Conference Grants

Overview

<p>The Conference Grant program provides support for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to develop small research conferences or focused symposia to explore critical issues in advancing racial equity in education research with budgets up to $50,000. We intend for applicants to bring together researchers, practitioners, policymakers or other important collaborators whose expertise, substantive knowledge and practice, theoretical insight, or methodological expertise can be engaged in ways that help to build upon and advance racial equity in education research, practice or policy. We invite proposals that aim to grow the current scope of research on racial equity, develop new knowledge through interdisciplinary scholarly engagement, or as a way to collaborate to increase the impact of educational research. Importantly, we welcome proposals that advance conceptualizations of strength- and resiliency-based perspectives. Finally, we encourage applicants to carefully and innovatively think about the format and pedagogy of their proposed conference or convenings. Our conference program is not restricted to traditional formats, so for example, you might consider a series of smaller convenings that are in-person or on-line, or some combination of both. All applications should consider how their convening will (a) bring together a diverse group of educational scholars and/or stakeholders, and (b) influence the public discourse, practice, or policy of education.</p> <p>For this funding cycle Spencer will support conferences and convenings that explore and advance racial equity. While the field of education has focused on issues of inequality and its growth in the United States, we are in a time of increased urgency given the current intersections of the COVID-19 public health crisis, rapid shifts in educational systems, economic challenges and growing civil resistance to systemic anti-blackness. There is a pressing need for robust approaches to scholarship that can consequentially contribute to achieving racial equity. Towards this end, we encourage a wide range of approaches to creatively and ambitiously engage in approaches to advancing racial equity, and we are especially interested in proposals that include a focus on methodological needs and advancements.</p>