Are You RDE?

Redefining Doctoral Education in the Humanities (RDE) is funded by the Mellon Foundation

Drawing inspiration from the efforts led by the Modern Language Association (ConnectedAcademics) and the American Historical Association (Career Diversity) to reimagine doctoral training, Washington University’s RDE initiative focuses on developing the best pedagogical practices for instilling capacities essential for success both within academia and in the world beyond.

During the years 2018–25, RDE is providing humanities faculty with opportunities to acquire the skills, capacities, and experiences necessary for training the next generation of humanities PhDs. Read on for a summary of those opportunities, or visit the RDE main page by following this link.

Faculty Funding Opportunities

Faculty retreats

Four faculty retreats focused on the best pedagogical practices for instilling capacities essential for success both within academia and in the world beyond — project management, collaborative research and writing, public presentation, communication in a variety of media and for multiple audiences, digital and quantitative literacy, and teaching the humanities at all levels. Will include faculty from neighboring institutions. The most recent faculty retreat was February 24, 2023.

 

Cross-training grants - up to $15,000

Support for humanities faculty to undertake course work in other departments or schools or at other institutions, as relevant to new, innovative teaching strategies. Ideally the new skills or learning will enhance collaborative teaching and research involving humanities scholars and their counterparts in other disciplines and will help build new capacities in one or more of the following: quantitative and digital skills, collaboration, writing for multiple audiences, public presentation, project management, and humanities pedagogy beyond the research university. Deadline for 2022–23 has passed. 

 

Curricular innovation grants - up to $20,000

Two types of grants: Standard grants (up to $7500) support curricular innovation by one faculty member and bridge grants ($10,000 to $20,000) support interdisciplinary and/or inter-institutional teams of two to four faculty interested in teaching across academic boundaries. The “bridge grants” can be used to support collaboration between programs, departments and schools at Washington University, as well as between humanities departments at Washington University and neighboring institutions (universities, community colleges, museums, secondary schools, etc.). Deadline for 2022–23 has passed.    

 

Studiolab communities - up to $210,000

Three vertically organized studiolab communities for humanities research and collaboration. The humanities studiolab draws inspiration from both the studio and the laboratory as pedagogical spaces. Organized by two or more faculty members, the studiolab’s participants — a humanities scholar-in-residence, a two-year pre-doc/post-doc fellow, and an interdisciplinary cohort of graduate students — work and (if personal situations allow) live together in the newly renovated Lewis Center. Deadline for 2022–23 has passed.