RESEARCH INNOVATION LABS
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS
Investment: $300,000
The College of Arts and Letters and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA) invite proposals for an inaugural cluster of Research Innovation Labs, to begin work during the 2024-2025 academic year.
These labs encourage collaborative research outside of departmental and institutional confines so that participants can radically reimagine the way their work can inform, influence, and inspire innovative scholarship.
In order to provide leadership in advancing thoughtful answers to the world’s urgent questions, the College of Arts & Letters is establishing Research Innovation Labs.
Each Research Innovation Lab will consist of a group of scholars pursuing a core question (or small set of closely related questions) collaboratively and from transdisciplinary perspectives. Labs will foster research, teaching, and outreach, deepening connections across disciplines, and bringing the insights of the liberal arts to public life.
“In order to be leaders in developing thoughtful, transdisciplinary answers to a world confronted with urgent questions, the College of Arts & Letters will develop a new environment in which scholars are encouraged to break outside of departmental and institutional confines to radically reimagine the way their work can inform, influence, and inspire the wider public.”
Sarah Mustillo
I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean, Professor of Sociology
Research Innovation Labs will take two forms: Humanities Research Labs, devoted to “big questions” in the humanities approached from transdisciplinary perspectives; and Strategic Theme Labs, open to all college disciplines, addressing research questions related to the campus-wide strategic themes of poverty, democracy, and ethics. To investigate these questions and themes, labs may engage in a wide variety of activities, including but not limited to public events and exhibitions, scholarly publications, digital resources, and course development.