Emory’s new AMPLIFY grants accelerate publicly engaged humanities scholarship

Rooted in a rich tradition of liberal arts research that advances society and human understanding, Emory is introducing a new funding program that will further catalyze ambitious, publicly engaged scholarship in the humanities, arts and social sciences.

Sponsored by Emory’s Office of the Provost, the AMPLIFY: Emory Faculty Impact Fund for Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences program represents a research investment across disciplines vital to the inventiveness, competitiveness and security of the American public. The humanities, arts and social sciences are particularly suited to address areas of major societal importance such as the environment, global health, ethical use of emerging technologies, health care access and international policy and diplomacy, program leaders note. 

Expanding upon Emory’s Arts and Humanistic Inquiry initiative launched in 2023, the AMPLIFY program offers three different grant types to support impactful research, enhance competitiveness for external funding, expand opportunities for community engagement and public scholarship, strengthen cross-unit collaboration and mentorship and invest in the next generation of student researchers. 

“AMPLIFY was conceived to reinforce Emory’s commitment to the liberal arts and widen the scope of our investment to encompass not only arts and humanities but the social sciences,” says Badia Ahad, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “We are putting institutional momentum and funding toward these human-centered challenges, while increasing Emory’s visibility and influence outside of our four walls.”

 

Expanding impact

Kevin Karnes, associate dean for the arts in Emory College, helped shape both the Arts & Humanistic Inquiry initiative and AMPLIFY alongside Provost Office leadership. Karnes explains that AMPLIFY builds on past success while adding two new funding pathways.

“We felt that the Arts and Humanistic Inquiry program had done a tremendous amount of impactful work in the space of programming,” says Karnes. “So we’re keeping support for external programming like symposia, art exhibitions and concerts with AMPLIFY Events Grants, but also expanding to foundational research itself.”

AMPLIFY Impact Grants are designed to help recently tenured associate professors move major scholarly projects toward completion and promotion milestones. 

“Funding to advance an academic career is a big hurdle,” says Karnes. “To write a book, faculty may need support for travel, rights and permissions fees or hiring research trainees at a time when external funding is becoming harder to secure.” 

The Humanities Seminar Fellows funding is open to all faculty and is designed to help get new projects off the ground. In addition to funding, awardees benefit from cohort meetings structured around collaboration, feedback and mentoring.

“AMPLIFY is about supporting faculty through the full lifecycle of their work — from initial ideas to public impact,” says Pearl Dowe, senior vice provost for academic affairs. “Scholarship in the humanities, arts and social sciences is essential to understanding complex societal challenges. Beyond direct funding, collaboration is also an important component of the program’s mission. The human relationships that form from interdisciplinary partnerships, faculty mentorships and engagement with student research trainees will result in new, creative outcomes and solutions that advance the public good. We are excited to see the effects these projects will have across disciplines and communities.”