Fund for Innovation in Teaching
Fund for Innovation in Teaching
The Fund for Innovation in Teaching supports academic activities that foster innovation in pedagogy. Its goal is to enhance student learning by extending existing field-basedboundaries and challenging standard pedagogical methods. The Fund for Innovation in Teaching was established with a major gift to The Bold Standard, Barnard's capital campaign.
The 2022-2023 grant cycle has ended.
Please check this page in Spring 2024 for updated information.
FIT Grant
Call for Proposals
We seek full-time faculty proposals, especially proposals to develop innovative courses featuring inventive ways of incorporating today's most advanced technologies into the classroom and expanding our students' understanding and ability to utilize digital tools and techniques. Faculty who wish to apply for funding are encouraged to think widely.
- Proposals should be based on well-considered ideas but need not be fully vetted ones.
- Proposals can utilize new technologies, building on the courses and activities funded through the former Committee for Online and On-Campus and Learning (COOL), the Barnard Teaches: Real Place + Digital Access grant, and various ongoing IMATS initiatives.
- Faculty can think of this as a funded opportunity to test ideas, and risk failure.
Grant proposals can be collaborative and multi-year, and up to $35,000 may be requested for any single proposal.
Summer salary associated with new course development may be requested in the proposal (with 37% added to the amount to cover fringe benefits), or proposals may request a course release at the budgeted rate of 12.5% of the requesting faculty member's salary.
Proposal Requirements
- Maximum of 3 pages
- Single-spaced, 12-point type
- Initial budget estimate (not included in page maximum)
- Any proposal for a new or altered course must state which Foundations requirement(s) the course will fulfill.
How to Apply
For consideration, please send complete proposals to Vice Provost Reshmi Mukherjee (rmukherj@barnard.edu) with a copy to Bobby O'Rourke (rorourke@barnard.edu) and Tina Simpson (tsimpson@barnard.edu) by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday March 21st, 2023.
Selection
Proposal submissions will be selected by the President, after recommendations from the Grants Committee and in close consultation with the Provost.
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Grant
Call for Proposals
A supplementary fund, for Academic Year 2022-23, is available to enable the design of courses and projects that address antiracism and structures of power, with an expectation of interdisciplinarity.
Faculty Proposals may focus on:
- modifying existing courses that center race and antiracism to deepen and enhance engagement with issues of race and power, either in the past or contemporarily. New course proposals may also take into account disciplinary and geographic shifts in content and approaches. Funds may be requested for inviting guest speakers, creating virtual conversations and projects across institutions, developing community-based learning, attending summer institutes, etc.
- the creation of a cluster of courses (a curricular pathway) within a department or interdepartmentally that explores the history of academic disciplines and race, difference, and power. For example, funds could be used to develop a multi-departmental course and workshops to redesign core curricula and or design new courses that address such issues in scholarly disciplines-- for example, Chemistry and Race, or, Anti-blackness in Latin American Studies.
- the creation of a departmental or disciplinary archive, repository, syllabus on race and antiracism within the discipline. Funds could be used for a research assistant, study group, or faculty workshops.
See recent the recent race and ethnicity project in Classics and the Standing Rock Syllabus.
Proposal Requirements
Proposals should not exceed 5 pages and include:
- Course or Project Description: Provide an overview of the course or project, including a strong rationale for the project. Include intended audience, student, and departmental impact.
- Outcomes: Describe the existing or new course’s key learning outcomes or the expected outcomes for the project.
- Project Activities: Describe the course or project activities. Describe the course design as it currently exists or the vision for a new course or curricular pathway. If you are proposing a departmental archive, repository, etc., please describe the primary activities for accomplishing the project.
- Assessment/Evaluation Plan: Describe a plan to measure the impact on student learning and the course or project outcomes and effectiveness. What would you need to keep this course sustainable?
- Budget and Budget Justification: We will accept proposals for up to $12,000. Provide a detailed budget and budget justification for funds. Funds are available for course preparation, external course content, technology and media development costs, administrative costs, and teaching assistants/course assistants.
Successful proposals will:
- Specify which learning outcomes will be enhanced or improved through the course design or redesign. In the case of a departmental repository or tool, specify how this tool or resource would enhance departmental culture or teaching practices.
- Describe how the course design or redesign will structure the student learning experience and DEI goals of the College through its focus on issues of race and power, including your plans for enhanced engagement with course materials, instructors, faculty, and students.
- Articulate how the course design or redesign, curricular pathway, or project aligns with theories and methods in teaching and learning. Preference will be given for proposals that address theories and methods explicitly oriented towards diversity, equity and inclusion.
