Imagine Fund, Annual Faculty Research Grant

View a list of recipients and learn more on the Provost's Imagine Fund website.

CLA faculty, learn more about applying for the Annual Faculty Research Grant on CLA's intranet.

The Imagine Fund provides competitive financial support for research and scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design and was established through a generous gift from the McKnight Foundation. The Imagine Fund includes three awards: Annual Faculty Research Grants, Special Events Grants, and the Arts, Humanities, and Design Chair Award.

The Annual Faculty Research Grants are awarded and administered directly through participating arts, humanities and design colleges and campuses. The Special Events grants are centrally awarded through the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Arts, Humanities and Design Chair Award is awarded by the Provost Office. 

The Imagine Fund at Work

Professor Maggie Hennefeld
Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature Professor Maggie Hennefeld uncovers silent film's forgotten, feminist stars

This Star Tribune article celebrates Prof. Hennefeld's project and bringing feminist silent film stars to light. An Imagine Fund grant made possible a screening of these films at Trylon Cinema.

2023 Grant Awardees

Portrait: Hassan Abdel Salam
Hassan Abdel Salam, Sociology

The Great Reversal: How Nations in the Muslim World Went from Tolerating to Repressing Same-Sex Practices, 1750-2023

Flowers in front of Northrop Auditorium
Hakim Abderrezak, French and Italian

The Translation of a Book and the Making of Another

Flowers in front of Northrop Auditorium
Sinem Casale, Art History

Art, Diplomacy and Food Culture between Europe and the Muslim Mediterranean in Early Modernity

Image of Lisa Channer
Lisa Channer, Theatre Arts & Dance

Completion of my Denim Shorts trilogy of short feminist Westerns

Flowers in front of Northrop Auditorium
Juliette Cherbuliez, Consortium for the Study of the Premodern World

Beyond Testimony: Early Modern Wartime and the Aesthetics of Violence

Sivan Cohen Elias
Sivan Cohen Elias, Music

Electroacoustic Improv Trio Album

Professor Penny Edgell
Penny Edgell, Sociology

Religion, Spirituality, and Meaning in the Contemporary United States

Flowers in front of Northrop Auditorium
Ofelia Ferran, Spanish & Portuguese Studies

A Tiger’s Leap into the Past: The Long Shadow of the Spanish Civil War in the Work of Francesc Torres

Carl Flink with hands pressed together in front of face.
Carl Flink, Theatre Arts & Dance

Testing, Developing and Building the "Dirt Box" for Battleground

Njeri Githire
Njeri Githire, African American & African Studies

Lights! Camera! Digital Revolution: East African Cinema in the 21st Century

Portrait of Jessica Gordon Roth.
Jessica Gordon-Roth, Philosophy

Recovering and Reclaiming the Voice of an Early Modern Woman Philosopher: Catharine Trotter Cockburn

Headshot of Sarah Holtman
Sarah Holtman, Philosophy

Kantian Justice as Civic Respect

Michael Lower Headshot
Michael Lower, History

Hakoah Vienna: A Jewish Sports Club’s Story of War, Holocaust, and Defiance

Photo of Matthew Rahaim sitting outside holding a sitar
Matthew Rahaim, Music

Improvising Relationality

Portrait of Gabriela Spears-Rico
Gabriela Spears-Rico, Chicano & Latino Studies

Mestizaje and Cultural Appropriation in Michoacan

Headshot of Bula Wayessa
Bula Wayessa, African American & African Studies

Documenting Endangered Indigenous Technology: The Case of Pottery Making in Wollega, Ethiopia