Unlearning Whiteness Research Award

The Dean’s Unlearning Whiteness Research Award

As a School of architecture and the built environment, it is imperative that we acknowledge the role our disciplines and practices have played in constructing and upholding racial inequities in the built environment. GSAPP is engaging every aspect of the School with a collective commitment to changing these approaches, and through shared efforts, is intensifying its focus on the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion as a community and across our disciplines and practices.

GSAPP recognizes its capacity to advance and support the transformation of the field to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive through research that explores and advances new forms of anti-racist practice in the built environment. To this end, GSAPP is making a three-year commitment of financial support to its faculty by establishing the Dean’s Unlearning Whiteness Research Award, which will provide up to three $10,000 grants for faculty-led initiatives, research, and new forms of practice, including independent publications, exhibitions, and other projects to initiate and sustain efforts towards the project of unlearning Whiteness.

Read about the 2021-2022 Award Recipients on the GSAPP News.

2022-2023 Award Cycle

Eligibility

Full time tenured and tenure track faculty, Professors of Professional Practice, and Lecturer in Discipline who have not exceeded the University additional compensation limits.
Adjunct faculty who have held a GSAPP faculty appointment within the past 3 semesters (Fall 2021, Spring 2022, and/or Summer 2022), meet Columbia University employment requirements, and are able to hold a Columbia University adjunct research appointment within the calendar year of 2023.
Full time faculty and eligible adjunct faculty may apply and be the recipient of only one of the GSAPP Anti-Racism awards within an academic year: The Dean’s Unlearning Whiteness Research Award or the GSAPP Anti-Racism Curriculum Development Award. Award recipients from the prior year may not apply for the same award.
Currently enrolled or on-leave Columbia University students are not eligible for The Dean’s Anti-Racism and Unlearning Whiteness Research Award or the GSAPP Anti-Racism Curriculum Development Award.

Award Process

To apply, please submit a 2 to 3-page statement that includes a description of your proposed initiative, research, or project outlining how it contributes toward the goal of unlearning Whiteness, and the intended deliverable (see details in Deliverables section). You may also submit samples of your work (optional).
Applications must be submitted through the online form.
An interdisciplinary faculty panel will review and select up to 3 candidates for the academic year 2022-2023.
Applications are due July 31, 2022, with jury selections to be finalized by September 30, 2022. Recipients will be notified in the later part of the Fall 2022 semester.

Payment

Full time faculty who are recipients of the award will receive the award as additional compensation within the subsequent calendar year, January 1–December 31, 2023. Full-time officers of instruction may receive up to 20 percent of their monthly base salary as additional compensation.
Adjunct faculty who are recipients of the award will hold a one-semester research appointment – in a non-teaching semester – within the subsequent calendar year, January 1–December 31, 2023. Recipients may not teach or hold the rank of adjunct faculty during the term in which they are appointed as researchers.

Deliverables

Deliverables may include but are not limited to, summary report, peer-reviewed article(s), book chapter(s), webpage, or digital toolkit(s).
Award recipients are to provide deliverable(s) to the Dean and the Anti-Racism Task Force by January 15, 2024, with the potential to share more broadly with the School as appropriate.

Application Form

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The Dean’s Unlearning Whiteness Research Award