Funding to Teach Humanities Courses
Call for proposals for Fall 2026
Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program
Proposal deadline:
Mon., November 17, 2025
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 Quarter 2026!
- $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).
NOTE: 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.
To propose a Kaplan Humanities Scholars course
Proposal deadline: Mon., November 17, 2025
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:
Tom Burke
Associate Director, Kaplan Humanities Institute
thomas.burke@northwestern.edu
Questions? Please contact Tom Burke at thomas.burke@northwestern.edu