Grants for Teaching Faculty Attending Academic Conferences

This program offers up to eight grants of up to $1500 for teaching faculty working under year-long contracts to attend academic conferences in the humanities. Of the grants for faculty working under year-long contracts, the Center will ordinarily aim to fund at least five grants for faculty who are delivering presentations at conferences and will ordinarily aim to fund up to three grants for faculty who are attending conferences for professional development directly related to courses taught at Loyola but who are not delivering a presentation. However, the applicant pool in any given year may change that ratio. If funds allocated to this program are not expended after funding eight grants, the Center may fund (or partially fund) further grants.

Eligibility

• Any faculty member currently with a year-long contract may apply for one of these grants.
• Faculty who are teaching in a department outside of the Humanities division of Loyola College but whose research clearly involves a discipline in the Humanities may apply. The Steering Committee, however, ordinarily will give preference to applicants teaching in the Humanities division.
• A faculty member may receive one grant in the course of the academic year.
• In awarding grants, the Steering Committee will give preference to applicants who have not been awarded a grant in the prior academic year.
• Faculty who expect to be paid for a conference or artistic presentation are not eligible for one of these grants.
• This grant only covers conferences that take place during the academic year, i.e., from the start of the fall semester to the end of the spring semester. For conferences that take place during the summer, faculty are encouraged to apply to the Dean's Supplemental Fund.

Standards for Proposals

Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• The quality of the proposal;
• The likelihood that the presentation will advance the faculty member’s research agenda or that attendance at the conference will enhance the faculty member's teaching at Loyola;
• Any comments from the applicant’s department Chair at the Steering Committee meeting.

Procedures

The proposal should be for a specific dollar amount, and it should include:

• The Proposal Cover page which includes spaces for 1) an itemized budget, 2) a list of courses taught at Loyola over (up to) the past three years, 3) the Chair's indication of support for the proposal 4) a list of the previous year(s) the faculty member has received this grant. For estimating the meals portion of your itemized budget, use the location-specific meal and incidental rates set by the federal government.
• On a separate page, 1) a description of the conference or event and 2) a brief description of the faculty member's presentation and how it fits into the faculty member's research agenda (for faculty delivering presentations) or of the way attending the conference will directly impact the teaching of courses at Loyola (for faculty not delivering presentations). 
• A copy of the faculty member’s curriculum vitae.

Deadlines

Proposals should be submitted electronically to esgarrett@loyola.edu by the last working day of August for consideration at the Steering Committee’s September meeting for priority consideration.

If all funds have not been expended in September, the Steering Committee will accept proposals for consideration at any future meeting until funds run out. If the Center's funds do run out, faculty are directed to approach the Dean for possible funding.

The Center will reimburse the faculty member for expenses once they have been incurred; it will not advance funds for expenses yet to be incurred.