Author: Sarah Dwyer

Deadline: May 31, 2023

Thanks to funding from The Duke Endowment, Duke University and Johnson C. Smith University are accepting proposals from faculty at both institutions as part of the Wilhelmina M. Reuben-Cooke Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practices Project. Faculty recipients will serve as Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke Fellows.

Background

Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke was one of the first African American students admitted to Duke University in 1963. She went on to have a distinguished legal career as a lawyer and a law professor. In her personal and professional life, Ms. Reuben-Cook exemplified resilience, leadership and the empowerment of historically excluded communities. The goal of the initiative is to generate collaboration between students and faculty at both Duke University and Johnson C. Smith University that honors Ms. Reuben-Cooke’s legacy.

Themes

We invite proposals from faculty members that engage topics related to issues of social justice, voting rights and/or the public histories of Duke’s and Johnson C. Smith’s campuses and their urban partners. Oral histories, digital storytelling and archival research will be encouraged, with a focus on digital preservation of the projects and stories collected. Digital projects can take the form of digital interactive maps, community storytelling walks and the collection of oral histories in various formats.

The following are encouraged but not required:

• Oral history studies of key figures specific to each university and the communities they inhabit
• An exploration of the life of Wilhelmina Ruben-Cooke and her impact on the higher education landscape
• Historical analysis/archival research on the respective roles of each university in both fomenting and inhibiting social justice
• Digital creation of interactive maps of campus and their communities to be included in orientation classes to allow students to explore the histories of the unheard voices that are key to each campus
• Projects that focus on the histories of social justice and civic engagement in Durham and Charlotte, including the importance of youth voting rights and equitable access to public goods in each community
• Exploration of environmental racism and health disparities. A combined effort with the digital maps to show the impact of these issues is greatly encouraged.

Grant Details

Faculty with relevant curricular and research interests are strongly encouraged to apply, especially those who have had experience with community-based projects and engagement. Each grantee will be required to produce and submit a podcast as well as a 500-word description of their project accomplishments. Both are due at the end of the funding period.

Faculty proposals are encouraged to focus on the dissemination of their findings via scholarly communities, which include but are not limited to conference presentations, performances, gallery-based showings if common in the discipline, and peer-reviewed publications. Faculty will also be required to conduct one podcast interview associated with this project. Information on podcast requirements will be forthcoming as each institution will start their own podcast series surrounding these projects and the collaboration between the institutions. All deliverables are due by the end of the grant period. All final materials and podcasts will be housed on each institution’s individual websites.

Eligibility

All current Duke faculty members and Johnson C. Smith faculty members are eligible to apply. Faculty from these two universities are not expected to work together during this inaugural grant cycle.

Funding and Eligible Types of Expenditures

Grants of up to $10,000 will be awarded. Proposals requests cannot exceed $10,000, and 25% of your proposed budget must be utilized for student funding (e.g., for purchase of books, digital requirements such as software, conference presentations). Faculty will also be allowed to request a research assistant within their proposal (student will be provided a specified stipend amount).

Proposal Requirements

The Provost’s Office uses Formstack to receive applications. You will be asked to provide the following:

1. Your project narrative, outlining how your project focuses on anti-racism/social justice; please articulate your plan, provide a statement of objectives, and note work already completed related to the proposed project, if relevant (maximum word count: 1,000 words)
2. The number of students you intend to include in the project
3. A working title for a future class (to be taught in Fall 2022 or Spring 2023) with a course description, a short summary as to how the project fits into a current class being taught, or how you intend to use this research in a class (current or future) (maximum word count: 500 words)
4. A budget (maximum 1 page) and budget narrative (maximum word count: 500 words)
5. Current CV (maximum 2 pages)

Review Process and Selection Criteria

Applications will be reviewed by a faculty committee of three and will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Fit with the particular themes and project-based foci that are articulated above
• The potential for generating pedagogical and scholarly collaborations between students and faculty of Johnson C. Smith and Duke universities (cross-university collaboration is not expected during this inaugural grant cycle)
• The public benefit to the communities of Durham and/or Charlotte.

Timeline

Submission Instructions

Please submit proposal information by May 31, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. via this Formstack application form.

Contact for Questions

For questions about this funding opportunity, please contact Gunther Peck, professor of history and public policy, Sanford School of Public Policy, at peckgw@duke.edu. For technical questions about the Formstack application, please contact Sheriece T. Smith, administrative assistant, at sheriece.smith@duke.edu.