Periclean Faculty Grants
Project Pericles partners with colleges and universities to place civic learning at the heart of higher education.
Together with faculty, campus leaders, and communities, we create innovative learning opportunities that spark students’ curiosity, shape civic identity, and foster the agency and confidence needed to revitalize democracy. The Periclean Faculty Leader (PFL) Program awards grants to faculty to incorporate creative, high-impact pedagogy into courses that empower students to make positive change in their communities and help revitalize democracy.
Periclean Faculty Grant Opportunities
Project Pericles invites grant applications from faculty from Periclean institutions aimed at strengthening connections between course content, community-engaged learning, and civic skill-building. Please refer to our Colleges and Universities page to view the current list of Periclean Institutions eligible for this opportunity.
This program is generously funded by the Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation.
Option A: Course enhancement grant ($3,000 Award)
Faculty will enhance an existing course to better support students in one of three tracks:
- Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement: Building students’ civic identities and/or contributing to the democratic health of the community. This may include advocacy, experiential learning, inviting speakers on relevant social justice issues, and civil or deliberative dialogue.
- Student Research: Involving students in a publicly-engaged scholarly project or other form of participatory research that matters to your campus community and the broader public. This includes research projects with civic themes that address issues of public interest and use a community-engaged scholarship approach. Ideally, projects will be collaborative and involve diverse stakeholders (including community members) in mutually beneficial ways.
- Sustaining Community Partnerships: Bolster existing community partnerships or community-based projects. Previously funded PFLs who taught courses prior to Fall 2023 and need additional funding to continue an established community partnership are eligible to apply for this track.
Option B: Course Creation/Substantial Revision ($4,500 Award)
Faculty will develop, teach, and evaluate a new or significantly revised course which holistically integrates civic and community engagement into the teaching and learning experience. The course must incorporate:
- A project where students use their academic knowledge to tackle a real-world challenge for a community partner. The faculty member will collaborate with a new community partner to identify, design, and implement a mutually beneficial project that both addresses the partner’s needs and supports students’ learning and development. As part of our commitment to fostering community-engaged learning rooted in mutuality and reciprocity, faculty are expected to provide evidence that the proposed community partner(s) supported the idea of the proposal. This may include documentation of conversations with the partner, a narrative detailing the nature of the correspondence, or formal letters of support.
- Proposals must be for the development of a new course, or the substantial revision of a current course. Incorporating a substantial community-engaged project into a course that did not previously have one qualifies as a significant revision. Courses with pre-existing partnerships are eligible for Tier 1 funding only.
Application
Faculty applicants should submit proposals directly to Project Pericles using the application link below.
Submission Limits: There are no formal limits on the number of applications an institution can submit, but we recommend no more than two submissions per tier or four submissions overall per grant cycle.
Note: Faculty must inform their Program Director before applying. Project Pericles will forward applications received to the respective Program Directors at each institution.
If you have any questions, please email Arielle del Rosario, Associate Director at arielle@projectpericles.org.
Deadline
For a course taught in Spring 2026, applications must be submitted to Project Pericles by Friday, October 10, 2025. Awards will be announced in December 2025.
For a course taught in Fall 2026 or Spring 2027*, applications will be due in February 2026. Awards will be announced in May 2026.
* Project Pericles is reimagining our course regranting programming to amplify impact. We anticipate sharing a renewed RFP in late Fall 2025.
Applicant Details
Eligibility
Faculty from any Periclean member college or university who are tenured, tenure-track, or long-term non-tenure track faculty and expected to teach beyond 2026 are eligible.
College faculty from all disciplines are welcome to apply. Courses should demonstrate a humanities orientation and/or draw upon humanistic inquiry, but do not have to be in the arts and humanities.
Project Pericles Program Directors, if they meet the above faculty requirements, are also eligible to apply.
Courses may be taught in conjunction with another faculty member from the applicants’ college or university. The institution can determine how it will handle the sharing of the awarded funds. A co-taught course is considered as one application package.
Faculty who currently have an active Periclean Faculty Leader (PFL) Program grant or Periclean Course Enhancement grant are not eligible to apply. Faculty previously funded are eligible to apply.
Award Use and Distribution
Award Amounts
Tier 1: Up to $3,000 for each course, $250 of which can be an administrative honorarium and used at the Project Pericles Program Director’s discretion. Note: In prior rounds, the $250 was given in addition to the $3,000, but has been changed to streamline honoraria processes.
Tier 2: $4,500 for each PFL course, $500 which can be an administrative honorarium and used at the Project Pericles Program Director’s discretion.
Use of Funds
Member institutions will have latitude for determining how these funds are used to advance the goals of the course, address community needs, and support civic engagement related work. Given the program’s goals of sustaining the work enabled by grants, funds would ideally go towards seeding a foundation for longer-term impact. Funds may be used for community partners, course expenses and supplies, faculty support, faculty and student stipends, research expenses, transportation, books and materials, administrative costs, and conference/travel expenses
Grant Distribution and Evaluation
The full grant will be mailed as a check within three weeks of the award announcement and official acceptance of the grant and terms. All evaluation materials must be submitted to Project Pericles within 60 days of the end of the course, or by June 1, 2026, whichever comes first.
Additional Notes for Program Directors and Internal Administration
Administrative honoraria may be used towards Program Directors’ salary, conference expenses, or other campus civic engagement activities. Program Directors may also re-allocate the administrative honorarium to faculty grantees. Program Directors are responsible for ensuring that the grants are used appropriately, and that the evaluation materials are submitted in a timely manner. Extenuating circumstances or substantial diversion from the approved application should be addressed by the Program Director in discussion with Project Pericles.
Competitive Selection and Criteria
Fellows will be selected by a panel of external evaluators, including academic experts, college presidents, foundation leaders, and Project Pericles staff. Given the program’s growing applicant pool, selection will be highly competitive.
We strongly encourage all applicants to review these evaluation criteria details before submitting their proposals. While we may not be able to fund every proposal, our goal is to support as many high-quality, impactful projects as possible.
Program Requirements
Professional Development
Beyond the classroom, PFLs are expected to make a lasting impact on their campus and community by sharing their work and findings with a broader audience. This may be accomplished by hosting a public event, creating a webpage, and/or producing a scholarly work like a conference paper or presentation. A key goal of this program is to cultivate lifelong, faculty advocates for civic and community-engaged learning. We hope to inspire PFLs to bring civic and community engagement to other curricula, direct civic engagement centers, and/or become mentors to other colleagues championing civic learning. Project Pericles will also organize webinars and online knowledge exchanges for grantees to share their work and explore ways to extend and strengthen their projects. These sessions will provide a chance for PFLs to share resources, work through challenges, and create community among civically engaged stakeholders.
Evaluation and Reflection
As a reminder, for those completing your course/project this semester (Fall 2025), we are asking you to please complete your evaluations by December 15. We are streamlining our evaluation process and what we request of grantees, and shifting our focus to a narrative-based evaluation.
Note: You will need to input your assigned PFL Grant ID, which you can find on this list.