Forum Public Fellowships

All Regular OU Faculty (Tenured, Tenure-track, and Ranked Renewable Term) are eligible to apply. There are no disciplinary restrictions on applicants as long as the work fits solidly within an artistic/humanistic framework.

Forum Public Fellowships are awarded to projects at all stages of completion, including projects in very nascent phases. In fact, a FPF can be instrumental in developing community collaborative goals in the early design phases of a new project.  

Awardees are able to hold a Forum Public Fellowship during regular teaching semester, or during any paid leave (e.g. while on sabbatical or while being supported by a research grant). Faculty are eligible to receive a Forum Public Fellowship at the same time as other internal funding (and SSHA seed grant, a FIP, JFF. AHFF, or CAS Junior/Senior Faculty Fellowship) as long as the funding supports different stages of the same project; this distinction would need to be made clear in the project proposal. 

Faculty who have received a previous $5000 Forum Grant may apply for a Forum Public Fellowship after an interval of three years from the initial award. (Eg. Forum Grantees during the 2020-2021 academic year are eligible to apply again, but Forum Public Fellows from the 2021-2022 academic year are not).

1. Proposal Content and Format: Proposals must use a font of 11 points or larger. Page margins should be 1” on all four sides. Line spacing must not be smaller than 1.5 lines. Please be certain that you have included all required components, in order. Late or incomplete applications will be disqualified from review.  Proposals should include each of the following components and be submitted as a single PDF file. Email completed applications to humanities.forum@ou.edu
   1. Cover Sheet:  Complete the proposal cover sheet (PDF) and sign. Incorporate a scanned copy of the signed form into your final proposal PDF. 
   2. Project Narrative (3pp. max): Describe the focus of the research/creative work, including its pertinence to the annual Forum theme and its significance to the arts and humanities. 
      • The project narrative should detail the research design and publication plans for the entire project, and clearly describe the portion of the research/write-up/performance that a Forum Public Fellowship would fund. 
      • Include a complete project timeline. 
      • Finally, discuss projected outcomes of both the Forum-funded portion of the research and of the overall research/creative project (including publications, performances, external funding, exhibition, and/or digital materials).
        
      • We are particularly interested in funding portions of larger research/creative projects that clearly articulate a public-facing or community-engaged theme.
      • Up to $3500 of the award may be used to support research-related costs, including a writing stipend. Please see “Proposed Budget” section for details. 
        
   3. Selected Bibliography (1pp. max): Include a selected bibliography for the project narrative.
   4. Proposed Public Project (1 pp. max): In brief, describe the kind of public-facing, community engaged, or community collaborative project that you would like to facilitate. How will this event help to raise public awareness of and/or community buy-in to the kind of research and creative activity done by scholars at OU?
      
      • Projects can include the public presentation of your research, exhibitions of work, public installations, and public readings, or curated performances, with a preference for events that take place off of OU’s campus, including in OKC and rural Oklahoma. 
      • Projects can engage community members instead, hosting a series of consultations with K-12 curriculum designers, web designers, freelance artists, or local stakeholders. We are particularly interested in funding projects that support community collaborative research goals by hosting community discussions and consultations in early stages of research, creative work, and writing design. 
      • Please see this IDEAS page (PDF) for suggested and sample projects. Remember that the Humanities Forum director and staff will work with you individually from conception to execution: acting as your staff to facilitate the logistics and advertising for your event and helping to bring your idea to life.
        
      • In your proposal, be sure to indicate:
        1. How you envision your public project would be organized: including specific participants, locations, and timelines 
           
        2. How your project would benefit the “Public Forum” (at the community, state, regional, or national level). 
           
        3. How this kind of community engagement would benefit your overall research agenda 
           
      • At least $1500 of the award must be used for the public-facing project. Although there are a multitude of creative public-facing ways to use this money (see the IDEAS page), this money may not be used to bring an external scholar to OU’s campus for a public talk. Please see “Proposed Budget” section for details. 
        
   5. Proposed Budget (1 pp. max). Your budget should contain two distinct parts. For each part, indicate how the budget will be allocated. Include a budget justification for each part, and statement of funding history for the project as a whole. See here for a SAMPLE BUDGET (PDF).
      
      • Part 1 (Up to $3500): General research funding. This part of the award may be used to support research-related costs. These research-related costs can include travel to archives or field sites, the purchase of materials/supplies, funding for a summer research assistant, organizing a scholarly workshop/speaker events at OU, a writing stipend, or other costs associated with your work as a scholar in support of your research project from the Project Narrative.
      • Part 2 (At least $1500): Proposed Public Project.  This portion of the funding can be used to stage a public-facing event. It can pay for materials for a public installation or performance, for honorariums to community consultants or performers, for a reception for a public event, for travel to meet with community stakeholders, or any other costs associated with the public, community engaged, or community collaborative scholarship. This portion of funding cannot be taken as a writing stipend. But it can reimburse you for your labor in conducting research for a public-facing installation or the preparation of a lecture for a beyond-OU audience. If appropriate, you can elect use the entire $5000 award in support of your public project. 
        
   6. 2 Page CV
   7. Human Subjects Plan if the work requires IRB

Incorporate each of the seven proposal components into a single pdf and email applications to humanities.forum@ou.edu.

The Forum’s Faculty Advisory Committee will review all proposal materials and select successful applications. Proposals will be evaluated for anticipated contribution of research, impact of public programming, and overall contribution to the forum annual theme. Awardees will be announced at the end of the Spring semester and Forum Public Fellowships start in August and run through the academic year. 

Recipients of the Arts & Humanities Forum Public Fellowships are subject to the following requirements:

• Public Fellows are expected to attend a day-long reading/writing workshop around the Forum theme at the beginning of the academic year
  
• Public Fellows are expected to facilitate a public-facing, community engaged, or community collaborative project/event during the academic year of their award
• Public Fellows are expected to attend all public-facing events hosted by their cohort, as well as other theme-specific activities of the OU Arts & Humanities Forum during their granting year
  
• Public Fellows will work with the Director to produce a short promotional piece about their research for public-facing digital humanities outreach
• Public Fellows will produce a two-page report, submitted to the Forum at the end of the granting period including a summary of expenditures, activities, and outcomes. 
  
• All written publications (whether in hard copy or electronic form) that have benefited from Arts & Humanities funding must acknowledge the support of the OU Arts & Humanities Forum.