Big news from CUR, and enormous thanks to Joyce Kinkead… consider donating to this fund if you can!
The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) announces a new endowment that will support a CUR Arts and Humanities Mentor Award as well as other initiatives to nurture arts and humanities research involving faculty members and undergraduates.
Noted 2012 CUR Fellow Joyce Kinkead (distinguished professor of English, Utah State University) established this fund in 2018 to support undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry in arts and humanities disciplines and encourages others to consider donations to the endowment. Said Kinkead, “CUR has been extremely important to my professional life, providing critical support to me as a director of an undergraduate research program and as a faculty mentor to students. I wanted to give back, and it seemed appropriate to establish an award that recognizes and illuminates the stellar work done in the humanities and arts by faculty mentors. I hope that this award gives them the opportunity to share the inspiring stories of their work with undergraduate researchers and to know that this work is highly valued.”
It is anticipated that a call for nominations for the inaugural Mentor Award will be issued in fall 2018, with the first award presented at a CUR event in spring 2019. The awardee will receive a plaque and $1000. The CUR Executive Board, in consultation with CUR Executive Officer Elizabeth L. Ambos, will determine additional priorities for the arts and humanities endowment.
Said Ambos and Maria T. Iacullo-Bird (chair of CUR’s Arts and Humanities Division and assistant dean for undergraduate research, grants, and special projects at Pace University), “The range and vitality of undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry in the arts and humanities have grown significantly in recent years despite major funding challenges. We look forward to spotlighting the innovative and important work of faculty members and students through the Mentor Award and other projects that the endowment will make possible.”
