources and if so, how much.

 

Deadlines: Dec. 1, Feb. 1, April 1

Maximum award: $1000

 

In collaboration with Wyoming Humanities, our state humanities council, we are working on a funding opportunity for community-engaged research involving both UW researchers and community members. Stay tuned!