[Ssnet_list] Unruly intelligences and Normalization and Its Discontents: Concepts for Limited Subs: Updated Mellon Foundation Call for Concepts

[Monika Sengul-Jones via Ssnet_list]

*Apologies for cross-posting. *

Hey everyone,

For those of you on this list who have faculty appointments, note the
opportunity below to submit Mellon Foundation proposals for internal
consideration on two provocative themes: "unruly intelligences" and
"normalization and its discontents."

Yours,
Monika
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*From: *OR Limited Submissions <limitedsubs at uw.edu>
*Date: *Monday, November 3, 2025 at 10:12 AM
*Subject: *REVISED Limited Submission: Updated Mellon Foundation Call for
Concepts

*UPDATE: The lead Principal Investigator (PI) must be a faculty member
and/or dean in a program or department in the humanities or humanistic
social sciences; Co-PIs can come from other departments.*



*Sponsor:* Mellon Foundation

*Program:* 2026 Call for Concepts: “Unruly Intelligences” and
“Normalization and Its Discontents”

*https://www.mellon.org/article/higher-learning-open-call-for-concepts-2026
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.mellon.org/article/higher-learning-open-call-for-concepts-2026__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!kF3Krw_WojIva0AFrj1iOuYIPlu3TGa1ZbBEvMfSXToHMDMd3pDiduzi1UTfAxrRz3ctItmeEFFm$>*

*Award amount:* $250,000 - $500,000, with durations of up to four years

*Number of applications UW can put forward:* 9 (3 for Seattle Campus, 3 for
Bothell Campus, 3 for Tacoma Campus)

*OR internal deadline:* 11/19/2025

*Sponsor deadline:* Register up to 9 concepts by UW (3 per campus):
12/01/2025; Concept Note Submission: 2/17/2026

*Eligibility: *The lead Principal Investigator (PI) must be a faculty
member and/or dean in a program or department in the humanities or
humanistic social sciences; Co-PIs can come from other departments.



*Program Description*:



Higher Learning’s Open Call for Concepts supports inquiry into issues of
vital social, cultural, and historical import. Projects should engage teams
of scholars and/or students, and have visible, enduring impact at the
institution. The Mellon Higher Learning team will review all submissions
and invite a small number of the most promising concepts to be developed
into full proposals for potential grant funding.   This funding opportunity
is overseen by Mellon’s Higher Learning program. *Applications must be
demonstrably grounded in the humanities and led by scholars in the
humanities and humanistic social sciences*. Experimental methodologies,
interdisciplinary and community collaboration, and pathways to informing
campus and/or wider policies and practices are welcome.



The Mellon Foundation invites institutions of higher education to submit
applications for research and/or curricular projects focused on either of
the following two areas:



*Unruly Intelligences*

The emergence of generative AI has triggered a firestorm of techno-utopian
promises and apocalyptic predictions alike. With so much at stake, the
humanities have an urgent role to play in shaping contemporary
understanding of artificial and other intelligences – and in making
practical, informed recommendations about how to regulate and/or adopt AI
in our learning, work, and most intimate lives.



*Normalization and Its Discontents*

The concept of normalcy is paradoxical. It entails the statistically
average that is at the same time a moral imperative, a completely ordinary
state that is nonetheless much to be desired, a cultural ideal. Moreover,
the normal often functions as the ideal even when it is not numerically
average. How does the concept of normalcy govern notions of human life, and
when doesn’t it? What are the structures and systems that keep it in place,
in realms as disparate as the aesthetic, socioeconomic, psychological,
physiological, political, spiritual, and ethical? What, if anything, does
the historical knowledge of its recent invention – and vigorous social
rejections – enable?



*Please see the attached pdf files for more information about these
grantmaking areas, including project examples, as well as eligible fields
of study.*



*Pre-Proposal Instructions:*

Please submit as one combined pdf labeled with PI’s *Lastname, Firstname*:



   1. A one- to two-page letter of intent that clearly state the subject
   area (Unruly Intelligences or Normalization and Its Discontents), a project
   description, the project’s goals, its potential impact, and the fitness of
   the PI/grant team for the proposed work.
   2. CV (not biosketch) of the PI



to *limitedsubs at uw.edu <limitedsubs at uw.edu>* by *5:00 PM Wednesday,
November 19, 2025*. If given the go-ahead by the limited submissions review
committee, registrations are due to the sponsor 12/1/2025 and concept notes
are due 2/17/2026. A member of the Office of Corporate and Foundation
Relations will assist applicants with their registration. Other open
limited submissions opportunities, as well as the limited submissions
review committee review and selection process, are here:
*http://depts.washington.edu/research/funding/limited-submissions
<http://depts.washington.edu/research/funding/limited-submissions>*. Please
feel free to email us at *limitedsubs at uw.edu <limitedsubs at uw.edu>* with
questions or information on any limited submission opportunities that
should be but are not already listed on that page. If you are interested in
other private funding opportunities, visit the *Corporate and Foundation
funding opportunities <https://cfr.gifts.uw.edu/Opportunities/search>.*
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