2025-2026 FUNDING CYCLE

FRI FACULTY SEED GRANT

FRI: Feminist Research Institute Faculty Seed Grants are intended to support interdisciplinary faculty projects on women, gender, and sexuality. Support for individual activities, such as research assistance, research-related travel, or research materials, may be requested. We support early phases of research, such as pilot studies or initial research efforts. Projects should result in outcomes that enable faculty to apply for external funding and increase the impact and visibility of creative research at the University of New Mexico. These grants are one-time awards, and applicants should design projects that can be completed during one academic year. Providing funds for new and emerging work is a priority for this program, so requests for support of ongoing research programs are not eligible for funding. Applications from all academic disciplines, including the arts, humanities, and sciences, are welcome.  

DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 2025

HOW TO APPLY  

Submit your proposal and apply here.

AWARDS  

Depending on the project's scope and stage, funds may be requested ranging from $500 to $1,500.  

ELIGIBILITY

Tenured, Tenure-track, non-tenure-track, clinical faculty, and research faculty at the University of New Mexico are eligible. Individuals who receive funding are eligible to reapply two years after the conclusion of their project (e.g., If your project concludes in 2025, you may apply again for the 2026-2027 cycle). 

 

APPLICATION PROCEDURE 

Applications will be accepted here.

Your proposal should include the following five items:

1. PROJECT ABSTRACT
  • 250-word summary accessible to a general reader. If awarded, we will use this description on our website and on social media.

2. PROJECT NARRATIVE

  •  In no more than two (2) pages, please include the following: 
    1. BACKGROUND/PROBLEM STATEMENT:  Provide context on why this project is needed. 
    2. GOALS & OBJECTIVES: What does this project hope to achieve (include proposed research questions/topics of exploration), and how does it contribute to the mission of the FRI? 
    3. ACTIVITIES: Include proposed project activities, methods used, and an estimated timeline 
    4. ROLES OF COLLABORATORS: Include anyone named in the proposal, their roles and responsibilities, and expected level of effort (e.g., percentage of time or hours committed) 
    5. PROJECT DELIVERABLES/DISSEMINATION PLAN: This may include journal articles, a book project, performance/s, community events, etc.  
    6. FUTURE RESEARCH PLANS: Explain how the seed grant would contribute to future research agendas and/or become sustainable (e.g., does it establish new partnerships, offer proof of concept data, provide training of junior scholars, lead to external funding applications, etc.) 

3. ITEMIZED PROJECT BUDGET


4. BUDGET JUSTIFICATION

  • Describe your project's budget in no more than two (2) pages.
    • Outline budget expenses, including their justification.
    • Specify contingent budgets.
    • Please list any other funding sources (and amounts) you are receiving or applying for this project. This may include any percentage of match funding from your discretionary account, startup funds from your department/college, or other sources of research funding. If applicable, explain why you need additional funding to the ones listed in your budget justification.  

5. CURRICULUM VITAE

  • A maximum 10-page CV will be accepted. For projects with multiple collaborators, please include a bio paragraph for each person, including affiliation, major publications, and grant awards. 

SELECTION CRITERIA

Reviewers will score the applications based on EACH of these five criteria: 

  1. QUALITY and significance of the scholarly or creative activity proposed.
  2. CENTRALITY of research on women, gender, and/or sexuality. 
  3. VALUE of the project to faculty career development (in terms of scholarly, training, or obtaining further external funding) or students. 
  4. INCLUSION of an intersectional approach (including appropriate attention to race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, culture, social class, nationality, religion, disability, or other social differences). 
  5. IMPACT of the project to further knowledge about historical or contemporary issues, topics, or phenomena within New Mexico and the greater Southwest region.  

Answering the following questions will strengthen your proposal and reflect the fact that our evaluation criteria may differ from those of other funders: 

  1. Why should FRI fund this project? How does your project fit FRI's goal of funding intersectional feminist research?
  2. Why is your project important for the field of feminist, gender, queer, or transgender studies? What impact will it have?  
  3. How will your work contribute to the study of women, gender, or sexuality at UNM? 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

  • The FRI Board and previous FRI awardees will complete reviews. The review panel will provide feedback to all applicants. 
  • Human Subjects Review: Compliance with all appropriate regulations governing the conduct of research will be required. Research proposals involving human subjects will be subject to project review and approval by the relevant IRB. It is the applicant's responsibility to obtain IRB approval promptly so that research is not delayed. For the application's purposes, you do not need IRB approval before submitting it for consideration.  

POST-AWARD EXPECTATIONS

  • Acknowledge FRI support in presentations and publications resulting from the funded project. 
  • Inform FRI of resulting funding, presentations, and publications for publicity purposes. 
  • Deliver a public presentation on the research project within a year of the award disbursement. 
  • Provide FRI with a written final grant report at the project's end. 
  • Research travel should be completed by June 30, 2026. All travel reimbursements must be submitted within 15 days after returning. 

QUESTIONS? 

For more information, please contact:

Director, Dr. Francisco J. Galarte at galarte@unm.edu or femresin@unm.edu. 

