RDE Mini Grants

The Center for the Humanities is offering a granting opportunity for graduate students in the humanities under the Redefining Doctoral Education initiative. Funding will be available for course-based initiatives in graduate student teaching, as well as to fund events, programs and projects of their own design that align with RDE goals and objectives (see below).

These mini grant funds exist to offer current humanities graduate students the opportunity to develop pedagogy and programs that will hone RDE-relevant skills and experience, and/or foster dialogues and communities of practice centered around the evolving needs of humanities graduate students.

Graduate students are eligible to apply for funds at any point between now and December 1, 2026, and the funds should be used by the end of the spring 2026 term. Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with their peers on proposals, and it is possible to apply for funding for more than one project.

Below, please review further details about the two funding categories: 1) graduate student instructor-led courses and 2) programs, projects and events.

Funding Categories

Graduate student instructor-led courses and course projects

Graduate students are able to request funding to implement a variety of course-related plans. The course needs to be taught in fall 2025 or spring 2026 and all funding needs to be requested by December 2026. The applicant must be a current graduate student and the instructor of record on a course. Preference will be given to applicants whose plans involve innovative and/or community-engaged ways methods of humanistic inquiry and learning.

Possibilities include (but are not limited to):

  • Class visitors (virtual or in-person)
  • Class field trips
  • Materials for class projects
  • Subscriptions to digital databases, platforms, tools, etc., to support / manage digital projects
  • Compensating consultants within the university, such as the library’s data sciences librarian team
  • Facilitating class-related events, such as presentations, colloquia, etc.

Programs, projects and events

Graduate-student organized programs and events

Graduate students can request funding to facilitate events on campus or in the community that expound upon their research expertise, aim to disseminate information or skills to a broader audience, or otherwise offer the applicant an opportunity to develop crucial skills in planning and executing humanities programming that are not part of the traditional doctoral course of study.

Examples of funded opportunities include (but are not limited to):

  • Workshops and training sessions
  • Panel discussions, colloquia, etc.
  • Off-campus events, exhibitions; events that meaningfully combine both community and campus participation
  • Presentations and publications related to innovative, interdisciplinary graduate training (including conferences and workshop sessions aligned with RDE themes)
  • Participation in external residencies, workshops that align with RDE goals

Departmental events

A graduate student or group of graduate students may work in partnership with a department to plan and facilitate a departmental event in line with RDE objectives. 

Examples include (but are not limited to):

  • Professional networking opportunities (i.e., a career preparedness panel of local alumni)
  • Skills development opportunities (i.e., training workshops)
  • Reading and writing groups on topics such as: innovative humanities education, innovation in doctoral training, topics in higher education, etc.

Professionalization opportunities

A graduate student may pursue funding to meet non-traditional goals for professional development (i.e., employment beyond tenure track professorships); examples of possibilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Costs for projects and collaborations with community members and organizations
  • Travel (for conferences, networking opportunities, etc)
  • Costs for the building and maintaining of digital projects
  • Some publication costs

 

How to Apply

Applicants may request up to $5,000 in funding. Preference will be given to applications that clearly detail a fully conceived plan across all three of the required proposal sections.

Application

Please submit a single proposal document that includes the following three sections:

  1. Project timeline – this can be a table or a bullet-point list that clearly outlines the timeline for all project expenditures
  2. Budget – please clearly detail the anticipated costs of planned expenditures. All requested funds must be allocated for in the budget. (Please note that in compliance with University PhD Policies & Requirements, mini grant funds cannot be used to compensate a graduate student to pursue a mentored experience.)
  3. A project narrative – please provide a one-page narrative indicating how RDE mini grant funds will enable any or all of the following for you as a graduate student:
  • the development of new skills or experiences related to next-generation doctoral training (see RDE Goals and Objectives, below);
  • capacity to innovate on humanities pedagogy, project-based learning, humanities events, etc; and/or
  • capacity to build crucial collaborations / discourses on necessary innovations in graduate education in the humanities

Please submit all requested materials in a single document or PDF to cenhumapp@wustl.edu, with the subject line: “[Your last name] – RDE Mini Grant Proposal.” 

Referral

In addition to the application, all projects must receive the approval of a departmental chair or director of graduate study. Please have either your departmental chair or director of graduate study email cenhumapp@wustl.edu indicating that they have reviewed and approve of your proposal. Applications will be accepted until December 1, 2026. Students awarded a mini grant will be able to draw on the funds until May 2026.

RDE Objectives + Goals

Redefining Doctoral Education is a Mellon-funded initiative intended to build capacity for training the next generation of humanities graduate students. In an era when pursuit of tenure-track professorate positions is in steady decline, RDE has aimed to train faculty how to best educate their doctoral students on the many pathways available to them after graduation through workshops and other programming, and to offer programs directly to graduate students that enable them to hone skills crucial for a variety of career pathways, navigate interdisciplinarity, and develop skills to conduct more public-facing humanistic work.

Goals

  • Connect doctoral students across cohorts, fostering interdisciplinary intellectual community
  • Increase/innovate coursework possibilities for graduate students
  • Build capacity for pursuing a variety of employment outcomes beyond the professoriate, i.e., roles in humanities, arts, and cultural organizations, non-profit and civic engagement work; advocacy work; as well as translating humanities skills into work in other industries
  • Foster interdisciplinary inquiry as part of the doctoral training process, including and especially practical experience and methods training in other fields
  • Expand methodological capacities for graduate student research
  • Explore alternative dissertation formats and modalities
  • Engage with publics beyond campus, i.e., in public humanities work, non-profit and mission-oriented work

Questions?

Reach out to Meredith Kelling, assistant director of student research and engagement.