Publication subvention

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Purpose

The Oregon Humanities Center (OHC) offers faculty and graduate student author subvention grants to help defray costs incurred when publishing print or digital books, monographs, journal articles, and co-edited volumes in the humanities and related fields. The term humanities as used here includes literature; philosophy; history; the study of languages; religious studies; ethics; the history, theory and criticism of the arts; and historical or interpretive aspects of the social and natural sciences and the professions.  

History and Program Administration

The OHC has been offering UO faculty author subvention grants since the mid-1990s. Recognizing the growing need for humanities publication support, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) began to collaborate with the OHC in 2008-09 in funding subvention requests from CAS faculty. In July 2020, the OHC expanded the UO author subvention program to include graduate students. Currently, the OHC is the sole funder of the newly expanded graduate student author subvention grants, and of the non-CAS UO faculty projects. All subvention funds (OHC and OHC/CAS collaborations) are administered by the OHC.  

Eligibility

To be eligible for subvention funds, applicants must be either UO faculty on tenure-related appointments or graduate students in the humanities or related fields. Faculty and graduate students from any UO school or college are eligible to apply as long as the project is humanistic in its focus. Only UO faculty and graduate student authors with a signed contract from an appropriate press are eligible to apply.  

Applications will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis by the OHC. Typical subvention funding requests are to cover costs associated with publication, translation, indexing, reference materials preparation, or other optional materials such as images or maps. 

Funding Levels

Projects where subvention funds are explicitly required in the contract for publication are considered the highest funding priority. However, all requests (even where subvention is not required) will be considered.  

UO faculty authors may apply for up to $1,500 in subvention funding. If a faculty author receives contracts for two projects within a single three-year period and has already applied for and received subvention support for the first project, the author may apply for up to an additional $750 in funding for the second project. The same application procedure and documentation requirements apply to second requests.  

UO graduate student subvention applications are considered on a case-by-case basis. These publication projects are eligible for one-time support of up to $200 in funding. 

Application Procedure

UO faculty and graduate student authors wishing to receive subvention funding support should e-mail a letter of request to Paul Peppis, Director (ppeppis@uoregon.edu), and Jena Turner, Associate Director (jenap@uoregon.edu), detailing: 

  • title of the publication 
  • publisher and projected publication date 
  • brief description of the project and statement of its significance in the field 
  • amount required by the publisher for subvention 
  • dollar amount that is being requested 
  • purpose for which the subvention funds will be used (permissions, photographs, plates, indexing, etc.) 

Applicants must attach a PDF  copy of the signed contract  (or relevant pages thereof) and a letter from the publisher documenting that a subvention of a specific amount is a required condition of publication, if that is the case. 

Financial Requirement for Approved Subvention Proposals

All subvention payments and reimbursements are subject to UO fiscal policies and regulations, and must be pre-approved by the OHC to ensure compliance. The OHC cannot guarantee payment for expenditures made without prior approval. 

Important note:  Please do not make direct payments to a service provider—this includes any service provider/vendor including current or former UO students, faculty, or staff. In order to ensure compliance, the OHC must coordinate payment to a service provider/vendor with other UO units (i.e., Business Affairs, Payroll, Human Resources, Graduate School, etc.) depending on the specific details of the service provided. If a subvention recipient pays a service provider/vendor directly without getting approval by the OHC, then the subvention funding could be rescinded. 

For more information, or if you have questions, please contact: Jena Turner, Associate Director, at  jenap@uoregon.edu or (541) 346-1001. 

Recent publications supported by the OHC