GRANTS AND OUTREACH
The Lepage Center provides educational resources and funding opportunities to promote the importance of historical scholarship, methods and inquiry for the public interest.
Grant Program
The Lepage Center sponsors an annual public grant program that supports individuals and institutions pursuing historical projects in the public interest. The Center seeks to inspire a wide range of submissions from a diverse pool of applicants that are original and imaginative in content and form. Examples of the types of projects include a series of blog posts, a series of podcast conversations, digital and in-person exhibits, an oral history project, an initiative with a local newspaper to write a series of op-eds, a mapping project, a digital timeline, a crowd-sourced syllabus, an educational workshop, a multimedia resource, a collaboration with local activists, and other creative ideas. Applications should include:
- A title
- A project abstract (250 words)
- A project description, purpose, and its contribution to history in the public interest (1-2 pages)
- A plan of execution, including deliverables, partners, and expected outcomes (1-2 pages)
- A proposed budget (1 page)
- Resumes of principal participants (the total of resumes not to exceed 10 pages)
2023-2024 Call for Proposals: "Cities in Historical Perspective"
The Lepage Center is accepting applications to support public-facing historical projects related to the theme of “Cities in Historical Perspective."
The Center will fund up to 5 projects that creatively engage with the broad range of questions, concerns, policies and practices raised by the study of the role of cities in history, and how historical study can further public understanding of the present moment.
This theme could encompass any number of historical topics, connecting subject matter or data points across time and space. Examples might include the effects of urbanization on notions of community in a given country, or the effects of urbanization on ecology in a given region; cities as warzones across the Cold War; the impact of immigration; political culture; caste, class, race, and gender in the history of a city or compared notions in different cities. This is by no means an exhaustive list, merely examples about the flexibility inherent in the theme. What is most important is historical focus and methodology.
Each grantee will receive up to $5,000 depending on scope, size and need. Further details are available here.
Applications and all questions about applications should be sent to lepage@villanova.edu
The deadline for submissions is September 25, 2023 at 11:59 pm (EST).
2022 – 2023 Grant Recipients: “Climate Change in Historical Perspective"
“Under the Eye: Hurricanes in Cuban Historical Memory, 1980-2010," Allison Baker, University of California, San Diego
Allison Baker is pursuing a PhD in Latin American History at the University of California, San Diego. She studies the historical relationship between revolutionary subjectivity and environmentalism in Cuba. The current phase of this project examines the evolution of the Cuban hurricane response system, popular perspectives on this system, and the role of hurricanes in Cuban historical memory and environmentalist politics between 1980 and 2010. She has also conducted semiotic analyses of Cuban revolutionary youth movements in the mid-20th century.
“A Twentieth Century Climate Diaspora,” Caleb Pennington, University of Iowa
Caleb Pennington is a PhD candidate in the history department at the University of Iowa. His fields of interest are American environmental history, legal history, and American public policy. Pennington's dissertation examines the negative cultural perception that labor unions and members of the working class have of environmentalists, and how that perception was coopted by industry leaders in the 1970s and 1980s. He was recently awarded the University of Iowa Graduate College Post-comps Fellowship, and has forthcoming reviews in the Environmental History and Environment and History journals.
“Who Leaves, Who Stays? Gender, Mobility and Climate Changes in India and Romania,” Cristina-Iona Dragomir, New York University
Cristina-Ioana Dragomir, PhD, is an immigrant and a Clinical Assistant Professor in Global Liberal Studies at New York University. Her scholarship is motivated by a quest for global justice and human rights, and she has taught and researched social justice, migration, and the relationship between gender and the environment at several universities—including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, State University of New York and Queen Mary University of London. She also consults with the United Nations, GIZ and IOM.
Dr. Dragomir received her PhD from New School for Social Research and is the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the American Political Science Association's Centennial Research Award, the Bucerius Fellowship Program's Settling in Motion award, and the Open Society Institute's Global Network Grant. She is author of Power on the Move: Adivasi and Roma Accessing Social Justice.
“Landscape of Change: Sea Level Rise on Mount Desert Island,” Raney Bench, Mount Desert Island Historical Society
Raney Bench is the Executive Director for the Mount Desert Island Historical Society in Maine. She is a passionate advocate for small museums, promoting the relevance of local history in our daily lives. Bench has worked in small museums for more than 20 years and is inspired by how historical collections inform and enhance our understanding of current events, specifically related to the impacts of climate change on historic resources, natural spaces and communities.
Educational Resources
Recorded Events
The Lepage Center hosts an annual series of events, exploring contemporary issues of societal significance from a historical perspective. All events are recorded and accessible to the general public on YouTube.
- 2022 – 2023: Cities in Historical Perspective
- 2021 – 2022: Turning Points in History
- 2021 – 2020: Decolonizing History
- 2019 – 2020: Revisionist History
- 2018 – 2019: Histories of Democracy
- 2017: Fake News and Fake History; Endless War
"1968: In Hindsight" Podcast
Released in 2018, the 50th anniversary of this tumultuous year, "1968: In Hindsight" looks at key global issues, then and now. Through scholarship and conversation, this six-part series dives into questions from 50 years ago that still matter today.
Listen on: iTunes | Google Play