Faculty Grants
The Benson Center funds research and educational initiatives that contribute to critical reflection on the development of Western civilization. Although funding is open to any faculty at , special consideration is given to faculty fellows, and those who have a demonstrated interest in the study of Western Civ through participation at Center events. Faculty interested in applying for grants should consider applying as faculty fellows, which is a year-long appointment to participate in Center programming and includes a $4,000 stipend.
Faculty grants are awarded three times throughout the academic year. The deadlines to apply are September 1, December 1, and March 1. Faculty with off-cycle requests should email BensonCenter@colorado.edu. Recipients of funding are asked to acknowledge the Center in event advertising and submit a brief online report no later than 1 month after the conclusion of the activity. The reports help the Center attract donor funding for future faculty grants.
We are particularly interested in funding initiatives of the following kinds:
- Scholarly Lecturers
- Public Lectures
- Conferences
- Educational Initiatives
- Outreach visits to local schools, retirement communities, etc.
- Funding for students you’re working with
- Research funds or course buyouts
Other sorts of initiatives may also be eligible, but we do not fund faculty travel to other places.
Applications should consist of the following materials:
- The mandatory application form (available here);
- A narrative explaining the proposal;
- A concise budget;
- Information (a short CV, for instance) about visiting speakers (if any), including preliminary visit dates
All of this information should be submitted via email to BensonCenter@colorado.edu. We prefer, if possible, that you submit all of the elements of the application as a single .pdf document, with the pages ordered according to the above list.
There are three rounds of grants each year, with the following deadlines:
- September 1
- December 1
- March 1
If there is an urgent need for a funding decision prior to a deadline, please request off-cycle consideration in the application.
Would-be applicants should feel free to consult with the Center director in advance about the feasibility of their proposal.
Faculty grants require a brief report upon the conclusion of the activity. Reports should also include any marketing and hopefully a good photo or two from the event. Please click here to
During the 2023–24 academic year, the Benson Center has awarded 5 faculty grants totaling $8,173.
| 2023-24 Grantee | Home Department | Amount Awarded | In Support of | Date of event |
| Peter Hunt | Classics | $973 | Dr. Hunt's research as an Athenian social historian | October 16, 2023 |
| Brian Catlos | Religious Studies | $1,000 | Support for the CU Mediterranean Studies Group | Ongoing support |
| Zachary Herz | Classics | $4,000 | Book workshop for manuscript of "The God and the Bureaucrat: A Story of Roman Law." | Ongoing support |
| Carole Newlands | Classics | $1,000 | Lecture by Prof. V. Panoussi on the campus | March 3, 2024 |
| Jackie Elliott | Classics | $1,200 | Prof. H. Gardner lecture: "Art will get us through it: plague and poetry from Vergil's bees to Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven." | January 19, 2024 |
| 2022-23 Grantee | Home Department | Amount Awarded | In Support of | Date of event |
| Michaele Ferguson | Political Science | $1,378.58 | Prof. Frost lecture on the campus | October 14, 2022 |
| Brian Catlos | Religious Studies | $5,000 | Support for the "Mediterranean Origins of the West" | October 21 & 22, 2022 |
| David Boonin | Philosophy | $1,500 | Colorado Ethics Bowl | January 28, 2023 |
| Celine Dauverd | History | $2,000 | Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (ASPHS) conference | May 19 - 21, 2023 |
| Mitzi Lee | Philosophy | $868 | Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference | April 16-18, 2023 |
| 2021-22 Grantee | Home Department | Amount Awarded | In Support of | Date of event |
| Benjamin Hale | Philosophy and Environmental Studies | $2,750 | Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress | August 12-15, 2021 |
| Brian Catlos | Religious Studies | $5,000 | Support for the CU Mediterranean Studies Group | Ongoing support |
| David Boonin | Philosophy | $750 | Colorado Ethics Bowl | February 15, 2022 |
| Philosophy Department | Philosophy | $1,000 | Editorial assistance by Dawn Jacob to help complete the last volume of Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy | March 8, 2022 |
| 2020-21 Grantee | Home Department | Amount Awarded | In Support of | Date of event |
| Benjamin Hale | Philosophy and Environmental Studies | $2,750 | Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress | August 12-15, 2021 |
| David Boonin | Philosophy | $791.84 | Colorado Ethics Bowl |
| 2019-20 Grantee | Home Department | Amount Awarded | In Support of | Date of event |
| Carole Newlands | Classics | $697 | Support for Michael Roberts' lecture and related events | October 15-18, 2019 |
| Jackie Elliott | Classics | $760 | Support for David Levene's campus lecture and related events | September 16, 2019 |
| Janice Ho | English | $1,500 | Support for Prof. Walter Cohen's campus lecture and related events | April 20, 2020 |
| Jillian Porter | Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures | $573 | Support for Dr. Deborah Martinsen's campus lecture and related events | November 1, 2019 |
