U-M Announces New Funding Opportunity for Action-based Research to Combat and Confront Racism
Poverty Solutions and the Center for Social Solutions announce the inaugural faculty grants competition to pursue action-based research aimed at ending systemic and institutional racism. The awards, which range from $10,000 to $50,000, are open to faculty at University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses.
Successful action-based research projects will cut across disciplines, and address challenges such as systemic oppression, organizational exclusion, institutional discrimination, neglectful policy, and violence against the minds, bodies, and cultures of people of color.
The grant program is part of a university-wide commitment to fund scholarship, teaching, and service initiatives related to racial equity. The deadline to apply is August 21, 2020.
“Systemic and institutional racism have pernicious effects throughout our society in areas from employment to health care to the arts. As a public university, we have a responsibility to help identify and address these important concerns,” said U-M Provost Susan Collins.
“Since its creation two years ago, the Center for Social Solutions has worked with a range of researchers to examine how diversity, democracy, and slavery and its aftermath define and shape the promise of American democracy,” observes Earl Lewis, Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of history, Afroamerican and African Studies, and public policy as well as the director of the Center for Social Solutions. “This initiative invites colleagues from across U-M’s three campuses to join the effort of identifying and crafting tangible solutions to the lingering effects of systemic racism. We welcome the anticipated contributions to addressing this urgent need.” The Center for Social Solutions, led by Lewis, promotes academic research and social policy that serves the common good in four areas: the interplay between diversity and democracy, the connection of the history of slavery to our present, fair access to water, and the future of work.
“A goal for the Poverty Solutions team going forward is to more deeply connect the work of addressing poverty with the work of addressing racism in society,” said H. Luke Shaefer, Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy and Associate Dean for Research and Policy Engagement at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and professor of social work at the University of Michigan. Through Poverty Solutions, Shaefer leads efforts to support action-based poverty prevention and alleviation research across campus and partners with communities and policymakers — such as the State of Michigan and City of Detroit — to provide real-time policy analysis that benefits families experiencing poverty.
In addition to Poverty Solutions and Center for Social Solutions, this request for proposals is also supported by the U-M Office of the Provost, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Michigan Engineering, the National Center for Institutional Diversity, the School of Social Work, the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, and the Law School.
Request for Proposals
Center for Social Solutions
Poverty Solutions