We will provide reimbursement of documented expenses up to $300 per person for groups of two to four people to support travel (excluding mileage), food, shared lodging, such as short-term apartment or house rentals, and other related costs as appropriate to life situations. At least one member of the group must be engaged in humanistic research.
Funding priority will go to proposals in which interrelationships between the projects are clearly and convincingly outlined. If two or more members of the group received retreat funding within the past two years, we will give preference to other proposals before we consider yours. When appropriate, we will also consider proposals that include non-Grinnell faculty and/or staff.
In your proposals, we would like to (briefly) hear:
- What you would like to work on over a two-to-three-day retreat. Be sure to briefly present a plan for each person that is meaningful yet achievable as appropriate to the stage of a given project and that leaves time for building community through shared activities. Each person ought to be thinking about what will be most helpful to connect or reconnect with the work to be undertaken.
- How your group will support each other’s work, whether by building in intentional planning conversations, brainstorming, reading each other’s writing and offering feedback, or other forms of engagement appropriate to the kind of work each member hopes to do on retreat.
- What your group will do to be in community apart from work. Will you cook together? Share meals? Go on walks or exercise?
Our review of proposals is not about evaluating the merits of what you seek to accomplish, the forms of intellectual engagement in which you will engage, or how your group intends to be in community. We do want to see that your group is approaching the retreat with intention, with each individual mindful of the benefits to be gleaned from working with other members of the group.
Writing Retreat funding is available to all faculty and staff seeking to connect with scholarly or affinity-based professional communities through research. Please feel free to contact Steve Andrews if you think your group might benefit from an initial retreat planning meeting.