A photo collage featuring elements of several arts with a blue mask applied. Left to right: An abstract photo of a dancer, a close-up of sheet music, hands shaping a clay pot, and a silhouetted figure standing next to a camera on a tripod.

AAI Arts & Humanities Grant

We believe that looking at societal problems through the lens of the arts and humanities helps to think through issues, compliments and articulates the work of science and education, and engages diverse perspectives.

The Achievement & Assessment Institute (AAI) is pleased to offer our Arts & Humanities Grant annually. Any tenure track faculty, teaching professor, or multiterm lecturer in a department considered by KU to be in the arts or humanities are eligible to apply.        Certain unclassified academic staff (library or museum, for example) may also be eligible. Our next application period will open in Spring 2024.

The purpose of the grant program is to foster deeper ties between the arts and humanities and the education and social sciences within which most of AAI’s work is focused. We believe that looking at societal problems through the lens of the arts and humanities helps to think through issues, compliments and articulates the work of science and education, and engages diverse perspectives. 

Work in AAI focuses on enhancing educational opportunity; optimizing the well-being of children, youth, and families, creating accessible assessment systems that better support student learning (especially for struggling learners), and creating educational technologies and data systems that support students, teachers, and organizations.

Proposed projects must connect to one of AAI’s areas of focus and there is a requirement that a first activity in any project is a dialogue with staff members within AAI who focus on the area to which the project is connected. There is no need to identify in advance who in AAI will participate in the opening discussion and no requirement that the dialog influence or be reflected in the finished project. We ask that projects be completed within a year from the start of the next semester after award notification (i.e. between January 2024 and January 2025 for this round). 

Any tenure track faculty, teaching professor, or multiterm lecturer in a department considered by KU to be in the arts or humanities is eligible. Certain unclassified academic staff (library or museum, for example) may also be eligible. Contact us regarding the latter. 

Any project that can be completed in one year is eligible. General examples include creation of artwork in any medium, or scholarly analysis through an arts or humanities lens. Proposed projects must connect to one of AAI’s areas of focus. Reviewing the work of our many centers may help to match your focus.

2023 Awardee

Giselle Anatol, interim director of the Hall Center for the Humanities and professor of English, for the project “Imagining Our Futures” Storytelling Game & Art Sessions with AfroRithm Futures Group.

The project involves hosting gamified storytelling and art sessions both on and off campus in 2024 facilitated by the AfroRithm Futures Group, an “Afrofuturist consultancy and storytelling collective,” using their game, Afrorithms From the Future. The storytelling and exploration card game invites players to imagine anti-racist futures together by creating “artifacts” that exist in the imagined futures. The goal of the game is to collectively decide on the best artifact to share with the rest of the “multiverse.” 

AAI ANNOUNCES RECIPIENT OF 2023 ARTS & HUMANITIES GRANT

2022 Awardees  

Ash Wilson, director of the Center for Sexuality & Gender Diversity at KU, and David Mai, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies, were awarded the grant for their project titled “Telling Our Stories.”



The aim of the project is to document queer and trans (QT) voices at KU and in the broader community, with QT students trained on how to interview and film QT staff, faculty and community members.

AAI ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS FOR 2022 ARTS & HUMANITIES GRANT

2021 Awardees  

For the inaugural grant period, two faculty were awarded.



Ryan D. Clifford, Assistant Professor of Design and Visual Communication, was awarded for his RadLab! DIY Youth Creative Workshop Series.



F. María Velasco, Professor of Visual Art, was awarded for her proposed On Our Terms, In Our Own Words project.

AAI ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS FOR 2021 ARTS & HUMANITIES GRANT

 

AAI will cover up to $12,000 for any expenses allowable under university and KU Office of Research guidelines. For example, money might be used to cover summer salary for the faculty member or a course buyout during the year, hiring a student assistant, travel, or materials. Since this is being funded by AAI, a university research center, there will be no indirect charges to be paid out of the grant.

The proposal should be a maximum of five pages, single spaced, with a minimum 1-inch margin on all sides, minimum 11-point font, and page numbers on all pages. The proposal should cover the following and include headers for each part:

  1. Project Description (Description of the project including any products or events that will be the result of the project)
  2. Connection with AAI (How the project connects to the work of AAI)
  3. Importance (Why this project is important to either your field, AAI’s mission, or both)
  4. Qualifications (Why you are qualified to carry out this project)
  5. Budget (If you need help creating the budget, we can provide that.)
  6. Schedule (When you will start and finish and any other key dates)

Requested proposal file type is PDF.

Timelines will be updated once the 2024 application period has been announced in Spring 2024. 

AAI will establish a review committee to evaluate proposals. This committee will include individuals from AAI and its centers, as well as representatives from KU's arts & humanities community. 

Timelines will be updated once the 2024 application period has been announced in Spring 2024. 

AWARD DATES

  • Deadline and Notification Date will be updated once the 2024 application period has been announced in Spring 2024. 

Commitment to Equity

  • AAI is particularly concerned with addressing structural and systemic societal inequities.

  • At the heart of our mission, AAI is dedicated to improving the lives of people in the many communities we serve. To this end we commit to addressing the structural and systemic inequities that prevent marginalized populations from thriving.

  • We strive to create a safe workplace where there is no tolerance for discrimination and harassment.

  • We stand with Black Lives Matter, Indigenous Peoples, the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, and all individuals who are marginalized or oppressed. We join the movement to make KU and the world around us a better place.

Radlab!

View a collection of images from Radlab!, one of two recipients of AAI’s 2021 Arts & Humanities Grant
Framed risographic artwork displayed on a wall in a gridded fashion.
A field of sunflowers.

2023 Awardee

Giselle Anatol, interim director of the Hall Center for the Humanities and professor of English, for the project “Imagining Our Futures” Storytelling Game & Art Sessions with AfroRithm Futures Group.

The project involves hosting gamified storytelling and art sessions both on and off campus in 2024 facilitated by the AfroRithm Futures Group, an “Afrofuturist consultancy and storytelling collective,” using their game, Afrorithms From the Future. The storytelling and exploration card game invites players to imagine anti-racist futures together by creating “artifacts” that exist in the imagined futures. The goal of the game is to collectively decide on the best artifact to share with the rest of the “multiverse.” 

AAI Announces Recipients for 2023 Arts & Humanities Grant
Fraser Hall

2022 Awardees

Ash Wilson, director of the Center for Sexuality & Gender Diversity at KU, and David Mai, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies, were awarded the grant for their project titled “Telling Our Stories.”

The aim of the project is to document queer and trans (QT) voices at KU and in the broader community, with QT students trained on how to interview and film QT staff, faculty and community members.

AAI Announces Recipients for 2022 Arts & Humanities Grant
Framed risographic art pieces hanging on a stone wall.

2021 Awardees

For the inaugural grant period, two faculty were awarded.

Ryan D. Clifford, Assistant Professor of Design and Visual Communication, was awarded for his RadLab! DIY Youth Creative Workshop Series.

F. María Velasco, Professor of Visual Art, was awarded for her proposed On Our Terms, In Our Own Words project.

AAI Announces Recipients for 2021 Arts & Humanities Grant