The Critical Digital Humanities Initiative (CDHI) is pleased to announce new Fellowships in Critical Digital Humanities (DH) research to support qualified undergraduate students registered in any program at the University of Toronto. The program embeds undergraduate student researchers within existing critical digital humanities research projects at U of T. This call supports undergrad researchers for the period between Jan. 3, 2022 and April 30, 2022.  

U of T faculty members are invited to apply to the program, which will fund an undergraduate fellow’s position within their critical digital humanities research project/team for Winter and Spring, 2022. Successful faculty applicants and their research teams will be responsible for recruiting their undergraduate fellow. We are particularly interested in proposals that succeed in creating cross-divisional teams that train undergraduate students in disciplines, fields, skills, and/or methodologies that might be new to them.  

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. 

Fellowship expectations 

Undergraduate fellows will work 8-10 hrs/wk with the critical DH project they join. The fellow’s work plan will be mutually designed by the student and research team. Duties might include, but need not be limited to research, digitizing, metadata creation, programming, text encoding, research support, data visualization, digital mapping, social media support, podcasting, digital storytelling, and/or website development. 

Undergraduate fellows will give a presentation on their work in a research showcase hosted by the CDHI in mid-April 2022. Fellows and their supervisors will complete a brief report to the CDHI by April 30, 2022. 

Compensation 

The fellowships will fund 12 weeks of work, conducted between January 3 and April 30, 2022. The total fellowship value is $3000 (8-10hrs/wk at $20/hr). 

Eligibility 

For supervisors: Any U of T faculty member (including teaching stream and sessional faculty) or may apply. Librarians interested in supervising a project are also encouraged to apply. For students: Any undergraduate students registered in any program at U of T with a GPA of 3.0 may participate. 

Application process 

Step one: Faculty project leads will submit applications via email to dhn.admin@utoronto.ca by December 10, 2021 at 11:59pm EST. 

Using language appropriate to a multi-disciplinary audience, please prepare a 2 page project description that addresses the following:  

• An explanation of the project, including research questions (c. 300 words) 
• A brief description (c. 200 words) of how the undergraduate fellow will contribute to the research project
• A brief description of how the undergrad will be trained and/or mentored over the course of the fellowship (c. 150 words) 
• If applicable, a discussion of 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 (c. 100 words)
• A brief description of the team (if applicable) 
• The name and brief bio of the proposed undergraduate fellow (if known at the time of application). 

Results of the competition will be communicated by December 17, 2021. Project leads will recruit an eligible U of T undergraduate student to join their project as the Critical DH Undergraduate Fellow; the Fellow will then submit a Project Plan (step two).  

Step two: The selected undergraduate will submit 2 documents to dhn.admin@utoronto.ca by January 15, 2022:

• An unofficial transcript
• A fellowship Project Plan signed by the faculty supervisor or approved via email. CDHI will not be able to release funds without this project plan.  

The Project Plan will be prepared by the student in collaboration with the faculty lead. It should be 1-2 pages and will include:  

• A description of the work the student will complete over the 12-week fellowship period, tied to project milestones. 
• A description of the supervisory and mentorship plan for the fellowship period. 
• A description of how the student will be trained in new skills and methods. 

Once the CDHI receives and approves the project plan, fellowship funds will be released directly to the student. 

Adjudication  

An interdisciplinary adjudication committee, drawn from faculty 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.  

Reporting

The Undergraduate Fellow and faculty lead will each be asked to report on their findings by April 30, 2022.

How to Reach Us  

To contact the Managing Director, please write: d.taschereau@utoronto.ca. To reach the Faculty Director, please write: dhn.director@utoronto.ca. To submit application materials, to reach the CDHI team, or to join the CDHI listserv, please write: dhn.admin@utoronto.ca. To subscribe to the CDHI’s biweekly newsletter, please follow this link and complete our sign-up form. Follow us on Twitter at @UofTDHN. Explore our website at: https://dhn.utoronto.ca/.