- If applicable, describe in-depth the technologies and/or media and how their inclusion will enhance student engagement and learning or departmental culture.
- Describe course assessments or appropriate changes to the current assessments (e.g., assignments, exams, projects, problem sets, etc.) as part of the course design or redesign.
How to Apply
Send completed proposal to fdd@barnard.edu by March 21, 2023.
Applicants are encouraged to consult the Center for Engaged Pedagogy and/or the Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion for support and guidance.
Selection
The proposals will be reviewed by the Dean for Faculty Diversity and Development in collaboration with the VP DEI and CEP Director. Recommendations will be made to the President and Provost who will be responsible for final determination of awards as with other institutional grants.
Current DEI FIT Grant projects
Christina Van Dyke (Philosophy) - Antiracial enhancement of “The Ethics of Identity” and “Introduction to Philosophy” courses
Van Dyke will revise and enhance two courses in the Department of Philosophy with a DEI lens: The Ethics of Identity and Introduction to Philosophy.” With the support of a Research Assistant, new course materials will be found and incorporated into the syllabi, course activities will be revised, and two speakers–one each per course–will be invited to the classroom. The revisions will be guided by gender, race and disability lenses.
Hadley Suter (French) - Decolonizing Surrealism
In order to decolonize the Surrealism course in the French Department, Suter will revise the canonical list of readings that exclude non-white artists and writers, and invite three speakers with expertise in the fields of Caribbean and Arab Surrealism. The funding will cover honoraria for speakers, and daycare for Dr. Suter’s son for the two months during which she will develop the course content. Through the revised content, including the lectures of invited speakers, Suter will teach Surrealism not only as “a literary and artistic practice focused on the individual’s psycho-creative potential,” but also as an umbrella term that includes “the collective, revolutionary intentions that defined Black and Arab iterations of the movement” (in Suter’s words).
Javier Pérez-Zapatero (Spanish and Latin American Cultures) - An Online Didactic Archive on LGBT+ and Intersectional Issues
The main goal of this project is to launch a website under the name and (already existing) domain www.contextoelegtbplus.com (Español Lengua Extranjera en el contexto LGTB+ [Spanish as a Second Language in the LGBT+ Context]). In Pérez-Zapatero’s words, this will be “a site for professionals with a repertoire of authentic and academically relevant documents related to the LGBT+ context for teaching Spanish as a Second Language.” Unlike a conventional digital textbook or an online course, it will be an easy-to-navigate gateway to a variety of content on LGBT+ issues that will help users learn Spanish as a Second Language by adopting multiple and DEI-informed modes of thinking. Some of the costs the grant will cover include web design, web launching, domain maintenance, research expenses, and conference participation expenses for Pérez-Zapatero to present and improve this work.
Lesley Sharp (Anthropology) - A Pedagogy of Incarceration
Sharp will revise and teach her course “Absent Bodies” (to be renamed “Absence/Presence”) as a semester-long exchange between complementary cohorts of Barnard and Columbia students, and of incarcerated men enrolled in the Bard Prison Initiative’s (BPI) “College Behind Bars” Program. Over the course of the summer, Sharp will reconfigure the course content, and develop inclusive pedagogical strategies and tactics that are tailored to the specificities of her radically diverse student body. While doing so, she will build on her expertise in medical anthropology and her experience in teaching as a BPI instructor.
Lisa Edstrom (Education) - Enhancing the “Families, Communities & Schools” course in the Education Program
This project aims to revise and improve the content of the course entitled “EDUC 3034: Families, Communities & Schools” in order to transform it into a community-based learning experience. The course focuses on the relationships between families and schools with a special attention on the situatedness of both in local communities. The course has a fieldwork component, which will be supported by the grant. The grant will also cover the costs of the resources to build strong and lasting partnerships with the schools in Community School District 5 of the NYC Department of Education, located in Harlem, NY, as well as the cost of digital and technological tools for students from all backgrounds to be able to create multimedia projects.
Meenakshi Rao (Chemistry) - Academic Bridge program for students in the HEOP and CSTEP programs
This project aims to complement the mandatory summer bridge (pre-orientation) program offered by Access Barnard to students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Through this program, international and first-generation and/or low-income, HEOP (Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program), and CSTEP (Collegiate Science Technology Entry Program) students begin the transition to Barnard College. Dr. Rao aims to support the development of the science identities of minority and disadvantaged students in STEM. To do so, this project will offer exclusive office hours for these students in order to enhance their meaningful and pedagogically enriched engagement with faculty members. The grant will cover the stipends of Dr. Rao and a student assistant who will coordinate this program throughout the 2023-24 academic year.
