Central New York Humanities Corridor

About

The Central New York Humanities Corridor is a unique regional collaboration between Syracuse University, Cornell University, University of Rochester, Le Moyne College, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Schools of the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium: Colgate University, Hamilton College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Skidmore College, St. Lawrence University, Union College. In 2014, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a total of $3.55 million to the Central New York Humanities Corridor, permanently endowing the Corridor at each of its three founding institutions. 

The Corridor is designed to enhance the profile, scholarly prominence, and impact of interdisciplinary humanities in Central New York; advance individual and collaborative teaching, research, and public engagement in the humanities; increase connectivity and collaboration among academic humanists throughout the region; foster cross-institutional partnerships and resource-sharing mechanisms in emerging and established scholarly fields; and enhance the productivity of its key scholars, students, and community members.

The Corridor is driven by working groups formed by scholars from across Corridor institutions to collaborate on a particular project/topic/concern. Groups may apply for funds to host academic year activities (webinars, writing groups, colloquia, performances, screenings, teaching exchanges, workshops). Working group activities take many forms, and the possibilities are endless—from a deep dive into a discipline to broad interdisciplinary queries, from convening to develop manuscripts, explore humanities methods or pedagogies, or reflect on the future of the humanities to advancing community engagement or examining how the humanities can help solve pressing social issues.

Get Involved

All faculty, academic staff, and humanities-affiliated administrators are eligible to apply for Corridor funding. Additionally, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are welcome to participate in working groups, but such individuals cannot be considered working group organizers, and they should not be principally responsible for planning and organizing your working group's activities.

People new to the Corridor can get involved in a variety of ways. 

• Browse the existing working groups to see if there is an active group already in your research area; If so, contact one of the listed organizers.
• Contact your own Humanities Center Director for suggestions as to potential collaborators.
• Start your own working group: Identify one or more collaborators at another Corridor institution and submit a proposal during one of the two annual CFP periods (typically in March and October).

Apply for Funds

Working Groups: The Corridor hosts two annual CFP cycles during which new or existing working groups can apply for funding. View the latest CFP here. The CFP provides details about funding levels and the mechanics of working group formation. The next deadline for applications is October 19, 2020.

Corridor Conference Initiative: Cornell offers additional funds for larger-scale, typically multi-day, conferences or workshops that will take place on Cornell's campus and are open to the public. Up to $10,000 may be awarded to seed conferences or workshops co-created by Cornell faculty with Corridor collaborators. Read more information and application guidelines for Cornell's Corridor Conference Initiative.

Things to Avoid (in Budgets and Planning):

• Paying students: Direct payments to students are not allowed using Corridor funding. That includes both undergraduate and graduate students.
• Paying individual people within the Corridor: The Corridor does not allow honoraria (or commissions, etc.) to be paid to employees (faculty and/or staff) at the 11 Corridor institutions.
• Websites: Creating websites for Corridor events or groups is strongly discouraged. Maintaining websites for accuracy, accessibility, and more requires a long-term plan, and Corridor funding cannot be used for continued upkeep. Instead, consider using other tools for sharing resources among your working group participants or creating a web page on an existing departmental website.

Resources for Virtual Events:

• For an invite-only group, Canvas can be a useful tool to organize event information, upload materials, and facilitate discussion. Department staff, CIT, and/or A&S IT should be able to provide Canvas support. Canvas sites can be made available to folks outside of Cornell.
• Box is a Cornell-supported tool for file sharing.
• CIT can provide zoom event support, including sending out invitations, managing entry and exit into waiting rooms, assigning people to small groups for discussion, recording the event, and trouble-shooting: (incurs fees).
• Eventbrite can be a useful tool for organizing and publicizing registration for large public zoom webinars:
• Consider accessibility services.

Intra-Corridor Travel Fund

Cornell faculty, academic staff, and graduate students may seek travel reimbursement for Corridor-sponsored working group activities or public events located on another Corridor campus. Please refer to these Intra-Corridor Travel Fund guidelines before submitting your request to Emily Parsons at elp25@cornell.edu.

Questions?

The Corridor website contains much more information, including a helpful FAQ page and guidelines for working groups operating under 2020-21 COVID-19 restrictions.

Cornell community members with questions about the Corridor should contact Emily Parsons (elp25@cornell.edu), Program Manager for the Society for the Humanities.