Course Enhancement Grants

The Center for the Study of American Democracy (CSAD) is pleased to announce an expanded Course Enhancement Grant program for the 2023-24 academic year.  

These grants are to bring the world beyond the Hill into Kenyon classrooms by providing faculty with up to $1050 to cover the honoraria for up to three outside speakers to interact via video link with a Kenyon course. For example, the author of a text on the course syllabus or expert on the course topic might speak to a class session. Proposed honoraria should typically range from $150 to $350 per speaker, depending upon the speaker’s time, preparation and involvement in the class session.  

Modern liberal democratic regimes like the United States incorporate two complementary sets of institutions: the political institutions and practices of democracy (e.g., individual rights and fundamental human equality, the rule of law, free and competitive elections, etc.) and the economic institutions and practices of free market capitalism (e.g., private property, open markets, economic competition, etc.). This year’s grant program will support proposals that address either of these topics or the relationship between the two.  

Types of Grants

Democracy Course Enhancement Grants can be used to enhance courses that deepen students’ knowledge and understandings of democracy, its historical development, the institutions and practices that support it or the many challenges to democracy in the United States and elsewhere.

Market Course Enhancement Grants can be used to enhance courses that deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of markets and how they operate, their historical development as components of liberal democratic societies, how they shape social life and social outcomes, the historical development or importance of market-supporting institutions and market regulation, or the ways in which markets, market-supporting institutions, and market regulation may advance and/or hinder democracy, prosperity, or human liberty.  

Who Can Apply

CSAD accepts proposals from all interested faculty. Previous grants have enhanced courses in dance, drama, English, history, modern languages, philosophy, political science and studio art. The faculty member’s proposal should describe how proposed speakers are relevant to course goals and to CSAD's mission to illuminate the principles, institutions and practices of American and other liberal democratic societies in ways that enable students to evaluate their contemporary relevance from multiple points of view. Faculty may apply for one course enhancement grant (either a Democracy Course Enhancement Grant or a Market Course Enhancement Grant) for each course that they teach  (Faculty teaching three courses in the coming semester are eligible for up to three grants.) A proposal should include a copy of the tentative course syllabus, which we understand may be a work in progress, and 1-2 paragraphs identifying the speaker's credentials and value-added to your course.  

How to Apply

Please use this google form to submit your application and supplemental documents. 

We will consider proposals as they are submitted, up until Sept. 15, 2023. For further information, please contact either Joe Klesner (klesner@kenyon.edu) or Nancy Powers (powersn@kenyon.edu).