[Ssnet_list] [S+T at UW]Unruly intelligences and Normalization and Its Discontents: Concepts for Limited Subs: Updated Mellon Foundation Call for Concepts

[Olivia Banner via Ssnet_list]

Hi everyone,

CREATE — but me, in particular — would be happy to support an application for either of these two concepts. Reach out to me if you’d like to talk more.

All best,
Olivia

--

Olivia Banner, PhD

Director of Strategy and Operations, CREATE<https://create.uw.edu/>

Affiliate Member, Disability Studies Program

University of Washington, Seattle

(206) 685-1393

Google Scholar profile<https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=fWPb0OAAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate>



From: Monika Sengul-Jones via Society + Technology at UW <societytechuw at lists.uw.edu>
Date: Monday, November 3, 2025 at 2:34 PM
To: Monika Sengul-Jones via Society + Technology at UW <societytechuw at lists.uw.edu>, ssnet_list at u.washington.edu <ssnet_list at u.washington.edu>
Cc: Monika Sengul-Jones <mmjones at uw.edu>
Subject: [S+T at UW]Unruly intelligences and Normalization and Its Discontents: Concepts for Limited Subs: Updated Mellon Foundation Call for Concepts


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<mailto: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<mailto: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. Please feel free to email us at limitedsubs at uw.edu<mailto: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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