| Kathryn Goldfarb | Anthropology | $1,500 | Support for a spring 2020 pedagogy workshop at | March 1-April 1, 2020 |
| Lauren Stone | Germanic & Slavic Languages & Cultures | $500 | Support for Critical Theory Speaker Event | October 9-12, 2020 |
| Lauri Reitzammer | Classics | $750 | Support for Prof. Jessica Lamont's campus lecture and related events | April 9, 2020 |
| Nabil Echchaibi | Media Studies | $2,000 | Support for Dr. Ann Laura Stoler's campus lecture | January 8-11, 2020 |
| Peter Hunt | Classics | $550 | Support for Prof. Jessica Lamont's campus lecture and related events | December 11-14, 2019 |
| Ramesh Mallipeddi | English | $1,000 | Support for George Bouluokos' campus lecture and related events | November 12, 2019 |
| Robert Rupert | Philosophy | $1,000 | Support for Jennifer Matey's extended visit while she is on sabbatical | November 19-31, 2019 |
| Ross Taylor | Journalism and College of Media, Communication and Information | $1,090 | Support film festival entries for "The Hardest Day" canine euthanasia documentary | N/A |
| Sarah James | Classics | $750 | Support for Dr. Sarah Levin-Richardson's campus lecture and related events | January 31- February 1, 2020 |
| Fernando Loffredo | Art History | $750 | Support for Prof. Enrico Parlato's lecture: “Venice between East and West: Shaping Pietro Aretino's Controversial Persona” | December 5-10, 2019 |
| Michaele Ferguson | Political Science | $1,025 | Support for Sarah Rushing's lecture: Bodies and Politics: How Vulnerability Informs Citizen Subjectivity" | November 13-15, 2019 |
| Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies | Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies | $4,500 | Annual Events | Ongoing Support |
| Zachary Herz | Classics | $700 | Support for Carlos Noreña public lecture on statecraft in classical Rome and Han China | February 16-18, 2020 |
| Arne Hoecker | Germanic & Slavic | $3,000 | Symposium on "the return of the real" in contemporary European fiction | May 14-17, 2020 |
| Scott Powell | Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought | $2,000 | Annual Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought “Great Debate”, this year asking the question, “What is ‘Personhood’ in the Age of Artificial Intelligence?” | January 31, 2020 |
| Penelope Kelsey | English | $2,243 | Bringing Native American filmmaker Terry Jones to CU to screen his film | February-March 2020 |
| Robert Rupert | Philosophy | $400 | Support campus visit by Eric Schwitzgebel | March 12-14, 2020 |
| Carole Newlands | Classics | $700 | Support lecture by Celia Schultz ""Fulvia and the Perugian War" | March 4-6, 2020 |
| Celine Dauverd | History | $1,686 | Support to bring Professor Alejandra Osorio on campus for lecture | January 14-15, 2020 |
| Fernando Loffredo | Art History | $975 | Support for author and Professor Katharina Piechoki and related events | March 16, 2020 |
| Graham Oddie | Philosophy | $1,000 | A two-day workshop/ conference on the value of reason, both theoretical reason and practical reason | March 14-15, 2020 |
| Suzanne Magnanini | French and Italian | $1,526 | Support for Professor Guido Ruggiero from the University of Chicago to present and meet with students | N/A |
| 2018-19 Grantee | Home Department | Amount Awarded | In Support of | Date of event |
| Núria Silleras-Fernández | Spanish and Portuguese | $1,000 | Support for Prof Sol Miguel-Prendes' lecture and related events | October 17, 2018 |
| Atreyee Bhattacharya | Environmental Studies | $1,000 | Support for GEA Symposium | N/A |
| Jerry K. Jacka | Anthropology | $1,500 | Support for Dr. Sarah Vaughn's campus lecture and related events | September 28, 2018 |
| David Shneer | Religious Studies | $800 | Support for Dr. Kecia Ali's campus lecture and related events | September 13, 2018 |
| Jackie Elliott | Classics | $1,000 | Support for campus visit of John Marincola | Spring 2019 |
| Sue Zemka | English | $1,000 | Support for the visit of Colin Dayan | October 12, 2018 |
| Hope Clark Saska | CU Art Museum | $1,000 | Support for William Fox's campus lecture and related events | February 8, 2019 |
| N/A | Mediterranean Studies | $5,000 | Support for annual department Event | N/A |
| David Shneer | Religious Studies | $3,000 | Archive Transformed Collaborative Residency (AT) | May 1, 2019 |
| Mark Leiderman | Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures | $900 | Support for Stanislav Lvovsky lecture on contemporary Russian poetry | February 17-20, 2019 |
| Scott Powell | Aquinas Institute | $1,000 | Annual Great Debate Event | February 8, 2019 |
| Carole Newlands | N/A | $750 | Support for visit of Emily Gowers | February 25, 2019 |
| Cheryl Higashida | English | $3,000 | Support for lecture: "Development and Underdevelopment in the Global South: Histories, Forms, Alternatives." | April 5, 2019 |
| Lauren Stone | Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures | $400 | Support for Critical Theory Event | February 20-22, 2019 |
| Isabel Koster | Classics | $700 | Support for Andrew Riggsby lecture "The Gender of Roman Banking" | April 1, 2019 |
| Tamara Meneghini | Theatre & Dance | $2,500 | Support for Galt MacDermot Celebration, "Let the Sunshine In" | April 19-20, 2019 |
| Celine Dauverd | History | $1,500 | Support for Pierre Savy's Visit | April 29, 2019 |
| David Boonin | Philosophy | $950 | 2019-20 Ethics Bowl | N/A |
| Taylor Jaworski | Economics | $1,000 | VSCTP Event | N/A |
| Mi-Kyoung Lee | Philosophy | $400 | Support for a Visit from Rachel Barney | N/A |