Eligibility
Faculty and long-term teaching staff at Smith College are eligible to apply for funds. You may include up to four co-applicants in your proposal, which may include, as an example, Smith College lecturers and post-doctoral fellows.
Eligible Proposals
Project funds are available for faculty and long-term teaching staff members developing a summer workshop, conference or symposium about women, gender, sexuality and/or the intersection of gender and other categories to be held on the Smith College campus. Funding can support related faculty and student research in advance of the event(s). It can be used to fund part-time staff to help organize logistics for the conference, as well as student worker stipends. Roles for part-time and student staff may include logistical arrangements, conference planning, and event management. Funding can also be used for follow-up publications or other outcomes of the workshop, conference or symposium, as long as the cost of the publication is budgeted within the parameters of the fund.
Award Details
Project funds are offered on a competitive basis and grants will not typically exceed a maximum of $40,000 for a conference or symposium. Applicants may choose to disburse the maximum conference or symposium funding allotment over a three year period. Summer workshop funding is available up to a $15,000 maximum. The application cycle for spring 2025 symposiums (and beyond) will begin on October 1. All awards must comply with Smith College expense and reimbursement policies.
How to Apply
Eligible faculty and long-term teaching staff may apply via our application tab on this website. Proposals will be reviewed by the Project on Women and Social Change (PWSC) Advisory Board.
Reports
Grant recipients must submit a brief written report to the Project on Women and Social Change Advisory Board no later than one year after the completion of the project. Recipients who fail to submit a report will not be considered for future funding.
Applications that address the following three tenets will be given the highest priority in review:
- Events led by early or mid-career faculty or long-term teaching staff that are held on Smith College campus with a focus on research and scholarship related to women and social change.
- Involving non-tenure track faculty, post-doctoral fellows and students to participate as scholars and/or organizers.
- Inviting participants that reflect and amplify cross-disciplinary perspectives.
Informed by these principles, the criteria below apply to all applications:
Summer workshops, conferences, and symposiums must be accessible to participants free of charge.
If due to COVID guidelines and constraints the campus is closed to the public, then all events must be accessible, free of charge, and not open to the public unless they have a virtual component that the public can access.
The Project on Women and Social Change Advisory Board seeks to uphold published application deadlines to ensure an equitable access to funds. While the Advisory Board is open to helping faculty address unanticipated opportunities, we cannot award new or additional funding after events have already taken place. We will, when necessary, revise guidance and deadlines in alignment with operating modes.
Co-sponsorships are welcome, though it is not an application requirement. Potential funding sources to be considered beyond the PWSC Advisory Board include teaming with another Five-College department or program to host a series and split costs.
All requests must be accompanied by the approval of the Chair of the applicant’s home department/program.
Honorarium
Per college policy (January 1, 2023), the maximum speaker honorarium will be $1000. The maximum honorarium for non-Smith speakers from within the Five Colleges is $150. The PWSC Advisory Board cannot increase the limits to the funding above to pay a speaker’s taxes. Honoraria for non-U.S. citizens are subject to varying tax-treaty and visa laws/regulations. Host applicants and their departments are responsible for reviewing the Controller’s Office policies on payments in advance of planning an event or making an offer of payment to an individual.
Donations
The Advisory Board cannot approve funding for direct donations to an organization.
Smith Operating Modes
Funding is conditional on hosting events in compliance with the College COVID-19 operating modes. College policies regarding travel, entertainment, and on-campus space reservation policies for the date(s) the event is scheduled will apply. Funding does not override operating modes. Approved line item funding may not be redistributed to other lines should a change in operating mode prevent all or part of a planned event.