Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts

University of Notre Dame

The goal of the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA) is to help build, sustain and renew a distinguished faculty in the arts, humanities and the social sciences at the University of Notre Dame, to support cross-disciplinary dialogue, and to enhance the intellectual life on campus. To accomplish these goals, ISLA provides grants for faculty research, travel to international conferences, curriculum development, speaker series, conferences and symposia, and publication subventions. In addition to providing seed money for special projects, ISLA can also assist with long-term planning beyond its own funding.

Additionally, the Institute is the College's clearinghouse for information, advice, and assistance in finding and obtaining grant funds from public or private agencies for any academic purpose. Institute staff assist faculty in several ways: advising faculty regarding the content of grant proposals; assisting in the preparation of proposal budgets; critiquing draft proposals; and ushering proposals through the administrative review process. In support of this effort, ISLA maintains a grant reference library that includes computerized grant search databases and hosts several grant proposal workshops during the year.

The Institute offers a variety of other faculty development support such as assistance with publicity for scholarship and events, workshops on academic writing and publishing, and also keeps a college calendar of events up to date as well as assists with conference and lecture series planning.