Wilma Gibbs Moore Fellowships in United States

Goals

• Understand Black Hoosiers’ responses to racial injustice and structural racism through the creative arts and/or involvement with political, economic, social and cultural programs/activities at the neighborhood, city or state level.
• Increase knowledge of Black Hoosiers’ strategies for overcoming racial injustice and structural racism over time.
• Increase the amount and quality of humanities scholarship on the causes and effects of racial injustice and structural racism in Indiana.
• Document and/or analyze the decisions, policies and actions that created racial inequality in the past and/or the present.
• Add or expand the stories of Hoosiers in regional and national historiographies of racial injustice and/or structural racism.
• Increase the use of Indiana-based archives and collections by humanities scholars and researchers.

Topics

• These include:
  • Institutional barriers for Blacks in politics, the economy, and/or the cultural life of Indiana
  • The patterns as well as particularities of migration and urbanization that shaped Black communities in Indiana
  • The effects of deindustrialization, white flight and/or urban renewal on Black Hoosiers
  • Literary and artistic works by Black Hoosiers as they relate to themes of structural racism, racial injustice, policing, and/or protest
  • The history of and/or analysis of the influence of the Ku Klux Klan on Black Hoosier political, social, cultural, and/or economic life
  • The history of and/or analysis of policing and incarceration of Black Hoosiers
  • The long civil rights movement as it unfolded in Indiana, including its goals, tactics, achievements, and setbacks
  • Analysis of Black codes and other laws that contributed to racial inequality
  • Interpretative analysis accompanying relevant primary-source documents
  • Historical memory as it relates to any of the topics above

Funding Information

• Amount: $5,000 stipends.

Ineligible Activities

• Restrictions Indiana Humanities will not award grants for any of the following purposes:
  • Promotion of a particular political, religious, or ideological point of view
  • Political action or advocacy
  • Religious practices or training
  • Printing costs for publication of books
  • Curriculum development

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for the fellowship, applicants should be affiliated with a research institution, including but not limited to full-time or adjunct faculty at a college/university; be enrolled as a graduate student (master’s degree or Ph.D.); or be a curator, librarian, or archivist at a research archive or collection. Independent scholars are also welcome to apply but must demonstrate credibility as a researcher.
• Fellowships are open to individual scholars or research teams. Research teams must indicate a principal investigator in their application.
• Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

Application Requirements

• Final proposals should include the following:
  • Cover Page with the following information:
    • Scholar name or names of research team members (if a research team, please indicate who will serve as the principal investigator)
    • Scholar institution(s) and title/affiliation(s)
    • Principal investigator mailing address, daytime phone number, and email address
    • Project title
    • Project abstract (please limit to 250 words)
• Project Timeline
  • Describe the time period during which the funds will be used and, if applicable, how this research fits into a larger project timeline (thesis, dissertation, book manuscript, exhibition plan, etc.) with expected dote(s) of completion. Note that research funds must be used by June 30, 2026.
• Project Description
  • In no more than five pages exclusive of notes and bibliography, explain the subject and purpose of your research, making clear how your work aligns to the intent and goals of this call for proposals. Share how this work will expand and/or deepen understanding of racial injustice and/or structural racism in Indiana. Describe the intellectual significance of the project to humanities scholars, general audience; or both. Share the intended audience and results of your project, including how you’ll disseminate the results Keep in mind that experts across humanities disciplines will read your proposal—so provide sufficient detail to satisfy a specialist in your field but take core to explain held-specific methods or approaches.
• Archives, Collection; or Bibliography Relevant to the Project
  • Describe what archives, collections or bibliography you’ll use to complete your work.
• Dissemination
  • Describe (and include in your project timeline) the means by which you’ll disseminate your research to scholarly audiences and other researchers on Indiana topics. Dissemination may take place after the proposed project timeline, but you should suggestthe outlets, journals, presses, conferences, etc., to which you hope to submit and/or in which you hope to publish your final product.
• Plan for Sharing Publicly
  • This fellowship requires to you to have a plan to share, in a manner and venue accessible to general public audiences in Indiana, your work by June 30, 2026. This “sharing” may be in the form of a talk, podcast episode, blog post, media interview, op-ed, exhibition, walking tour, or some other public humanities method. You may share a completed work or present a work in progress. In no more than one page, describe in what way and in what timeframe you plan to fulfill this requirement of the grant. See the Requirements section above for some ideas.
• Scholar CV or Resume

For more information, visit Indiana Humanities.