Through the David A. Gardner Magic Project, the Council invites pairs or groups of Princeton faculty members to apply for summer stipends of $7,500 to develop team-taught undergraduate courses that
- have teaching faculty whose primary appointments are in more than one single department/unit and
- are explicitly interdisciplinary in their conception.
There are two types of team teaching grants:
1. Team Teaching Grants for Faculty Teaching within the Humanities Sequences and Capstone Seminar
The Program in Humanistic Studies offers summer grants of up to $7,500 for each of the assistant, associate, and full professors who are invited to team teach in these interdisciplinary courses:
- HUM 216-219: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture
- HUM 233-234: East Asian Humanities Sequence
- HUM 247-248: Middle Eastern Humanities Sequence
- HUM 470: Certificate Capstone Seminar
Faculty who are interested in teaching one or more of these courses may write to humanities@princeton.edu for further information.
2. New Team-Taught Courses
The Council seeks proposals for new, interdisciplinary courses that are team-taught across departments and/or divisions and are of broad interest. These courses should examine larger questions and major texts, building bridges either within the humanistic disciplines or across the humanities, creative arts, social sciences and natural sciences. These HUM courses can count towards the requirements for the Humanistic Studies minor. This opportunity is open to assistant, associate, and full professors as well as senior lectures and professors of the practice.
Courses developed through this grant will normally be based in Humanistic Studies, with a percentage of seats reserved for students minoring in Humanistic Studies. When a team-taught course carries the home designation of Humanistic Studies, the Humanities Council will be able to provide a summer salary for course preparation and may be able to support the FTE for one or both of the faculty members. For team-taught courses that are cross-listed with Humanistic Studies, faculty may apply for funding to support course-related expenses, including field trips, materials, and guest speakers.
The minor in Humanistic Studies aims to extend the reach of the humanities across campus, reaching undergraduates of diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including those who are majoring in the social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering but who also have a serious, ongoing interest in the humanities.
Examples of past team-taught courses include “Arts in the Invisible City: Race, Policy, Performance” (D. Vance Smith and Nyssa Chow); “Adventures in Ideas” (Robert George and Cornel West); and “Witness” (Martha Sandweiss and Esther Schor). For more examples, please visit the Program in Humanistic Studies website.
Eligibility
This opportunity is open to assistant, associate, and full professors as well as senior lectures and professors of the practice.
Faculty are invited to express interest for AY27-28 and may apply in pairs or groups.
A single faculty member may indicate an interest in a topic or in teaching in one of the Humanistic Studies sequence courses listed above. In the case of a potential proposal, the Humanities Council will work with partners on campus to identify faculty interested in collaboration.
When applying as a team, faculty typically must be based in more than one department or discipline. At least one team member must be home-based in a humanities department or in the humanistic social sciences (e.g., history, cultural anthropology, political theory).
How to Apply
There are two avenues for applying:
- Two or more faculty members with primary appointments in different units may apply as a team by submitting a one-page proposal.
- Individual faculty members may apply by describing a course that would benefit from collaboration with a colleague in another branch of the university. When possible, the Council will work with partners on campus (e.g., the Center on Science and Technology, the Lewis Center for the Arts) to help identify appropriate intellectual counterparts.
Proposals will be submitted via the Council’s online portal and must contain the following components:
- A one-page course description including a schematic list of 12 weeks of themes/topics; list of sample readings; types of writing assignments.
- A cover letter with a rationale for the team teaching, including teaching goals; a few sentences demonstrating the fit for minors in Humanistic Studies. HUM courses typically have no prerequisites and are open to students from all majors.
Deadline
December 1, 2026 for Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 courses. Queries should be emailed to humanities@princeton.edu.
