Liberal Arts Scholarship Catalyst Grants Program

About the Program

In September 2016 the College launched its Strategic Plan 2020, with a top priority to “enhance the scholarly profile of College faculty and students while affirming the teacher-scholar model and celebrating the broad range of scholarship, artistic production, and performance present in the College.” The College’s STEM Catalyst and Liberal Arts Catalyst Programs are two important investments we’re making in faculty scholarship.

The Liberal Arts Scholarship Catalyst (LASC) Grants Program makes available, on a competitive basis, funds for scholarly and creative work that shows clear potential for increasing the faculty member’s research productivity and advancing professional goals, including the pursuit of external funding and application for promotion. Given existing sources of research support for tenure-track faculty, most notably Research Council Seed Grants, and the dearth of comparable internal programs for tenured faculty, Liberal Arts Catalyst grants are limited to tenured faculty in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Arts divisions of the College. Grants support work taking place in the summer and during the following academic year.