CHESS Initiative on Very Important Questions

CIVIQ will provide awards to two project teams per year. Each team will receive $8,000-10,000 to support research and the public-facing expression of that research. Each team will be comprised of two or three co-PIs, each of whom will receive a one-course reassignment to dedicate extra time to the research project and/or the public-facing expression of their project. Teams may include other non-PI collaborators, but no more than three members may be listed as co-PIs. All full-time faculty with a primary appointment in CHESS may apply as co-PI, regardless of rank.

Projects must address a Very Important Question that confronts the world today or has done so in the past. What constitutes a “Very Important Question” should be construed broadly to include any major issue or challenge that confronts the Charlotte area, North Carolina, or any other society/region, or that poses an intellectual, philosophical, religious or other conceptual problem. Proposals are welcome from all areas of study and methodological approaches.

The products of CIVIQ-sponsored research must be addressed at least in part to broad, non-scholarly audiences. This public-facing expression of research may take the form of an exhibition, a public event, co-presentation of a collaborative research project with a community partner, a website or other form of electronic media production, or any other public-facing modality that showcases a research team’s project.

Projects should also contribute to the research teams’ disciplines or fields of study. They should result in scholarly publication(s), research presentations/papers, grant proposal(s), or some other commensurate expression of scholarship.

Each fall semester, CHESS will issue a call for proposals available to all faculty. Faculty teams will submit a narrative proposal of no more than three single-spaced pages that includes the following:

• A project title and clear articulation of the Very Important Question that the project will address.
• A description of the project’s research agenda, methods, and the nature of its expected findings or results.
• A clearly articulated explanation of the project’s contribution to interdisciplinarity in the Humanities and Earth and Social Sciences.
• A list of the project participants. This list should identify up to three co-PIs from at least 2 CHESS departments as well as any other contributors to the project. All co-PIs must be full-time faculty with a primary appointment in CHESS. Other contributors need not be CHESS faculty and can include graduate or undergraduate students, or faculty or students from other colleges.
• A description of the public-facing presentation or deliverable resulting from the research project.
• A narrative justifying the project’s proposed budget. (Note that project budgets may not be used to support faculty stipends.)

A complete application will consist of (1) the proposal described directly above; (2) a budget of $8,000-10,000 to pay for project research expenses and to support the public-facing research product; (3) short CVs from each PI; and (4) a brief statement from each PI’s department chair approving a course release should the proposal be approved. Note that departments will receive backfill to hire a part-time instructor to make up for faculty release time.

The elected Faculty Development Awards Committee will review applications and evaluate each project’s potential contribution to the areas mentioned above. The committee will rank applications and recommend two projects for CIVIQ Research Awards per year. The Dean will make the final decision. Research teams may request renewals for a second year of funding, but priority will be given to research teams and proposals that have yet to receive support. PIs may choose to take their course release either in the spring or fall semester, subject to the approval of the department chair. A project team is encouraged to avoid requesting more than one course release from a single department per year and must have the chair’s written permission if they do so.

CIVIQ will provide up to three awards per year to promote interdisciplinary team teaching. Teaching teams will include two full-time faculty members who will collectively develop a course during the first year of the award, which they will teach the subsequent academic year (or two). The participation of one instructor from a non-CHESS department is permissible if approved by their department chair and dean. Teaching teams must hold appointments in two different departments, and both instructors should attend and co-teach classes throughout the semester (as opposed to one instructor teaching some class sessions and the other teaching the remainder).

To ensure this program is enrollment neutral, teams will be expected either (a) to teach courses with enrollments that are twice the size of the class’s normal maximum enrollment; or (b) to teach normal-enrollment courses for two consecutive years, with each faculty member doing so as an overload for one of those years.

Teams will receive a $3,000 stipend to support development of the course. CIVIQ courses must address a Very Important Question that confronts the world today or has done so in the past. What constitutes a “Very Important Question” should be construed broadly to include any major issue or challenge that confronts the Charlotte area, North Carolina, or any other society/region, or that poses an intellectual, philosophical, religious or other conceptual problem. Proposals are welcome from all areas of study and methodological approaches. All full-time faculty may participate, regardless of rank.

Each fall semester, CHESS will issue a call for proposals. Faculty teams will submit a proposal of no more than three single-spaced pages that includes the following:

• A course title and clear articulation of what Very Important Question it will address.
• A brief description of the course’s content, modality, learning outcomes, proposed enrollment cap, and any other relevant descriptors. Enrollment should not be less than 25 students, and larger classes will normally be encouraged.
• A clearly articulated explanation of the course’s contribution to interdisciplinarity in the Humanities and Earth and Social Sciences.
• A list of the instructors and their respective contributions to the course. Instructors must be full-time faculty and at least one must have their primary appointment in CHESS.
• An explanation of how the $3,000 stipend will be used. These funds may support development of the course and/or pay for a learning activity for students enrolled in the class.

A complete application will consist of (1) the proposal described above; (2) short (3-page) CVs from each instructor; and (3) a brief statement from each instructor’s department chair approving the proposed course.

Because these team-taught courses will be enrollment neutral, departments will not receive backfill.

The elected Faculty Development Awards Committee will review applications and evaluate each project’s potential contribution to the areas mentioned above. The committee will rank applications and recommend and recommend up to three projects for the CIVIQ Teaching Award per year. The Dean will make the final decision.