… “… the ethos [of] what it is to be a humanities scholar is shifting now. And so an ensemble of people may be a more advantageous way to think about pursuing a particular project.”

—Sidonie Smith, Lorna G. Goodison Distinguished University Professor of English and Women’s Studies

About Us

Welcome  |  Steering Committee  |  Collaboratory Staff  |  Collaboratory Location | Contact Us

Who we are

The Humanities Collaboratory is a bold investment by the university in collaborative, multi-generational, transformational humanities scholarship for the academy and the world beyond. Born in the Office of the Provost, housed in LSA, and located in the Hatcher Graduate Library, the Humanities Collaboratory gives singularly generous grants to support innovative and ambitious forms of humanities scholarship. The Collaboratory is also engaged in creating lasting research resources infrastructure to support humanists at Michigan.

What we do

The Michigan Humanities Collaboratory provides resources for University of Michigan humanities scholars to experiment with collaborative, team-based approaches to humanities research, its communication to the broader public, and the training of the next generation of humanities scholars. Led by U-M Ann Arbor humanities faculty, teams work together on developing large-scale project ideas and proposals. Humanities Collaboratory teams include university faculty, librarians, humanists, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdocs.

Our work in creating research resources infrastructure is centered around orientations which we hold each semester to bring awareness of resources from across campus that can be leveraged to support humanities research. We also curate a significant amount of resources on our webpage.

Where we are

We collaborate with and are located in Hatcher Graduate Library, 100 North Hatcher Gallery.

Levels of Funding

The Humanities Collaboratory offers 5×5 Incubator Grants for faculty and other research specialists to organize around a theme or topic of shared interest to discuss and explore possible projects. These grants are supported by a generous collaboration with the Institute for the Humanities.

Proposal Development or seed funding provides support for intergenerational teams to develop project proposals during spring term. Project development support includes faculty compensation, graduate student partner compensation, travel, materials, and funding for undergraduate research assistants. Proposal Development applications are due in early February each year.  Successful applications from previous years are available for review on the Proposal Development funding page. Click on the award year to review the original application.

Project Grant funding includes faculty compensation, support for skills training or workshops, GSRA or general research support for graduate and undergraduate students, potential postdoc funding, travel, and materials/supplies. Applications are due in early July each year. All funded projects are required to publicly disseminate the results of the project; a separate proposal plan and budget is submitted at the beginning of the second year of the grant to request funding support for exhibitions, displays, or other public programming dissemination. The Collaboratory is not currently offering these grants at this time.

Getting started

Are you wondering if your project is a good fit with the Collaboratory? Are you eligible for funding? Have a look at our Getting Started page as well as our FAQs. Or contact Kristin Hass at kah@umich.edu to discuss your project. Exploratory questions are very welcome!