Roberto Sirvent (Political Science) - Enhancing the “Slavery and its Afterlives” course
The goals of this project are the revision of the content of the “Slavery and its Afterlives” course, and the creation of a community resource guide, titled “Teaching About Resistance, Revolts, and Revolution Through Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Animated TV” (in collaboration with the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.). Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sirvent will invite to the classroom guest speakers who can offer their analyses and insights on anti-Blackness in today’s political climate. Meanwhile, the community resource guide that will be created with the support of two research assistants will be made available to the general public. Other than the stipends of these two assistants, the grant will cover honoraria, comic books for community research guide research, and books for course preparation.
Past DEI FIT Grant Awardees
Celia E. Nailor - Transforming “Introduction to African-American History”
Celia E. Naylor received one of the Fund for Innovation in Teaching grants for her project to transform “Introduction to African-American History"; this is one of the courses she has been teaching since her tenure at Barnard began in 2010. Fundamental to the curriculum at Barnard, this (or a similar) course was not taught prior to 2010. As part of the project, Naylor will redesign assignments with an emphasis on the interdisciplinary dimensions of African-American Studies; explore potential avenues for community engagement projects that can enrich the course; invite at least three guest speakers; and organize a “field trip” in the New York area. A Barnard student who previously took the course with Naylor (Mikayla "Mika" Moaney, Class of 2024) worked as the undergraduate student assistant for this project. Moaney worked collaboratively with Naylor in order to revise the course; her previous experiences with the course helped with decisions regarding the various changes related to this project. Moaney will continue to work with Naylor in the fall of 2022.
Erika M. Kitzmiller - Revising and Reimagining Pedagogy to Advance Anti-Racist Inquiry and Practice
Erika M. Kitzmiller will revise and reimagine three courses as part of her funded project. While she will revise and develop “Purposes and Aims of Educational Policy (EDUC 3032)” and “Arts and Humanities in the City (EDUC 3055),” she will design a new course, titled “Grace Lee Boggs Learning Lab" that she will co-teach with Dr. Saima Akhtar Spring 2023. Additionally, Kitzmiller is in the process of creating an online public course and digital humanities website for her book, The Roots of Educational Inequality (Penn Press, 2022). The Fund supported the fees of consultants and educator guest speakers, the wages of research and teaching assistants, and the purchase of resource materials.
Jon Snow and Jessica Goldstein - Introductory Biology: Using Small Group Discussions for Community Building and Contextualizing Biology within Society
Jon Snow and Jessica Goldstein of the Biology Department will restructure the curriculum of the introductory biology sequence in order to initiate a STEM- oriented community building space at Barnard College. Their primary aim is to support students in their early STEM careers with inclusive pedagogical strategies that enhance active learning and create a sense of belonging among students. The Fund supported the fees of pedagogy workshops facilitators, the guest speaker fees, travel expenses, and the summer salary of one project lead.
Meenakshi S. Rao - CSTEP Intensive Research Track Workshops
The Grant Supported Meenakshi Rao’s project to design and hold Intensive Research Track Workshops as part of CSTEP (The Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program) during the academic year, for students who were enrolled in the summer Intensive Research Track Workshop. The project aims to increase the number of women of color who come with marginalized and FLI backgrounds in the field of STEM and research, as well as to increase the retention of all underrepresented students in Barnard STEM majors. The Fund supported the travel expenses of speakers, refreshment expenses, and the stipend of the instructor.
Paul Scolieri - Department of Dance – Anti-Racism in Dance
The Fund supported the Department of Dance to collaborate with the diversity strategist and arts consultant Theresa Ruth Howard. Throughout 2021-2022, Howard led workshops and lectures on anti-racist approaches to dance curation, research, and the creative process.
Alexandra Watson - Cite Black Barnard Faculty
The main goal of Alexandra Watson’s project was to create an immersive and collective digital resource, titled Cite Black Barnard Faculty (CBBF), in order to promote the increased recognition and citation of the works of Black Barnard faculty. The project's activities included a faculty and staff "cite-a-thon" in which participants engaged with and wrote annotations of texts by Black faculty; a multimedia exhibit in Barnard's Movement Lab; and the first Black Faculty Salon, featuring Professors Monica Miller and Kim Hall. The Fund supported student support; website design and development; and website hosting. The resource, which includes a robust list of texts by Black Barnard faculty, may be found here.