Dean’s Discretionary Fund

As Dean of the College’s Division of Humanities, I welcome proposals for support from the dean’s discretionary fund for AY 23-24. Priority is given to proposals that contain one or more of the following criteria:

1. Research funding requests from faculty members who do not already have a general purpose research fund available to them.
2. Funding requests for conferences or seminars to be held at UCLA, which will benefit many Humanities faculty members and students.

Given that the available funds are limited, the majority of awards are given out in the range of $500 to $1,500, though in exceptional cases higher awards will be made if it is established that several faculty members will benefit. In the case of conference support, the proposal needs to demonstrate that the conference organizers will seek funding from other sources in addition to the Humanities Division.

If you wish to request support for the upcoming deadline, please include:

1. A description of the support you are requesting (conference, seminar, etc.), including a brief statement making a case for the intellectual merits of the project.
2. An itemization of the budget that also details funding requests to all other sources, including the Academic Senate, with information on whether funding has been received.
3. In the case of a workshop or conference, an estimation of the likely number of attendees, and/or a statement of how the event will benefit other faculty members and students at UCLA (with particular reference to Humanities scholars per se).

I also wish to note that applicants should submit funding requests for their project long enough in advance to allow for ample time for a funding decision prior to the project’s own deadline. To assist with this, I am providing you with the submission deadlines for the whole academic year, as follows:

Quarter Request Due By Funding Decisions By
Fall 2023 11-Sep-23 2-Oct-23
Winter 2024 8-Jan-24 5-Feb-24
Spring 2024 8-Apr-24 6-May-24


Alexandra Minna Stern

Dean, Division of Humanities

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