BSP Funding Opportunities

Academic Fellowships

The Dayo Gore BSP Postdoctoral Fellowship

APPLICATION WINDOW

Open date: Monday, October 31, 2022 CLOSED

First review date: Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time). Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Friday, June 30, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time). Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

During this time of social unrest, state-sanctioned and vigilante-led violence, health and education inequality, and emergent forms of data-driven and algorithmic bias, Black Studies scholarship remains vitally important. BSP focuses on sustaining faculty and student intellectual life at UCSD, while building active relationships with local organizers, artists, and community groups. As such, we seek a postdoctoral fellow whose work attends to public-facing community work and/or intersections of Black Studies with fields that impact contested framings of public life.

The 2022-23 Dayo Gore BSP Postdoctoral Fellowship invites applications from emerging scholars addressing research areas that may include fields and disciplines in the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, or STEM fields with a focus in Black Studies and/or Black communities in the African Diaspora. In this funding cycle we particularly look forward to supporting scholars addressing topics in one of the following three areas:

Work grounded in black feminist studies, gender studies, and/or queer studies
Critical analyses at the intersection of black studies and STEM fields
Analyses of historical periods pre-1900 that shed light on present-day concerns

This is a residential postdoctoral fellowship. This position comes with full benefits through the University of California, San Diego, research funds, shared office space and work equipment. The actual appointment salary step will be based on previous postdoctoral experience. Fellows will work with a dedicated UCSD mentor, present their work in a public forum, and form part of the BSP intellectual community. The fellow will teach one practicum course for the UCSD Black Diaspora and African American Studies (BDAAS) major.

To apply please visit the posting for Job #JPF03411 on AP On-Line Recruit, University of California, San Diego.

Sara Clarke Kaplan Dissertation Fellowship

Application for the 2023-24 fellowship is now closed

APPLICATION WINDOW

Open date: Thursday, February 16, 2023

Due date: Friday, March 10, 2023 at 11:59PM (Pacific Time)

We are pleased to announce that UC San Diego’s Black Studies Project is soliciting applications for its 2023-24 Dissertation Fellowships. BSP Dissertation Fellowships are intended to provide one summer and/or one academic quarter of support to students who are well advanced in the dissertation research or writing stages of their doctoral program. Each award includes fees, benefits, and a monthly stipend of $2,777.78, for one academic quarter of the awardee’s choice. In addition to advancing their research and/or writing, BSP Dissertation Fellows are expected to: attend at least three (3) BSP events during the 2023-24 academic year; participate in the 2023-24 BSP Graduate Seminar which meets approximately twice per quarter; and attend at least one (1) BSP Graduate Writing Collective session per quarter within the 2023-24 academic year. Eligible applicants may be in any discipline, but supported research should be situated within African American, African, and/or African Diaspora Studies. Preference will be given to projects that engage the critical themes and key questions of the Black Studies Project (see below), as well as to students without other sources of funding.

Black Studies Project @ UCSD

Black Studies Project (BSP) is an interdisciplinary, cross-divisional formation for collaborative and innovative research, intellectual exchange, and student engagement in the field of Black Studies. By convening faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from across campus and throughout the UC system, BSP creates opportunities for expansive and trenchant conversations at the intersections of Black feminist and queer studies, transnational and Diasporic studies, and the study of Black social movements. Through our programming, research funding, and sponsored intellectual collaborations, BSP explores how contemporary social, political, cultural, and economic shifts in the US and globally require scholars, community activists, and campus leaders to collectively reimagine the field of Black Studies.

Eligible Recipients must be:

Registered UCSD graduate students, enrolled for the 2023-24 academic year
Doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy by the application deadline
In residence during their funding quarter (please note that BSP Graduate Seminar and Writing Collective sessions and a number of BSP events throughout the 2023-24 academic year will be in person only events)

Application Materials

Please complete the application form online at bit.ly/bspdissertation and upload a combined PDF with the following materials:

Project description (no more than 1200 words), including timetable for completion
Curriculum vitae
UCSD transcript (unofficial)

Notification and Acceptance: Fellowship recipients will be notified by the week of April 3, 2023, by email.

