Several large-scale research and teaching collaborations receive support from the Humanities Council to spark and develop new collaborations at Princeton and to develop multi-institutional collaborations and scholarly networks across the globe.
Learn more about Collaborative Humanities Grants and Global Initiatives, as well as the Council’s other major funding opportunities.
Collaborative Humanities
2026-27
- Painting in Place: The Fresco-Painting Workshops of Sixteenth-Century Meteora
Charlie Barber (Art & Archaeology)
This interdisciplinary project introduces a completely new approach to the study of Byzantine and post-Byzantine wall painting at the monasteries of Meteora. The grant will support workshops at Meteora and the Princeton Athens Center, in collaboration with Greek collaborator Konstantinos Vafeiadis (Meteora), in preparation for a future conference and publication in English, which will be used In future undergraduate teaching at Princeton.
- Rising Authoritarianisms and the Powers of Family Complexes Today
João Biehl (Anthropology)
This interdisciplinary research initiative examines how authoritarian resurgence across the Americas unfolds through homes, kin relations, culture, and religion. The grant will support reading groups, a spring conference, and fieldwork in Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, and the United States.
- Seminar in Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Studies (SIPsaS)
Brigid Doherty (German and Art & Archaeology)
Founded in 2025 with support from a Humanities Council Magic Grant, SIPsaS will continue its work aiding graduate students in developing interdisciplinary research and forging connections in psychoanalytic studies. The seminar will include three lunchtime conversations per semester, a Fall 2026 public lecture by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Francisco Gonzales, a Spring 2027 panel discussion, and graduate student excursions to New York City as part of an ongoing mentoring network.
- Inter-Institutional Project in Scholarly and Collegial Translation
Karen Emmerich (Comparative Literature)
This project, in collaboration with Professor Sean Cotter (University of Texas–Dallas), will host two workshops run by experienced translators of scholarly work in the humanities. This grant will support meetings at Princeton in Fall 2026 and at UT Dallas in spring 2027, including public-facing events at each institution.
- Heirloom Gardens Project
Hanna Garth (Anthropology) and Tessa Lowinske Desmond (SPIA)
From 2021 to 2024, the Heirloom Gardens Project documented the history, traditions, and resilience of Black and Indigenous farmers in the United States, collecting and archiving oral history interviews across the Southern United States, which are now housed at Spelman College and the Atlanta University Center’s Woodruff Library. This grant will support the expansion of public facing materials for broader audience outreach.
- Tarkovsky and Italy: An International Conference and Film Event
Yuri Leving (Slavic Languages and Literatures) and Elena Fatto (Slavic Languages and Literatures)
This project brings together international scholars, filmmakers, cinematographers, archivists, and graduate students to examine Tarkovsky’s creative exile in Italy, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue across Slavic studies, Italian studies, film history, and cultural memory. The grant will support a Spring 2027 scholarly conference and public film screenings in Tuscany, Italy.
- Environmental Humanities Works-In-Progress Discussion Group
Erika Lorraine Milam (History)
The grant will support a works-in-progress discussion group for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. This one-year pilot project aims to generate community in the Environmental Humanities at Princeton and increase the visibility of current research projects and existing events within the many humanities-aligned disciplines through the development of a weekly newsletter. Co-organized by the Princeton Humanities Initiative.
