Since 2012, the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has advanced multiple forms of international, collaborative research designed to foster new knowledge and new networks. Building upon the first phase of this project (2012-2017), in which 26 member centers and institutes contributed to four distinct projects, and with the support of a new grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CHCI launched, in 2017, the Global Humanities Institutes, a new program for a second generation of international collaboration. In the first phase of this new initiative, CHCI selected two pilot projects, now involving 10 centers and institutes from all parts of the world that will convene two Institutes in the summer of 2019—one on the “Challenges of Translation” to be held in Santiago, Chile, the other on “Crises of Democracy” in Dubrovnik, Croatia. This year, we invite humanities centers and institutes around the world to propose their own themes for the next round of CHCI Global Humanities Institutes, building on the insights of our developing pilots to plan and host Institutes for the summer of 2020. We expect to fund one or two additional Institutes in this phase.

What are CHCI Global Humanities Institutes?

CHCI Global Humanities Institutes are multi-year projects devoted to a research theme, method, practice, or problem in the humanities that would benefit directly from a sustained international and collaborative approach. CHCI will support a team of scholars representing three or four humanities centers or institutes, preferably located in three different world regions to develop a research program and models for collaborative work in the humanities. The heart of each collaboration will be an in-person meeting (a summer or winter institute), flexible in format, that will last approximately two weeks and include both members of the convening research team (up to three scholars from each of the core institutions) and 10-15 additional participants affiliated with CHCI member centers. We prefer projects that are convened by scholars across career stages. Participants in each Global Humanities Institute should include graduate students and early-career scholars. CHCI’s pilot Global Humanities Institutes; the Institute for World Literature, the School of Criticism and Theory, and the CHCI-CCK Summer Institute held in 2017 at the Cambridge Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities provide examples, although they should not prevent applicants from envisioning new approaches to the model.

CHCI expects that core members of the research team of the 2020 Global Humanities Institute(s) will convene at least once in the spring of 2019 to organize collaborative activities that will take place during the period of the grant. We also expect that participants will continue their exchange beyond the meeting through related programming on their campuses and across the CHCI network, as well as through the shared project of collaborative publication. Participants will be encouraged to explore publishing in different formats and regions with the understanding that publication projects will focus on journals and publishing houses in more than one region and in multiple languages, as a means towards sustaining the international spirit of the projects. A third meeting of the core participants focused on these activities may also be funded. The 2-3 meetings convened by the 2020 Institute(s) should be hosted by different project partners — if at all possible.

Who can participate?

CHCI is requesting expressions of interest from member centers and institutes from all parts of the world.

A humanities center or institute that is not currently a member of CHCI but wishes to propose a Global Humanities Institute should contact Guillaume Ratel (ratel@wisc.edu) as soon as possible to discuss their options. At this stage, research teams need not be formed.

Both directors of individual centers and institutes seeking partners with whom to collaborate and established transcontinental teams of centers and institutes may submit proposals. Directors should work with interested members of their faculties to articulate compelling approaches to their proposed area of inquiry. Proposals should list up to three other scholars from each center or institute, one of whom could serve as a co-PI with the director. Centers and Institutes that do not yet have partners in mind should contact Guillaume Ratel to discuss their plans.

How does my Center or Institute get involved?

Last year, CHCI pre-selected themes for the pilot phase of the program, this year the Institutes themes are open and to be developed by the applicants. If your center or institute is interested in participating in this program please send a very brief (1-2 page) expression of interest to propose a theme, method or practice in the humanities that would benefit directly from a sustained international and collaborative approach, including ideas for how you would approach and organize a Global Humanities Institute around your proposed topic. Please be sure to include names of two or three other CHCI member centers or institutes with whom you might want to collaborate. You need not have made contact in advance of your application, but if you have discussed your project with them, please let us know. Names of suggested co-PIs at other member centers or institutes are helpful but not required. The CHCI member directory can be found here: http://chcinetwork.org/members/directory. Please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to collaborate with an institution that is not currently a CHCI member. In your proposal, you also may wish to explain how your proposed project could lead to new opportunities for your center or institute and your campus.

All Global Humanities Institutes will include:

• A two-week long summer or winter institute that will be open to participants from other CHCI member centers and institutes (including graduate students and emerging scholars);
• Three to four convening centers and institutes, preferably from different world regions each of which will be represented by at least two co-PIs;
• A contribution both to the proposed theme and to the broader project of developing models for international research collaboration in the humanities.

Together with the 1-2 page narrative described above, please include: the director’s CV and CVs of up to three other participants, at least one of whom could serve as a co-PI.

Applications closed on October 1, 2018.

What are the next steps?

Upon receiving expressions of interest, the CHCI-Mellon Program Committee will identify Institutes that will contribute to new knowledge in the humanities; exemplify forms of collaboration across institutional and national boundaries; and promise to establish a new model for CHCI. This select group of applicants will then be asked to provide a full proposal by the end of 2018, including: a more developed description of the Institute’s theme, a final list of partner centers and institutes including the names of the core research-team participants at each institution and identifying those who will serve as co-PIs, detailed plans for the pre-Institute meeting to take place in the Spring of 2019, and an initial budget for an eventual subaward.

What if we have questions?

There will be a dedicated session of the CHCI Annual Meeting in Charlottesville in which members of the research teams for the current pilot Institutes and the CHCI Mellon Programming Committee discuss and answer questions about this new program. For members who are not able to attend the Charlottesville meeting or who have more urgent inquiries, please contact Guillaume Ratel, CHCI Director of Programs, ratel@wisc.edu.