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Research Projects with Diplomacy Lab
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Dear colleagues,
In 2022 Colorado College became part of a network of ~60 colleges and universities in the Department of State’s Diplomacy Lab program. As described on the Diplomacy Lab website, “Students participating in Diplomacy Lab explore real-world challenges identified by the Department and work under the guidance of faculty members… This initiative allows students to contribute directly to the policymaking process while helping the State Department tap into an underutilized reservoir of intellectual capital.”
For example, Dr. Jiun Bang in Political Science incorporated a Diplomacy Lab project in her spring 2023 course, PS203: Paradoxes of Northeast Asia. The project was initiated by several officials in Japan—from the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, U.S. Consulate General in Sapporo, the Fukuoka American Center, and EducationUSA Tokyo—and transpired in a final group-based written work that involved analyzing study abroad trends of Japanese students (to the U.S. or otherwise) and producing actionable plans based on the analysis. Students were able to present their findings via Zoom to the various officials in Japan at the end of their research.
Each semester a menu of possible projects are produced and shared with participating colleges. This round, there are 70 possible projects, including 11 in the area of Climate Change, 9 in the area of Democracy and Human Rights, 3 in the area of Food Secuity, 10 in the area of Global Health, 14 in the area of Science and Technology, and 10 in the area of Sociology. The full menu of possible projects is available on the CC website.
There are two deadlines each year by which brief 200-word “bids” are submitted to the Department of State. The Round 1 deadline for participating in Fall 2024 is March 6, with unclaimed projects available in a second round that begins in April. A new menu of projects will be posted in October for Spring 2025.
The Department of State will invite students and faculty participating in 2024-2025 to an optional day-long event in Washington, DC., anticipated for mid-April 2025. The DipLab Fair will give student researchers an opportunity to present their findings to an audience of State Department officers and peers from the network. There students and faculty can engage with their fellow DipLab institutions, policymakers at the Department, and representatives from other federal agencies. We invite CC faculty to learn more.
~Tess
Tess Powers
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Unteaching Racism Workshop
The Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC) will be supporting “Unteaching Racism: Understanding and handling misuse of racial categories,” which will be held at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA, from June 20-22, 2024.
The workshop will help faculty members in all disciplines understand the history, deployment, and utilization of racial categories in their research areas—and how the uncritical use of this racial taxonomy in teaching and learning reinforces racism.
The workshop will be led by two faculty members from Grinnell College—Leslie Gregg-Jolly (Biology) and Katya Gibel Mevorach (Anthropology and American Studies)—as well as Colorado College’s Associate Professor of Molecular Biology Phoebe Lostroh.
For more information on the workshop description and how to register is available here.
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Funders in the Spotlight
Humanities Connections
Summary: “The Humanities Connections program seeks to expand the role of the humanities in undergraduate education at two- and four-year institutions by encouraging partnerships between humanities faculty and their counterparts in other areas of study. Awards support the planning or implementation of curricular projects connecting the humanities to the physical and natural sciences; pre-service or professional programs, including law and business; computer science, data science, and other technology-driven fields; or other non-humanities departments or schools. Projects must incorporate the approaches and learning activities of both the humanities and the non-humanities disciplines involved.”
Annual Deadline: early September. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is one of the few funders that is willing to review drafts (in certain programs, that is). For this program, drafts are due in mid-July. Please see this SEGway page for information on applying for an “Institutional Writing Stipend” to prepare a proposal like this.
Award Amount: $50,000 for a planning grant; up to $150,000 for implementation grant (one does not need to apply for or receive the planning grant prior to applying for the implementation grant)
Additional Resources: Please see the program page for the proposal guidelines (the “Notice of Funding Opportunity”) and sample proposal narratives.
Proposal Support: As this is an institutional grant, the Corporate and Foundation Relations Office stands by ready to support this application. Please reach out to Director Laura Hines or Associate Director Sam Heim.
AAUW Research Publication Grants
Summary: “Having a strong publication record is a key to receiving promotions and tenure in engineering, medicine and science. Yet persistent gender stereotypes and bias in these fields can make it difficult for women to find the time and institutional support needed to publish their research. These grants help women overcome these barriers by funding research projects that will culminate in scholarly publications.”
Award Amount: $10K-$35K for research expenses, technical support, research assistance, and publication costs
Annual Deadline: November 15
Eligibility: Pre-tenure women in the sciences, including people who identify as women, who are conducting basic research in the sciences
Grant Period for next deadline: July 2025-June 2026.
Expectation: The applicant will be sole or senior author on an accepted scholarly publication within six months of the close of the grant period (in this case, by the end of December 2026).
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Announcing Internal Process for NSF’s MRI Program
The National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program has moved its annual deadline to November. Each institution is allowed to submit up to two acquisition proposals. In order to support a fair process that ensures that the two most competitive proposals move forward, we are initiating an internal process to identify interest and competitiveness. If you have an interest in submitting an MRI proposal in the future (in the next one to three years), please complete the interest form below. Everyone who documents their interest using this form will be asked each May if they would like to compete to submit a proposal for the upcoming November deadline. At that time, if more than two teams express interest in applying for the upcoming November deadline, a brief internal submission application will be provided by May 31, with an anticipated deadline of June 15th. The applicants will be notified of decisions by June 30th. If you have more questions about this process, please reach out to Tess Powers.
MRI Proposal Interest Form
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Peace of Advice
If you are interested in exploring external funding opportunities, it’s best if we can connect at least two years before you anticipate needing the funding. This gives us time to identify the best funders, prepare an application (many programs have only one deadline per year), and wait several months to hear back. And with a little extra time also comes peace of mind. ~ Tess
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Help Us Recognize Our Community’s Accomplishments
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CC Accolades
Help us celebrate your colleagues’ accomplishments! Use this anonymous form to share news of publications, creative work, grants and fellowships, and other accomplishments.
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