Thank you for your interest in the Year of Discourse and Dialogue Funding Opportunity.
Description
The Year of Discourse and Dialogue offers an opportunity to engage collectively on a broad range of ideas, programs, experiences, and opportunities to leverage both the unique capacities of Pitt and strategies to advance learning. Review for proposals will take place on a rolling basis.
Our “Year of” topic also is intended to yield outcomes that better people’s lives well beyond the boundaries of the University.
The Year of Discourse and Dialogue Steering Committee invites University of Pittsburgh students, staff, and faculty to submit applications to support activities connected to the theme. Applications for up to $5,000 to support faculty, staff, student, administrative, and general community efforts that advance learning, research, engagement, and/or practice around discourse and dialogue are invited.
- For the Fall 2024 semester, proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis from Oct. 16 through Dec. 6.
- For the Spring 2025 semester, proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis beginning Jan. 7 through Feb. 28.
The Steering Committee will review proposals on a rolling basis during the periods noted above.
Please submit your application via InfoReady.
Proposal Review
All proposals must demonstrate:
Alignment with Year of Discourse and Dialogue theme
- Applicants must address how the project or activities will foster the understanding, practice, and demonstration of discourse and dialogue. Preference will be given to proposals that provide direct experiences to expand skills in the practice of discourse and dialogue.
Evidence of need, challenge, and/or opportunity and benefit
- Applicants must provide a justification for the project, sharing the need, opportunity, or challenge that it will address. The proposal should clearly define the target group(s) that will be impacted by the project.
Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion through:
- Cultivating positive and healthy relationships across Pitt’s diverse community,
- Building capacity to advance discourse and dialogue across a wide range of diverse identities and perspectives,
- Championing equitable and inclusive practices in discourse and dialogue, or
- Hosting events and projects that consider and advance discourse and dialogue in unique, creative, and inclusive ways.
Sustainable impact beyond Year of Discourse and Dialogue such as by:
- Strategically connecting to existing programs or infrastructure,
- Connecting with new partners within and outside of the University to leverage expertise and resources,
- Supporting long lasting changes (e.g. curricular changes in a program, new policies or practices, organizational or structural changes),
- Generating new knowledge and/or understanding,
- Sharing knowledge with peers and other audiences to extend impact, or
- Discussing plans for continuing or extending efforts beyond the current academic year.
If other financial support is available for your project, please include that information in your application.
Projects including one or more of the following are especially encouraged:
- Those that involve interdisciplinary or cross-unit teams that bring together more than one department, school, or unit at Pitt;
- Those that involve team members representing different roles and connections to Pitt (e.g. student, staff, faculty, community members, alumni); and
- Those that connect the University of Pittsburgh’s regional campuses.
Reporting
Award recipients will be asked to submit a brief report to yearof@pitt.edu by May 30, 2025. Award recipients also will be encouraged to share their activities at the Celebration of the Year of Discourse and Dialogue in April 2025, and through Canvas or D-Scholarship@Pitt, as described below.
Requirements: Submit a brief (~750-1000 words) summary of your project activities and reflection by May 30, 2025. Your report will be made available through the Year of Discourse and Dialogue website and should address the following:
- Describe the main activities of your project (who, what, when, where…).
- If you hosted an event, please let us know the attendance (and share photographs if you have them!).
- What were some successes or things that went well for you in this project? What were some challenges or barriers?
- What was the need, challenge, or opportunity that your project addressed?
- What has this project positioned you take on next? What is a next step that you may be interested in pursuing?
- What can others learn from your project and/or its outcomes? How can others improve their own practices based on your findings? What were some of the main take-home messages from your event?
Sharing: Recipients will be asked to submit their instructional materials for inclusion in a central Pitt repository of discourse and dialogue curricula and educational resources. In doing so, your materials will be shared with the Pitt community. For awardees creating other outputs, such as posters, papers, and datasets, we invite you to make your work available through the D-Scholarship@Pitt institutional repository.
Participation in the Celebration of the Year of Discourse and Dialogue (April event): In April 2025, we will celebrate your Year of Discourse and Dialogue activities at an event for the University. You will be invited to attend the event and will represent your project in a way that best suits it (a poster, lightning talk, demonstration, or table). Award recipients will be contacted in spring semester 2025 with further details.
