Apply for Inclusive History Project Campus Voices and Democratic Participation Grants

As part of its mission to produce a comprehensive history of the University of Michigan, the Inclusive History Project (IHP) provides support for faculty, staff, and students across the university’s campuses to undertake research projects, teaching initiatives, and other activities.

For its 2025-26 IHP Research & Engagement Fund and IHP Teaching Fund competitions, the IHP invites proposals for projects and courses that consider how members of the University of Michigan’s campus communities–students, staff, faculty, alums, and more — have historically used their voices for democratic participation and thereby sought to shape the university, the nation, and even the world. Together, projects funded through this call will enable a broader view on the long and complex history of democratic participation at the university, while calling attention to the at-times competing visions of the university and broader society that have been pursued by U-M students, staff, and faculty over time.

The IHP is interested in proposals for a wide range of teaching, research, and engagement projects on this theme, which may include new and redesigned courses, more traditional research projects, exhibits, walking tours, performances, workshops, digital media, etc.

Under the Campus Voices and Democratic Participation theme, the IHP encourages proposals on bounded topics that center on particular examples, periods, communities, case studies, etc., from any period in U-M’s history. Proposals are encouraged to consider the following themes/issues:

• U-M student organizations and their histories and activities
• Particular movements and causes (university, local, national, global) that have been the subject of debate and various forms of advocacy on our campuses
• Specific methods and tactics that campus actors have used to exercise their voices (e.g., organizing, campaigning, student governance, journalism, teach-ins, etc.)
• Outcomes, broadly conceived, resulting from these efforts, including responses by the university, effects on students, resistance encountered, successes and failures, etc.
• The formation of coalitions across U-M campuses

Project leaders and team members will have the opportunity to participate in a community of practice with other teams funded through the Campus Voices and Democratic Participation granting program, with opportunities for connection facilitated by the IHP. Undergraduate students at the Ann Arbor campus may choose to enroll in Professor Sara Awartani’s American Culture 204 course, “In Study and Struggle: Student Movement Histories,” offered in Winter 2026 and supported by the IHP Teaching Fund. Finally, there will be the opportunity to share work resulting from funded projects in IHP public programs, such as the annual IHP Summit and other special events.

Faculty may propose course development and course redesign projects on the Campus Voices and Democratic Participation theme through the IHP Teaching Fund, and faculty, staff, and students may propose large grant and mini grant projects through the IHP Research & Engagement Fund.

The deadline for all competitions is Thursday, October 30, 2025, by 11:59 p.m. ET. Research & Engagement Fund mini grant proposals will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis, but the priority deadline for mini grant projects related to the Campus Voices and Democratic Participation theme is October 30.

Please note that the IHP also welcomes proposals on topics on the university’s inclusive history that are not related to this year’s theme.