ACM Research, Creative & Professional Practice Grant
This grant is awarded to support the development of new research, creative and professional practice. It is designed to develop ideas, to foster collaborations, and to catalyze new projects. The grant is funded through two sources: the Department’s operations budget and through SiG (SSHRC Institutional Grants). Please note that faculty who are awarded resources from SiG funds will be required to submit an MRA.
The committee will be accepting applications in the Fall semester and Winter semesters. The deadline for each of these application periods is 11:59pm EDT. Check application deadline in the form below.
The Committee strives towards a quick turn-around and to make public the names of all awardees a week after the deadline. Given the short timelines, there will be no extensions. Applications will be adjudicated according to project description/budget rationale, need (ie. access to other funding), and budgetary availability.
Please read the full instructions carefully and pay special attention to the timing of spending of funds: those awarded through departmental funds are required to spend funds before April 1, 2024.
For information about eligible expenses, see the Eligible Expenses document. NB: it is university policy that “As a general rule, ownership of equipment purchased with research funding rests with the University” (https://finance.utoronto.ca/policies/gtfm/restricted-funds/research-funding/ownership-of-equipment-and-related-matters/).
Contact e.harney@utoronto.ca for any questions.
ACM Research Themes
• Transnational production and circulation of cultural artifacts and enactments
• Local and indigenous cultural production in the context of globalization
We analyze how contemporary culture is rooted in place while also enacted through its circulation and hybridity in a highly globalized world. Our research encompasses multiple regions and diasporas, including East Asia, South-East Asia, Africa, Western and Eastern Europe, Canada and the United States. We examine how practices once defined by local and national conditions are now shaped by forces extending across cultures. Our work considers global collisions and convergences in diverse areas such as alternative modernisms and globalizations in art, the legacies of Cold War geopolitics, and local media cultures.
• Cultural policy and analysis for social justice
• Historical research and its reformulations
We conceptualize and re-examine cultural forms in relation to wider modes of thought. Our research theorizes the role of art, culture and technology in identity formation, in social movements for diversity and equity and in shaping cultural policy and organizations for rapidly shifting societies. We study cultures in historical context and through their iterations, resonances and remediations down through the centuries.
• The power of imagination and creation
• Empowerment through collaboration and digital technologies
We are critical producers of art and culture. Our research embraces the social and political force of imagination, poetics, humour, and the everyday. Our work defines emerging technological paradigms and examines contemporary models of access, sharing, activism, and public engagement. We make new culture and critical interventions pertaining to: community and applied arts practices, pedagogy, critical journalism, the composition and performance of music and sound, theatre and performance, contemporary visual and media-arts practice, and administrative, artistic and curatorial leadership of cultural organizations.
• The political economy of media and communication
• The role of technology in knowledge formation, agency, and critiques of capitalism
Our investigation into media power at a variety of sites and scales seeks to uncover the relationships between institutions, technology, and media practices. We apply a political economy lens to the policies of organizations and industries in national media cultures and comparative contexts. We trace patterns of political engagement, social disruption, and fragmentation within media cultures. Our examination of digitization—across interfaces, infrastructures, and cultural objects—contributes to the critical study of new knowledge environments) and new visual cultures alongside investigations of commoditization, control and surveillance within digital spaces.