Navigating competitive funding opportunities in the Liberal Arts and Humanities requires specialized support. Writing applications for funding can be challenging for both novice and advanced grant and fellowship writers. It is easy for all writers to get bogged down in excessive or extraneous details and to then lose track of what will be most important for the future proposal reader and review panel to know. This is where Faculty Recognition can provide unique support for CSU’s College of Liberal Arts (CLA) faculty.
I interviewed Ann Claycomb, the director of Faculty Recognition and the Fulbright Liaison in the CLA Dean’s Office to learn more about the office.
The CLA recognizes the unique standing of humanities research and limited availability of funding in some liberal arts’ disciplines. Therefore, Faculty Recognition exists to bridge the funding gap, elevate CLA faculty internally and connect them to the right opportunities externally to increase the visibility of and support for their scholarship.
Faculty Recognition provides a unique writing support for faculty seeking honorific awards and competitive fellowships. While they primarily focus on tenure track faculty at various levels of their career, they also support non-tenured faculty interested in fellowship applications. Faculty Recognition can help sophisticated and amateur faculty find discipline specific or general fellowships like Fulbright, Guggenheim, and the National Endowment for Humanities.
After identifying funding opportunities, helping faculty write for clarity is a primary goal. Faculty Recognition helps writers fine tune their proposals and applications to answer the most fundamental questions about a project: “What are you doing and why is it important?” They focus on storytelling and help faculty frame a narrative that articulates fund seekers’ ideas and meets funders’ eligibility criteria.
As Ann Claycomb puts it, “We are 100% content oriented as against grant technicalities.” Consequently, Ann offers the following advice about writing a fellowship application:
- Don’t get lost in your own writing.
- Don’t lie in your application.
- Don’t be over ambitious by doing too much.
- Clearly articulate your goals and reasons for seeking the fellowship.
- Go ahead and draft your pitch.
- Send it to the office of Faculty Recognition for feedback.
Whether you are looking to get funding for an ongoing project or a new project, the Office of Faculty Recognition will connect faculty to the appropriate funding resources for a specific project.
Ann Claycomb looks forward to working with you and says “Don’t hesitate…to reach out and say I am looking for funding. It is literally my job to find funding for people.” She also adds that fellowships help you top off your salary and enable you concentrate on a research or book project.
Faculty can contact the director of Faculty Recognition via [email protected].