Please address questions to: Lorraine Makone, Associate Director, Black Studies Project, bsp@ucsd.edu

Sara Clarke Kaplan Predoctoral Fellowship

Application for the 2023-24 fellowship is now closed

APPLICATION WINDOW

Open date: Thursday, February 16, 2023

Due date: Friday, March 10, 2023 at 11:59PM (Pacific Time)

We are pleased to announce that UC San Diego’s Black Studies Project is soliciting applications for its 2023-24 Pre-doctoral Fellowships. This fellowship will complement the existing quarter-long Dissertation fellowships for students well-advanced in the dissertation research and writing stage. Pre-doctoral fellowships provide support for one academic quarter to students in the earlier phases of dissertation project development. Each award includes fees, benefits, and a monthly stipend of $2,777.78, for one academic quarter of the awardee’s choice. In addition to advancing their research and/or writing, BSP Pre-doctoral Fellows are expected to: attend at least three (3) BSP events within the 2023-24 academic year; participate in the 2023-24 BSP Graduate Seminar which meets approximately twice per quarter; and attend at least one (1) BSP Graduate Writing Collective session per quarter within the 2023-24 academic year. Fellows must have completed their first two years of coursework in good standing. We recognize that milestones for doctoral students vary across departments as do funding strategies to support students as they prepare to advance to candidacy. In that spirit, the pre-doctoral fellowship may support students in the qualifying stage or those who are in the early stages of launching dissertation studies. If you have questions about your eligibility for this fellowship, please contact us. Successful applications will involve research projects that show promise for a sustained and substantive engagement with Black Studies and/or Black communities in Africa and the African Diaspora. The goal of this fellowship is to provide PhD students with academic guidance and support during the crucial period of conceptualizing their research topic by providing them an intellectual cohort of students and faculty through which they can strengthen their foundational knowledge and hone their critical analysis in the field of Black Studies. Priority will be given to PhD students in departments where faculty in Black Studies are underrepresented, to provide them with a firm foundation in the field as they begin their dissertation planning and research.

Black Studies Project @ UCSD

Eligible Recipients must be:

Registered UCSD graduate students, enrolled for the 2023-24 academic year
Doctoral students who have completed their first two years of coursework in good standing
In residence during their funding quarter (please note that BSP Graduate Seminar and Writing Collective sessions and a number of BSP events throughout the 2023-24 academic year will be in person only events)

Application Materials

Please complete the application form online at bit.ly/bsppredoc and upload a combined PDF with the following materials:

Project description (no more than 1200 words), including timetable for completion
Curriculum vitae
UCSD transcript (unofficial)

Notification and Acceptance: Fellowship recipients will be notified by the week of April 3, 2023, by email.

Please address questions to: Lorraine Makone, Associate Director, Black Studies Project, bsp@ucsd.edu

Faculty Fellowships

Application for the 2023-24 fellowship is now closed

APPLICATION WINDOW

Open date: Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Due date: Monday, March 6, 2023 at 11:59PM (Pacific Time)

The Black Studies Project @ UCSD is soliciting applications for its 2023-24 Faculty Fellowships. BSP Faculty Fellowships are intended to help faculty make significant progress on a major research project by providing one course release up to $8,500 and the opportunity to share their work with an interdisciplinary cadre of colleagues in the field of Black Studies. Eligible applicants must be ladder-rank, Senate faculty conducting research in African American, African, and/or African Diaspora Studies. Preference will be given to scholarship that explicitly engages the critical themes and key questions of the Black Studies Project (see below).

In addition to advancing their research and/or writing, BSP Faculty Fellows are expected to attend BSP events and to participate in the 2023-24 BSP Faculty seminars. Each Faculty Fellow will be responsible for organizing two workshop sessions for participants to give and receive feedback, including one on their own work. Faculty Fellows must be in residence during the fellowship term. While the award releases the recipient from teaching responsibilities, it does not exempt them from service and advising responsibilities. The award only releases faculty from one course during the 2023-24 academic year; it does not provide release from summer teaching, nor does it provide a salary supplement.

