ALICE KAPLAN INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES

Funding for New Humanities Courses

Call for proposals

New Opportunities for Teaching in the Humanities 2025-2026

Proposal deadline: December 6, 2024

• Global Humanities Lab
• Humanities Explorations
• Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program (scroll to the bottom of the page for details)

Here are details about proposing a Global Humanities Lab or Humanities Explorations course:

Global Humanities Lab

• Coverage of costs for students and faculty associated with the course trip and related course enhancement
• $4,000 course development stipend for each faculty member plus a per diem for the duration of the trip
• Administrative, creative, and leadership support for trip planning and execution

You can view past offerings of the Global Humanities Lab at https://humanities.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/global-humanities-lab/

Humanities Explorations

Humanities Explorations courses are team-taught interdisciplinary courses that prioritize bringing non-humanities and humanities disciplinary approaches and subject matters together. Faculty whose course is selected for the Humanities Explorations will receive:

• $5,000 for course enhancement (extra materials, field trips)
• $3,000 course development stipend for each faculty member
• Administrative, creative, and leadership support for field trips

To propose a Global Humanities Lab or Humanities Exploration course

Proposal deadline: December 6, 2024

Your proposal should consist of no more than two pages and should include the following:

• Course title, number in the home department(s), instructor(s)
• A description of the course, its disciplinary and thematic approach, and learning goals
• Permission from your Chair or Dean
• Additional for Global Humanities Lab proposals: Please include a brief plan and proposed budget for the international or domestic trip associated with the course

Submit proposals to:

Questions? Please contact Laura Brueck at hum.director@northwestern.edu

Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program

Proposal Deadline: December 6, 2024

Would you like to co-teach an interdisciplinary course in the humanities?

Is there a colleague in another department with whom you’ve always wanted to teach?  

If so, please consider teaching in the Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program (KHSP) in Fall 2025!

• $6,000 course development stipend for each instructor
  
• $7,000 course enhancement fund
  
• Administrative, creative, and leadership support
  

KHSP is a selective program in which some of the brightest and most eager first-year students are given the opportunity for an intensive experience tackling a broad humanistic theme from multiple perspectives as they enter Northwestern. Faculty who have taught in KHSP have described it as some of the most rewarding experiences of their careers.

The program offers an exciting and unusual opportunity for faculty members to co-teach with people beyond their own area of specialty and to use course enrichment funds to bring in speakers or to take field trips in the area.

Kaplan Humanities Scholars courses: 

• are part of your regular teaching load, and the first-year seminar counts toward your department’s required contributions to the program;
• comprise a pair of concurrent, team-taught courses (a lecture course combined in the same quarter with a first-year seminar) on an interdisciplinary topic in the humanities;
• have different subthemes under the broad rubric “Humanities in the World.” Topics have included: Oil and Water in the Gulf of Mexico; Drugs: Culture/History/Politics; Alternative Americas; Science Fiction and Detective Literature in the Global South; Genocide and Renewal; Great Migrations, Folk Life, and the Chicago Renaissance; and Islands
• can be two-person versions of courses that faculty have taught in teams of three in KHSP in the past.

The classes meet four days a week during fall quarter, 3:30 to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday. We are seeking teams of two collaborating faculty members, ideally from different disciplines or those who traverse across different subjects (geography, culture, approach, and/or historical period).

To propose a Kaplan Scholars course

Proposal Deadline: December 6, 2024

Your proposal should include:

• A brief description of the course
• Names of instructors
• Sample readings/media
• Sample course enhancement ideas
• Permission from your Chair or Dean

Submit proposals to:

Lina Britto
Coordinator, Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program
Associate Professor, Department of History
lina.britto@northwestern.edu

Questions? Please contact Lina Britto at lina.britto@northwestern.edu.

If you would like to teach in the program but aren’t sure about what other faculty might be appropriate for the courses you imagine, please don't hesitate to reach out to discuss possibilities. We may even be able to help play matchmaker if you have a topic but not a co-instructor.