Our Mission
Our office strives to advance the educational mission of the College of Liberal Arts by providing the infrastructure that faculty, graduate students, and academic units within the College need in order to fund, conduct, and disseminate compelling and innovative research. Research by College faculty and students exemplifies our contribution to the people of Texas, to the academic community in the nation and beyond, and to the development of human knowledge in the humanities and the social sciences. Strong research is critical to the education we provide to our undergraduate and graduate students; indeed, a successful research mission is inseparable from our educational mission.
Liberal Arts Research Support Office
To carry out our research mission, our staff of grants professionals assists faculty, graduate students, and research staff with grant-seeking at UT Austin; and facilitates the preparation and submission of sponsored award, agreement, and grant proposals with the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) and the University Development Office (UDO). We also facilitate the participation of faculty and graduate students in grant and fellowship competitions inside the University of Texas at Austin, at the state and national levels, and internationally, with a commitment to assuring compliance with all regulatory requirements.
As a service to the College, the Research Support Office circulates a Grants Digest with open opportunities that may be of interest to academic units, faculty, and graduate students in Liberal Arts. To subscribe to the Digest, please go to the UT Lists page (https://utlists.utexas.edu/sympa) and join this list: cola_grants_alert@utlists.utexas.edu.
We also offer workshops that cover RSO services, the process of submitting proposals at UT Austin, sponsor-specific application requirements (e.g., the National Science Foundation Senior PI awards and Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants), and preparing proposal budgets. Additionally, we will work with individual units on campus to hold workshops within the unit or introduce our services to the faculty and students.
Please note, we work with a large volume of proposals, which requires advance notices and a clearly outlined time frame, which can be found here.
For more information about services within the Research Support Office, please visit our website, or contact our staff:
Brook Davis
Manager, Proposal Services
davis@austin.utexas.edu
Sheena Moore
Grants Administrator
sheena.moore@austin.utexas.edu
512-232-0760
Lindy Aleshire
Manager, Award Services
melinda.aleshire@austin.utexas.edu
Humanities Research Awards
Humanities Research Awards are College of Liberal Arts-sponsored grants that provide funding for tenured and tenure-track faculty whose work falls within the disciplines of the humanities. The awards support faculty in their efforts to bring to completion a research project already in progress, and the expectation is that the recipient will produce one or more publications and make his or her work known to the academic community through conferences and other venues. The award is $5,000 for three consecutive years, for a total of $15,000. We are preparing to announce the 2019 competition.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Erica Whittington, Executive Assistant
whittington@austin.utexas.edu
512-232-2094
Graduate Studies
Our office takes a special interest in the success of graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts, from the period of enrollment and through graduation. We collaborate with the Dean of the Graduate School, with the Graduate Student Assembly, and with graduate student organizations to stay on top of campus-wide efforts that support the graduate student population and meet challenges that arise with the changing economy and job market trends. Within the college, we work closely with academic programs and graduate coordinators.
We continually seek to improve campus resources and procedures to benefit graduate students in the areas of professional development, funding, work-life balance, mentorship, career planning, and placement in academic and other training-related jobs.
Please stay in touch with us as you begin to advise and mentor graduate students and familiarize yourself with College expectations in these areas. Our Graduate Studies page provides information on our work, and can serve as an entry point for policies, resources, and data on demographics, placement, and more.