The Emerging Projects Fund 

in Critical Digital Humanities (deadline May 21, 2021) 

 

The Critical Digital Humanities Initiative (CDHI) is a tri-campus research initiative that was funded by the University of Toronto’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives (ISI) Program in December 2020 for 3 years (Jan 2021-April 30, 2024). Building on the Digital Humanities Network (DHN) founded at the University of Toronto in 2016, the CDHI positions the University of Toronto as a global leader in bringing questions of power and inequality to digital humanities research. 

The Critical Digital Humanities Initiative’s Emerging Project Fund offers funding for time-limited, faculty/librarian digital humanities project planning, international partnership networking, and/or tool-building through competitive seed grants. Each award of $4,000 is designed to support research in critical digital humanities. The Emerging Projects Fund particularly seeks to build research projects and teams that will be well positioned to apply for Tri-Council or other funding in the future. 

While all DH scholars are encouraged to apply, we will prioritize research projects engaged in critical digital humanities: research that emphasizes questions of power, social justice, and critical theory in making and analyzing digital technologies. We also encourage applications for critical digital humanities projects that foreground creative praxis, co-creation, public engagement, and community-based research. 

 

 Eligibility 

All full-time faculty members and librarians at the University of Toronto, including research stream, teaching stream, and CLTAs. In the case of multi-university teams or community partnerships, the lead applicant must be a U of T faculty member.

 

 Funds Awarded 
Applications will be considered for budgets up to $4,000.

 

 Application Requirements 

Using language appropriate to a multi-disciplinary audience, please include the following information about the proposed project: 

• A cover sheet
• 1-2 page project description that addresses the following:
  • An explanation of the project, with research questions.
  • A description of the methodological approach (please contextualize in relationship to any work you have already undertaken in digital humanities).
  • A statement on how the project addresses CDHI goals of research that emphasizes questions of power, social justice, and critical theory in making and analyzing digital technologies. If applicable, discuss how your work foregrounds creative praxis, co-creation, public engagement, and community-based research.
  • A brief description of the team (if applicable).
• A short budget with a justification for spending.
• A bibliography (optional)

Applications should be submitted as a single PDF using standard font and spacing (single spacing is fine). Please email to: dhn.admin@utoronto.ca by the deadline of 11:59 pm on 21 May 2021. 

 If you have questions, please contact us at dhn.admin@utoronto.ca. If you would like some pointers about who to connect to regarding finding the expertise you need to get your project of the ground, please contact Dr. Elizabeth Parke, Senior Research Associate in Humanities and Social Sciences (based at UTM, but with a tri-campus mandate for this work) at elizabeth.parke@utoronto.ca. 

 

 Evaluation 

Applications will be evaluated on the following criteria: 

• Ability to clearly articulate the research questions, project goals, and methodology. 
• Clear demonstration of the project’s significance.
• Project is in its early stages, rather than already well-supported with research funds.
• Project’s relationship to research that emphasizes questions of power, social justice, and critical theory in making and analyzing digital technologies.

 

Adjudication 

An interdisciplinary subcommittee drawn from the CDHI Steering Committee will be responsible for adjudicating applications. The CDHI Steering Committee is composed of community partners, faculty researchers, and digital scholarship librarians from each of the three campuses, the Faculty of Arts and Science, and the Faculty of Information. Adjudication will take place at the end of May, with funds being dispersed by June 15, 2021.

 

Reporting 

Awardees will be expected to report on use of the seed funding by 1 April 2022. Recipients should anticipate submitting a brief report describing what was accomplished or what outcomes were achieved with the funds.  

 

How to Reach Us 
To contact the Director, Elspeth Brown, please write: dhn.director@utoronto.ca. To reach the team, please write: dhn.admin@utoronto.ca. To subscribe to the DHN’s biweekly newsletter, please follow this link and complete our sign-up form. To join our list-serv, please write: dhn.admin@utoronto.ca. Follow us on Twitter at @UofTDHN. Explore our soon-to-be-replaced website at: https://dhn.utoronto.ca/.