The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced that it has awarded grants to nine projects—seven under its Small Grant Program and two under its Diversity and Inclusiveness Program.

The Small Grant Program distributes $25,000 per year (provided by the APA Eastern Division) to various proposals reviewed at the fall meeting of the APA board. This year’s winners are:

• Ethics and Aesthetics of Stand-Up Comedy ($5000)
  The proposed conference will stimulate philosophical work on the topic of stand-up comedy by bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines and perspectives to share new work on this neglected area of inquiry. The Ethics and Aesthetics of Stand-Up Comedy Conference will be interdisciplinary and participatory and will converse on the many aesthetic and ethical issues raised by the theory, culture(s), and practice of stand-up comedy.
• Gender in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ($3000)
  This project seeks to examine the gender distribution in one of the most influential online resources of philosophy, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, by providing statistical measures of female representation in authorship and rates of citation, investigating patterns of citation for potential biases, comparing the SEP gender distribution to the more general demographics of the field, and exploring whether the content of SEP articles written by women is different than articles written solely by men, or with mixed gender authorship. The information found through this project will assist SEP authors and editors to identify specific areas in which they can work to ensure equitable representation in the SEP.
• Mexican Indigenous Knowledge, Chican@ Identity, and Philosophy for Children ($900)
  This project aims to explore the connections between Mexican indigenous knowledge, Chican@ identity, and philosophy for children through teaching, learning, and collaborative scholarship. To this end, they will hold an interactive, one-day workshop on these themes for approximately 40 undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) who are involved in the UTEP Philosophy for Children in the Borderlands program.
• Non-Academic Placement Data and Analysis ($5000)
  This is an expansion of an existing project—Academic Placement Data and Analysis (APDA). APDA has the aim of collecting and analyzing data on placement for graduates of doctoral programs in philosophy. This year the project hopes to achieve substantial progress on recording non-academic placements. They will employ the help of some undergraduates to research the status of graduates with unknown placements and categorize all non-academic placements into areas of special interest. They will then conduct a new survey that focuses on those with non-academic placements.
• Prejudice: An Interdisciplinary Workshop ($3000)
  This grant will be used to fund an inaugural interdisciplinary workshop on philosophy of prejudice at Washington University in St Louis in late fall 2017. They will bring together leading scholars studying prejudice, across disciplinary lines, to develop a better understanding of the nature of prejudice and to develop effective interventions. Afterwards, the proceedings will be collected into a published volume reflecting the collective insights and interdisciplinary connections, making the results of this conference available to the wider academic community.
• Second Annual Undergraduate Women in Philosophy Conference ($5000)
  The MSU Denver’s Undergraduate Women in Philosophy Conference provides a supportive space for undergraduate female-identified students to present and comment on philosophy papers and build community. The conference also provides a workshop on the climate of women in philosophy and a keynote lecture. To maximize the impact of this important conference, they will extend the conference to two full days, allowing more students to participate. Supporting female-identified undergraduate students’ ability to participate in this conference is a central and essential way to support the APA’s long-standing commitment to diversity and underrepresented groups in the profession.
• Workshop for Early Career Women in Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy ($3000)
  This grant will fund a one-day workshop for early career women working in Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, areas of philosophy in which women scholars are conspicuously underrepresented. The workshop would aim to achieve three goals: (1) to provide an opportunity for early career women working in the area to present their work and receive feedback, (2) to help foster networking opportunities with medieval philosophers working in the NYC area, and (3) to help increase the visibility of research in the area and women’s contributions to it.

The Diversity and Inclusiveness Grants, totaling $20,000, are awarded annually to one or two projects that aim “to increase the presence and participation of women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, people of low socioeconomic status, and other underrepresented groups in philosophy.”  The APA reports that there were 19 applications for this round of funding. The two winning projects are:

• Ethics and Society at Rice University ($10,000)
  Ethics and Society at Rice University is a three-week summer enrichment program for rising juniors and seniors who qualify for free or reduced-price meals in Houston-area public and charter schools. The program both addresses a deep disparity in educational opportunities and has the potential to contribute to diversity within the field of philosophy. By opening the program to students from economically disadvantaged families, their student body is constituted by demographic groups that are underrepresented in the field.
• Inclusive Summer High School Institute for Philosophy (ISHIP) at the Prindle Institute for Ethics ($10,000)
  The Inclusive Summer High School Institute for Philosophy (ISHIP) is a weeklong summer enrichment program designed for high school juniors from historically underrepresented groups in philosophy. The primary goal of ISHIP is to introduce high school students to philosophy through texts, skills-based presentations, speakers, and ethics bowl participation. In addition, ISHIP encourages attendees to consider future study in the field of philosophy by demonstrating how the skills of philosophy can enrich their college experience. ISHIP has the potential to transform the discipline of philosophy by creating more space in the field for individuals whose voices have been previously underrepresented, while also inviting students to identify the ways in which philosophy could positively contribute to their academic goals and beyond.

More information about APA grant funds can be found here.

(via Erin Shepherd)