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2025 Faculty Fellowships

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

 

MAJS Summer Teaching, Research, and Project Fellowships Summer 2025

 

LMU’s Media, Arts, and a Just Society (MAJS) initiative promotes interdisciplinary media studies, teaching, and activities. MAJS endeavors to bring faculty and students from all disciplines together to create and critically interrogate media practices and texts, and to cultivate and convene thought leaders committed to ethical reporting, production, and storytelling practices. In tandem with many of LMU’s academic programs and courses, MAJS seeks to cultivate media-literate global citizens who are actively invested in their communities.

MAJS Summer Fellowships are funded by a generous donation from a member of LMU’s Board of Trustees to support interdisciplinary course development, research, or creative projects that address any issue or topic surrounding media industries, texts, contexts, ethical challenges, etc.

The following thoughts and priorities are provided to guide your thinking. We encourage creativity and imagination aligned with the MAJS vision from all disciplines and perspectives that will animate this vision and demonstrate its continued potential.

Examples of potential research topics might include (but are not limited to):

  • Truth and accuracy in reporting and news
  • The role of ethical narrative/story telling in media production and promotion
  • Media coverage of critical contemporary topics (for example, homelessness, war in the Middle East, oligarchies, structural racism, AI, gender identity and inequity, environmental justice, etc.)

Examples of potential creative projects might include (but are not limited to):

  • Development of a podcast pilot
  • Reportage or story for any media format
  • Media workshops for community organizations or publics
  • Productions for/with community partners

Examples of course development/team teaching proposals:

  • Proposals from two or more faculty from different departments/colleges to develop courses associated with the MAJS mission, goals, and themes (preference given to courses that would be open to all LMU students, such as unrestricted Core or electives, or courses that count among requirements across two or more majors).
  • Proposals for global or domestic immersion courses (for summer 2026 or beyond) taught/facilitated by two or more faculty from different disciplines/colleges that would serve students in those and other programs (as parenthetical above).
  • Proposals for collaborative development of interdisciplinary online or f2f practicums, workshops, or signature capstone experiences related to MAJS goals and priorities.

TO APPLY: Submit a Description/Rationale summarizing the course or project and explaining how the course or project connects to MAJS. Explain plans for bringing the project to fruition (including proposed outcomes such as a paper, article, podcast, course, etc.). Include any specific budget needs, as well as any matching funds, if available (e.g., from school/college sources, other LMU funding initiatives, external grants, etc.). Attach the Signature Sheet (Chair and Dean signatures required) for each faculty member on the project. All proposals must be interdisciplinary in terms of participants, goals, and outcomes. Proposals should articulate how students will be engaged or otherwise benefit from the work. Funds are meant to support faculty time for collaborative ideation, course development, and project-based work. MAJS Summer Fellowships may not be used for equipment purchases (there are other funding avenues for those). The proposal should be no more than three single-spaced pages in length. Please submit using this Qualtrics link.

AVAILABLE FUNDING: Course development stipends will be $5000-$7500 per course (with hopes of supporting at least two course development applications in each funding cycle, with 2-3 faculty each receiving $2500 summer stipends each). Research or creative projects can receive up to $15,000 per project.

This is the third year for the MAJS Summer Fellowships. To find out more about previously funded faculty research and course development, please visit the MAJS website: here.

Deadline for proposals is 5 p.m. on MARCH 24, 2025. Review of applications will begin immediately, and award notifications will be communicated as soon as possible after the deadline.

MAJS was originally imagined by the Deans and faculty from the Bellarmine College of the Liberal Arts, College of Communication and Fine Arts, and the School of Film and Television and facilitated by Carol Costello, Special Advisor and Ambassador at LMU, in response to President Snyder’s call to develop LMU’s cross-school interdisciplinarity. Professor Evelyn McDonnell has been MAJS faculty director since January 2024. For questions and to discuss the compatibility of your potential proposal with the mission of MAJS, please contact Evelyn.McDonnell@LMU.edu. For questions as to how your project is workable in relation to your school/college and department responsibilities, please discuss with your chairs and deans. Proposals will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary panel of faculty from the three schools/colleges (BCLA, CFA, and SFTV).

Expectations:

  • Recipients of fellowships for creative or research projects are expected to provide a brief project update by September 30, 2025, and to present their outcomes at an on-campus event (faculty and/or student research symposium, gallery or library exhibition, public performance or screening, etc.).
  • MAJS fellowships in support of course development should result in courses being offered in the earliest possible semester following the award to allow for routine course approval processes at department and college levels (and by UCCC, if necessary).
  • The final project report and list of outcomes, including descriptions of student engagement and learning outcomes, will be due at the end of the calendar year following the date of the award, and must be submitted and approved prior to requests for future funding. Resulting syllabi should be submitted as appendices.

Eligibility Requirements:

  • Any full-time faculty member may apply (term or tenure track). Applicants may apply individually or as a pair/group. Preference will be given to faculty who have not already received a summer grant or fellowship from an LMU funding source for summer 2025 and have not received a MAJS fellowship in the past.
  • Faculty from all schools and colleges are eligible to be part of projects and courses submitted for funding. Collaborators may be from LMU schools/colleges other than BCLA, CFA, or SFTV, but some matching support from the other Dean(s) may be expected and should be discussed with the respective Dean(s) prior to application.
  • Selection preference will be given for proposals involving collaboration across the schools/colleges and, in the case of research or creative projects, for proposals that include student collaborators.
  • A preference and consideration will be given to projects that incorporate undergraduate student collaborators who are funded on Rains or SURP (or other grant funding the faculty member may have that includes student research or project support) and to projects that include graduate students currently enrolled in a BCLA, CFA, or SFTV Master’s program doing credit-bearing supervised experience or thesis/capstone projects with students. Selection preferences linked with collaborative funding extend the potential of the MAJS awards to support more faculty and students.