Public Humanities Grants

The Center for the Humanities has allocated funding to support public humanities events that involve collaboration between a Humanities Center Faculty member and a member or members of the Des Moines area community.

Applicants may apply for up to $1,000 to offset the costs associated with mounting and publicizing the event. Faculty and community collaborators may also use up to $500 of the grant for honoraria of up to $250 each for collaborators.

Proposed programs should be intended to appeal to a broad non-expert public and should combine the expertise of the faculty member(s) and that of the community member(s) involved. They should take place in non-Drake venues suitable for public programming, and should, with some rare exceptions, be made free and open to the public.

Possible events include, but are not limited to, gallery talks and exhibitions; lecture-performance; humanities-related practical demonstrations (such as cooking, sustainable gardening, artmaking); workshops; colloquia and panel discussions; debates; and film showings.

While the Board welcomes all proposals, it will be prioritizing individual/collaborative research over other activities and programming. 

Deadline

The Board will meet on the first Friday of each month in the Fall and Spring semesters. Please submit funding requests one week in advance of any given meeting, to ensure consideration. In general, requests for retroactive funding will not be considered, but faculty may inquire with the Director if extenuating circumstances arise.

Managing Expeditures

The Center for the Humanities requires funding recipients and Center-supported program/event organizers to observe Drake University accounting guidelines. The University's tax-free status depends upon uniform observance of these guidelines. Expenses incurred in contravention of these guidelines will not be reimbursed. For more information, please read our grant management page.

Reporting

Recipients of funding from the Center for the Humanities are asked to provide reports on the impact and effect of the activities funded.

Acknowledging the Center

The Center’s support must be acknowledged in the published work and, when possible, in announcements, presentations, and publicity materials connected to it. Please see the acknowledgments page for examples of appropriate formulations of acknowledgment.

Apply

To apply, please email your application and CV as attachments to humanities.center@drake.edu. The first two items in all applications should be (1) the amount requested and (2) the budget breakdown for the amount requested. We will also eagerly read about your project's details, timeline, and its importance to the Humanities at Drake and beyond, but we can only approve requests that include a total amount requested and a budget breakdown.