Black Studies Project @ UCSD

Application Guidelines:

A complete application should include:

Project description (1200 words maximum), including:
1. The significance and contribution to existing scholarship in Black Studies;
2. Any engagement with Black Studies Project’s three areas of focus (Intersectional Analysis of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality; Transnational and Diasporic Studies; Social Justice Movements);
3. Your research and/or writing aims for the term of the fellowship.
Workshop proposal, including:
1. A brief description of the specific work you plan to share with an interdisciplinary group of Black Studies scholars;
2. Potential scholars on or off our campus who you would be interested in inviting to share their scholarship at the BSP Faculty seminar.
Curriculum Vitae (3 pages maximum)
Letter from the applicant’s department chair, indicating approval of release time if an award is made and attesting to the timeliness of writing seminar and course release in helping applicants to complete the project in order to further their career goals.

All materials should be sent to Katia Todorova at email address ektodorova@ucsd.edu in pdf format. Fellowship recipients will be notified by the week of April 3 by email.

Research and Event Grants

Faculty Research Grants

BSP is currently accepting grant applications (see below for application link)

BSP provides ongoing faculty research support in the amount of grants of up to $4000. Awards support projects undertaken during the current academic year (2022-2023) or the next one (2023-2024). Proposals should support work distinct from other grant-supported aspects of an applicant’s research. Proposals are evaluated according to the potential for impact on an applicant’s research and professional advancement and the proposal’s alignment with BSP’s intellectual mission.

Examples of topical areas supported include—but are not limited to—social or ethical issues and opportunities related to intersectional analyses of race, class, gender, and sexuality; transnational and African diasporic studies; and social justice movements. Projects that are beneficial to establishing or sustaining relationships with the broader San Diego and UC communities are encouraged.

Likewise, projects that support teaching, mentorship, and/or efforts to enhance a thriving community of scholars and students who can connect with the Black Studies Project mission and aims will be considered. Some allowable expenses for project support include the following: honoraria for visiting speakers, allowable equipment costs, funding to support the hire of hourly undergraduate student assistants, costs associated with holding workshops and/or a small speaker series or conference on campus, research travel expenses. At this time, BSP does not solicit applications to fund faculty salary or travel to academic conferences.

Eligibility. Applicants must be internal UC San Diego faculty or research scientists. Applicants who receive funding agree to support the BSP community by attending two or more BSP events during the academic year.

To submit an application visit https://bit.ly/bspfacultygrants. Questions about funding can be addressed to Lorraine Makone at bsp@ucsd.edu

Faculty Summer GSR Fellowship

Interested applicants can submit an application for a Summer 2023 award by Friday, May 5, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

APPLICATION WINDOW

Open date: Friday, March 10, 2023

Due date: Friday, March 31, 2023 at 11:59PM (Pacific Time) (please refer to extended application deadline above)

The Black Studies Project is pleased to announce the Summer 2023 Graduate Student Researcher Award Program. These awards are designed for two purposes. They provide support for faculty to hire a graduate student to work with them for one to two months at 50% time on ongoing research projects that materially advance the faculty member’s career. Funds can be used to hire graduate students to assist with project development in any number of capacities. These might include:

research and data collection
producing bibliographies, assistance with indexing or proofing manuscripts
assistance with grant applications, symposia development, etc.

These awards are also designed to provide UCSD graduate students with vital funding during the summer months and an opportunity to work closely with a faculty member in ways that provide mentorship opportunities and hone critical research skills.

Awards will cover one to two months of summer GSR employment at 50% (up to 20 hours of work per week). Graduate students must be in good academic standing to be eligible for employment. BSP will transfer funds to the faculty applicant’s home department and the home department will process hiring.

The deadline to apply is March 31, 2023. Please apply by visiting bit.ly/summergsr. Applicants will be notified of the award by the week of May 1, 2023 and funds will be transferred by June 30, 2023. Applications should include:

A brief description of the research project and an overview of the tasks that the GSR will be asked to work on (1-2 pages).
The name of the student who you would like to propose for the position. Please specify if this student is eligible for additional summer 2023 GSR funding.

Priority will be given to untenured faculty applicants and for projects that advance the goals of the UCSD Black Studies Project. Preference will also be given to applicants in departments where summer funding for graduate students is not provided through other funding packages.

Please direct any questions to Lorraine Makone at bsp@ucsd.edu.

