Research Support
The goal of the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA) is to help build, sustain, and renew a distinguished faculty in the arts, humanities, and the social sciences, to foster graduate and undergraduate student research and professional development, and to facilitate and enhance the intellectual life of the college and campus.
To accomplish these goals, ISLA provides grants for faculty research and creative activities, travel to international conferences, curriculum development, visiting speakers and conferences, and publication subventions.
ISLA funds and supervises the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and provides professional development assistance and research funding support for graduate students in the College of Arts and Letters.
ISLA is also the College’s clearinghouse for information, advice, and assistance in finding and obtaining grant funds from public and private agencies for any academic purpose. Institute staff assist faculty in several ways: advising faculty regarding the content of grant proposals; assisting in the preparation of proposal budgets; critiquing draft proposals; and ushering proposals through the administrative review process.
In support of this effort, ISLA provides seed money for projects to prepare the way for grant applications, maintains a library that includes computerized grant search databases, and hosts grant proposal workshops during the year. ISLA offers a variety of other faculty development activities, such as workshops on academic writing and publishing with an academic press.
ISLA also provides comprehensive assistance with planning, organizing, and running conferences and lecture series for faculty in the College.
ISLA collaborates with faculty to facilitate their long-term research plans, and maintains lines of communication with the Office of Research in the Graduate School and with Corporate and Foundation Relations in Development.
ISLA also provides information, advice, and assistance in finding and obtaining grant funds and in areas related to professional development for graduate students.
