Through the generosity of donors to the College of Liberal Arts, the Littlefield Faculty Fellows and Ransom Faculty Fellows programs support outstanding scholarship in COLA, recognizing the many ways such work can have an impact on our students and the broader world. These programs provide support for faculty research and related teaching and public engagement across the college.
Award Cycle: These programs are biennial competitions, to be held in odd-numbered years. The call for applications will occur in the fall semester of each odd-numbered year (fall 2023 being the next one) with a due date to be determined and announced in the call. If funding allows, there may be opportunities to hold the competition in an even-numbered year, and, if so, that would be announced in the fall of that year.
Eligibility: All tenured and tenure-track faculty in COLA are eligible to apply.
- Littlefield Faculty Fellows: Research or scholarship in the areas of economics, government, history, international relations, and global studies, as required by Littlefield gift agreement
- Ransom Faculty Fellows: Research or scholarship in all areas not covered above
- Applicants need not specify which fellowship (Ransom or Littlefield) they are targeting.
- Awards will not typically be allocated to faculty holding research account balances in excess of $50,000, unless a clear plan for spending those resources exists.
- A faculty member can submit only one proposal per year/funding cycle, including collaborative proposals on which they are collaborators
Emphasis on Engagement: The program is intended to support a wide variety of scholarship in the college and to encourage faculty to use that scholarship as the basis for engagements with students or the public, either during the research process or when the work is completed.
Student engagement may take many forms, including but not limited to:
- Developing and offering a class focused on the completed scholarship
- Involving multiple students in the research process, or extensions of the research in a class or internship arrangement
- Redesigning and offering a transformed class that incorporates the new scholarship
- Hosting student discussions/forums built around the scholarship
Public engagement could include, along with many other possible formats:
- A public lecture series related to the scholarship
- Production of videos or podcasts with specific plans for a target audience
- Forums to discuss scholarship or its implications with relevant community members or groups
Award types:
- Seed grants: Support for a new scholarly project with promise and plans for future external funding; applications must include specific plans and a timeline for substantial external funding applications within the next 18 months; funding period 1 year
- Project completion grants: Support for projects that can be completed by the end of the funding period; funding period of 1-2 years
- Team or Collaborative Research: Support for projects that involve faculty in two or more departments (within COLA or across CSUs); funding period of 1-2 years.
Allowed Funding Requests:
- Projects should request a maximum of $20,000 per year in funding, except for GRA positions.
- GRA positions to support research may be requested and are budgeted at a rate of $19,000 per year, plus tuition and fringe. If requested, only minimal additional funding requests beyond the GRA will be considered in that funding year.
- Teaching release awards of up to two courses, spread across two or more semesters, may be requested for faculty normally on 2-2 teaching loads. In this case, funding in the amount of $9,000 per course will be provided to the department for replacement instructors; course releases under this program are available only to faculty with a four course per year teaching load. The $9,000 support per course will count toward the $20,000 award maximum.
- Faculty summer salary will not be funded under this program
- For all award types, applicants may request up to an additional $1,000 to support student or public engagement plans, beyond the direct research support or teaching release funding.
Application Deadline (Fall semester, date TBA): Applications should be submitted to the department chair (or their delegate); Department chairs will forward submissions to the Dean’s office submission portal with a ranking of the departmental submissions, based on the award criteria described below. Funding can begin as early as January.
Applications should be in the form of a single document with the following sections, clearly labeled and adhering to the word count limits noted for each section.
- PART I. Describe the research project or scholarship. What is the fundamental question you will answer, and what is its importance to your field or discipline? What is the expected product (articles, book, or other), including aspirational goals for placement (specific publishers or journals)? How will requested funding directly facilitate progress on the project? (1500 words max)
- PART II. Describe your plans to bring the research process or resulting scholarship to students or to the public beyond academia. (250 words max)
- PART III. Seed grants only. Describe your plans for seeking external funding, including potential funders, submission timing and the amount to be requested from external sources. (200 words max)
- PART IV. Brief budget justification. Describe how any funding requested will be used and how it will support the research. For teaching release grants describe plans (after consultation with your chair) for timing of course releases. (150 words max) Include a spreadsheet listing all requested funding and the total amount requested.
- Part V. CVs. Include CVs for all faculty participants.
Proposals will be reviewed by a committee of COLA faculty and Associate Deans who will make recommendations to the Dean. Award decisions will be based on the quality, creativity, and impact of the scholarship, including a clear and convincing statement of the importance of the project to the broader field (60%); evidence or arguments that the funding or course releases will significantly advance the scholarship, increase chances of grant success for the seed grant awards, or facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration for collaborative awards (30%); and the quality of plans for public or student engagement (10%)
Reporting requirements: Fellows will be required to provide brief reports on the project progress and expenditures at the end of each semester.
For questions, please contact Kaley Aguero at KALEY.AGUERO@austin.utexas.edu.
