Symposia, Conferences, Performances

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Faculty Funding Opportunities

Application Guidelines

The Dietrich School Faculty Grants Committee will review applications and award funds for FY23-24.

The application deadline is Tuesday, January 30, 2024. Awards will be announced at the beginning of April. The Faculty Grants Committee cannot provide applicants with individual evaluations of proposals.

Opportunities for Research and Conference Organization

Major National Conferences @ Pitt

The Dietrich School offers one annual award of up to $25,000 toward the cost of hosting and co-sponsoring the conference of a prestigious national or international learned society or disciplinary association to be convened at the University of Pittsburgh. Interested faculty should contact Associate Dean Hannah Johnson for an exploratory meeting. Requests and allocations would typically be expected to be made two or more years in advance of the conference date.

Other Symposia, Conferences, Performances

Competitive funds are available to support high-profile symposia, conferences, and performances in the Humanities and Social Sciences that will have an impact on faculty research and scholarship broader than what could be achieved by individual research allowances alone. The lead proposer must be a faculty member whose contract includes an expectation of research and publishing, but others can collaborate. We are especially interested in soliciting applications from junior faculty, recently tenured faculty, and faculty who have not received funds from the previous Faculty and Research Scholarship Program.

The maximum amount to be awarded is $15,000. All requests must confirm co-sponsorship of no less than 10% of the overall budget from one or more departments or programs. The key criterion in evaluating proposals is their broad impact on faculty research and scholarship. Priority will be given to high-profile symposia and conferences on topics of interest within and across Dietrich School departments and to proposals that outline plans to disseminate outcomes through scholarly products such as publications.

Requests for $5,000 or more must include concrete plans to disseminate the outcomes of the proposed activity (e.g., publication in peer-reviewed journal or edited collection, other scholarly resource, recorded performance, podcasts, etc.).

A request for $10,000 or more requires, in addition, that the proposal be sponsored by faculty from at least two departments, that the overall project budget equals at least twice the requested amount, and that matching funding has been committed or applied for by the time the proposal is submitted. In such cases, the release of funds is contingent upon the successful raising of matching funds.

As approved by the Dietrich School Planning and Budgeting Committee on April 29, 2015, in order to ensure that funding is available for as many important projects as possible, you are asked to be restrained in budgeting for honoraria to outside speakers. As a guideline, we suggest that outside invited speakers at lectures or colloquia be awarded honoraria of no more than $400; in many fields, substantially lower or no honoraria are the normal practice. Higher amounts may be reasonable for a keynote speaker at a large conference or for particularly well-known creative artists, writers, or speakers.

Film and Media Studies-related requests should be directed to the Film and Media Studies Program, 624 CL, with an electronic copy to Lisa Lang.

Funds cannot be used to support the following events.

  • Visit of a single speaker, except in extraordinary circumstances;
  • Departmental speakers’ series (whether one-off or recurring);
  • Events to mark the retirement of faculty members;
  • Programming within existing international partnership agreements (e.g., travel by Dietrich School faculty or graduate students to international partner institutions, or visits by scholars from partner institutions);
  • Equipment purchases;
  • GSAs or research assistants paid hourly; and
  • Honoraria for University of Pittsburgh employees

Application Procedure

Applications are invited online and require the following attachments.

  • Full budget of expenses and income, reviewed and approved by the lead faculty member’s departmental fiscal manager;
  • One-page letter of support from the lead faculty member’s Chair of Department, indicating the value they see in the proposal and how the proposed project will benefit Dietrich School faculty.

Proposals must be submitted through departments, but they may be prepared by and may benefit any reasonable group of Dietrich School faculty. Departments can submit unit-wide proposals and can aggregate a number of projects. Chairs’ letters in support of requests for $10,000 or more should reference the concurrence of the Chairs of collaborating departments.

Apply for a Faculty Research Grant. Proposals that are emailed or mailed will not be considered.