 

⇒APPLY ONLINE⇐ 

 

Past Award Recipients

2024-2025

Dr. Chanhee Choi, Dept of Film and Digital Arts, “Remembrance Project”

Dr. Kency Cornejo, Department of Art, “What we Choose to not see”: Gender, Migrant Labor, and Black Panamanian Women in the Art of Giana de Diert.”

2023-2024

Dr. Vizcaíno-Alemán, Department of English, “Chicana/o Critical Regionalism: Mexican American Women and the Aesthetics of Place”

Dr. Marissa Greenberg, Department of English, “Revolutionary Adaptation: Miltonic Radicalism in Contemporary U.S. Literature, the Arts, and Activism”

Dr. Anita Obermeier and Dr. Doaa Omran Department of English, “Uppity Medieval Women and Their Global Sisters”

2022-2023

Cycle Suspended

2021-2022

Dr. Holly Guise, Department of History, “World War II and the First Peoples of the Last Frontier: Alaska Native Voices”

2019-2020

Angela Beauchamp, "Eleanor Roosevelt: A Film and Television History.”

Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, "Women Renters’ Experience of Eviction Court."

Carmen Nocentelli, "Vatican Apostolic Archive Research in Rome."

2018-2019

2017-2018 

Lisa Broidy, "Mother's in Jail: Impacts on Maternal Identity and Child Well-Being."

Belinda Wallace, "Rise of the Queer Radical Champion: Imagining Carribean Women, Rebellion, and the Rubble of History."

2016-2017

Jennifer Moore, "Women's Work: Reconciliation, Livelihood, and Accountability after Armed Conflict in Africa."

Aubrey Jackson, "The Socio-Political Context of Abortion Bill Activity in the Texas Legislature."

Sarah Townsend, "Teresa Deevy and the Gender Politics of the Irish National Theater."

Bernadine Hernandez, "Sexing Empire: Producing Nationhood, Sexual Economies, and Racialized Gender and Sexuality in the Nineteenth-Century Borderlands."

Shana Judge, "At Risk Sexual Behavior in ER Visits."

2015-2016

Kency Cornejo, "From Femicide to Feminisms: Art and Decolonial Gestures in Postwar Central America."

Sabrina Volpone, "Looking Beyond the Bump: How Women Navigate the Workplace During and After Pregnancy."

Cathleen Cahill, "Joining the Parade: How Chinese and Indigenous Women Challenged the Mainstream U.S. Suffragette Movement."

2014-2015

Jennifer Denetdale, "Navajo Women, Gender, and the Politics of Tradition."

Tiffany Florvil, "Making a Movement: A History of Afro-Germans, Emotions, and Belonging."

Kimberly Gauderman, "Group Security: Gender, Violence, and Collective Identity in Latin America and US Asylum Law."

2013-2014

2012-2013

2011-2012

2010-2011
Cathleen Cahill, “Making, Marketing, & Buying Baskets: Women’s Economic and Intercultural Networks of Exchange in Northern California.”
Pamela Cheek, “The Gender of Cosmopolitanism:  Women Writers and their Heroines Abroad, 1769-1810.”

2009-2010
Brian Herrera, “Latin Explosion: Latinos, Racial Formation and Twentieth-Century U.S. Popular Performance”
Juan Pablo Micozzi, "The More Women at Work, the Sooner We Win? Gender Quotas and Legislative Productivity in the Argentine Congress"

2008-2009
Kathleen Washburn, “Gertrude Bonnin, Literary Reform, and Writing Modern Indians”
Karen Foss, “Fertility Tourism: The Commodification of Human Reproduction”

2007-2008
Amy Brandzel, “Refugee in ‘America’: Gendered Scripts and Colonial Feminism in U.S. Refugee Law”
Glenda Balas and Jan Scheutz, “Facing Down the Odds: Women Pioneers in Communication”
Patricia Covarrubias, “New Identities: Danish Women as Muslims”
Gail Houston, “Envisioning Nineteenth-Century British Women’s Radical Spirituality"

2006-2007
Bárbara Reyes, “Latina Leadership in Mainstream Politics, Civil Rights or Civic Duty: Graciela Olivarez’s Life and Public Service”
Kathryn McKnight, "Afro-Latino Voices: Narratives from the Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World, 1552-1808."
Ziarat Hossain, “A Developmental-Contextual Approach to Understanding Mothers’ and Fathers’ Involvement with Children and Its Relationship to Children’s Academic Achievement and Social Development in Mexican Immigrant Families”

2005
Carmen Nocentelli, "Islands of Love: Europe, 'India,' and Interracial Romance, 1572-1673"

2004
Alex Lubin, "Intimate Enemies: The Politics of Marriage and Demography in the Israel-Palestine Conflict"
Liz Hutchison, “My Walking Archives: Oral and Archival Research on the History of Chilean Domestic Service”

2003
Melissa Axelrod, “Linguistic Ethnography of the Ixil Mayans of Guatamala”
Anita Obermeier, Assistant Professor, “Seed, Sex, Superiority: Medieval Concepts of Fertility and Sterility”
Rebecca Schreiber, “Exile, Post-Nationalism and the Politics of Frm in the Work of Elizabeth Catlett”

2002
Barbara Reyes, “Women and 19th century California Missions”
Glenda Balas, “Enhancing Internality and Self Awareness among Girls in Roosevelt County, NM”
Gary Scharnhorst, “Biography of Kate Field”