Graduate Student Research and Travel Grants

Applications for 2023-24 fellowship grants are now closed

APPLICATION WINDOW

Open date: Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Due date: Friday, March 31, 2023 at 11:59PM (Pacific Time)

BSP’s Graduate Student Research and Travel Grants awards are intended to partially offset research and travel expenses incurred in the U.S. or abroad. Supported research must examine some element of the black experience and/or the social, political, cultural, or economic factors that have shaped conceptions of blackness in relation to racialized structures and phenomena. Although preference will be given to dissertations/final projects that center such questions and themes, applications will be accepted from any project that contains at least one chapter/a main focus in a creative project that falls under the category of Black Studies.

Awards are intended for research travel before December 30, 2023 and will not exceed $2500. Funds may be used for travel, accommodations, meals, research assistance, copies, and in some cases supplies such as cameras or recording devices.

Criteria for Selection.

A research project that will increase knowledge about topics and themes of importance to Black Studies
Intellectual originality and breadth
Clarity and strength of the research plan, design and methodology

Eligibility. Applicants must be currently registered UCSD graduate students. If funds will be used in Fall 2023, applicants must also be enrolled at that time.

To apply please complete and submit an application online at https://bit.ly/bspgradgrant by the due date.

Please direct any questions to Katia Todorova, Staff Coordinator, Black Studies Project:
bsp@ucsd.edu.

BSP Graduate Student Researcher

Application for the 2023-24 GSR position is now closed

The Black Studies Project (BSP) is looking to hire a three-quarter 50% GSR for the 2023-2024 academic year. The position comes with allocated summer 2023 funding. The GSRs' responsibility will be to work with the BSP Co-Directors, Associate Director, and Special Events Coordinator to plan, organize, coordinate and advertise virtual and in-person events. These events include the BSP Graduate Student Seminar, the BSP Graduate Writing Collective, special events with BSP Fellows, and on and off-campus speakers.

Familiarity with Black Studies scholarship and some graphic design experience for work on flyers is required. Strong writing skills and experience updating websites and social media platforms is preferred. GSRs must be available to help with onsite event set-ups and logistics.

To apply please complete an application at bit.ly/yearlonggsr and upload a combined PDF containing:

A CV (2 pages max)
A brief letter of interest describing your experience relevant to the position. Please detail any experiences you have working with on-campus organizations (e.g., the BRC, BGPSA, BGELLC, etc.) and/or off-campus community groups.

The deadline to submit is Tuesday, March 28, 2023, 11:59PM (PST). Appointment decisions will be disseminated the week of April 3 by email. Please direct any questions to Lorraine Makone at bsp@ucsd.edu.

Social Impact Scholar: Black Futures Lab Summer Remote Internship Position

Applications currently closed

This competitive ten-week summer internship with Black Futures Lab (BFL) engages interns to help identify and analyze policy as it impacts Black communities. The goal of this internship is to build mutually sustaining networks of collaboration between UCSD scholars, students, and community stakeholders and the Black Futures Lab in pursuit of social and racial justice, Strong candidates must be currently engaged in projects and initiatives on and/or off campus that engage in the critical themes and key questions of the Black Studies Project and Black Futures Lab.This opportunity provides student participants a stipend for the internship as part of the Division of Social Sciences’ Social Impact Scholars Program.

Harriet Tubman Undergraduate Advocacy Awards

BSP is currently accepting nominations

Every spring BSP awards stipends of $1500 to undergraduates who have served the UCSD community as student leaders. If you would like to nominate a student for an award, please send an email to bsp@ucsd.edu by April 30, 2023. Please refer to the “Harriet Tubman Undergraduate Advocacy Award” in the subject line. Staff and faculty may nominate undergraduate students in any year of study and should include a short letter explaining how the student has been a community and/or research advocate among their peers in promoting goals related to BSP’s mission.

Grants for Co-Sponsorships

BSP provides small grants (from $150-$500) to co-sponsor events on campus. Want to bring a speaker? Host an event? These grants run throughout the year while funding is available, and support activities that correspond with BSP’s mission. Please direct any inquiries to bsp@ucsd.edu. Please include “Co-sponsorship grant request” in the subject line. Requests should include the name of the event, projected date, format (remote or in-person), potential audience, and organizing committee information. Faculty, staff and student organizations may apply.