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Call for Proposals

Our Call for Proposals is now closed. The deadline was March 25, 2024 for 2024-25 activities. The next CFP will open Feb. 17, 2025.

Through its Working Group model, our consortium of 11 regional universities and colleges:

  • Cultivates collaborative research, teaching, and programming on virtually any theme, discipline, or issue in the humanities
  • Builds and widens your intellectual community
  • Advances your academic research and professional development

The Corridor’s annual grant-style funding can help support:

  • Convening your working group
  • Compensating expert facilitators for writing retreats or specialized workshops
  • Hosting book talks, lectures, symposia – the potential is limitless!

Who Can Apply?

Faculty and academic staff from:

  • Colgate University
  • Cornell University
  • Hamilton College
  • Hobart and William Smith Colleges
  • Le Moyne College
  • Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Skidmore College
  • St. Lawrence University
  • Syracuse University
  • Union College
  • University of Rochester

What is a Working Group?

  • Two or more individuals from our consortium in different locales organize activities centered on a theme, concern, or issue in the humanities.
  • Groups apply for funding to support their academic year collaborations.
  • Many existing Groups are open to new members, and proposals for New Working Groups are always welcome.
  • All groups are expected to explain how their collaborative work contributes to the humanities, provide strong funding rationales, and to rotate awards across Corridor locations and host institutions over time.

What can be funded?

  • A variety of activities and collaborations!
  • Browse our models of collaboration for examples of what's possible.
  • View our Guidelines explaining how proposals are evaluated.
  • Current and past activities can also be viewed on our Calendar.

Proposal Categories + Funding Levels

Groups may submit one proposal per Working Group during each CFP period in the following categories:

  1. New Working Group: Funding up to $3,000 in the first year.
  2. Continuing Working Group: Funding up to $7,000 for the academic year, not to exceed $4,000 per activity.
  3. Signature Event: Funding up to $12,000 toward a high-impact, public event involving three or more Corridor institutions. Eligibility requires Working Groups to have been active and in good standing for at least two years. (Groups cannot receive Signature Event funding in consecutive years.)

Additional funds to support accessibility are available above and beyond these award levels. In the proposal, provide a clear rationale with projected costs for any anticipated accommodation services.

How Do Working Groups "Work?" What's Required?

  • Organizers: Each Working Group needs faculty/staff Organizers from two or more Corridor institutions.
    • At least one must be from Cornell University, Syracuse University, or the University of Rochester;
    • Organizers cannot all be from one Corridor locale (i.e., all Syracuse-based or all Rochester-based).
    • Graduate students cannot be Organizers but may participate in Working Group activities.  
  • Proposing and Hosting Activities: Organizers collaborate to propose, plan, and host activities that contribute to the humanities. Every activity needs a host campus and a designated Organizer from that host campus (even if remote format). Your Working Group funding is tied to the host campus specified for each awarded activity.
  • Each New Group selects a Research Cluster for their work: Archives & Media (AM); Digital Humanities (DH); Historical Studies (HS); Humanities Futures (HF); Inequality & Social Difference (ISD); Linguistics, Semiotics, and the Study of Language (LIN); Literature, Language & Culture (LLC); Musicology / Performance Studies (MP); Philosophy/Critical Theory (PCT); or Visual Arts & Culture (VAC).

Want to Apply?

Contact Us:

If you have questions about this process or need guidance on how to carry out your ideas within Corridor frameworks, email the Corridor at CNYHumanities@syr.edu.