Discover Funding Opportunities

The Purdue University Archives and Special Collections offers travel assistance for scholars whose research cannot progress satisfactorily without consulting materials onsite and whose visit would not be feasible without financial support. Two awards (up to $2,000 each) are disbursed each reviewing period to individual scholars studying content represented in Archives and Special Collections' collections. The program supports researchers studying subject areas strongly represented in the archival and manuscript collections including the history of flight and space (Barron Hilton Flight and Space Exploration Archives); the history of women affiliated with Purdue University or the state of Indiana (Susan Bulkeley Butler Women's Archives); the history of psychedelics for medicinal and healing purposes (Betsy Gordon Psychoactive Substances Research Collection); and the history of Purdue University. Rare book collections include the history of engineering, science, and transportation (Goss Library of the History of Engineering), the history of economics and political thought (Krannert Special Collection), the history of typography and book design (Bruce Rogers Collection), books about Indiana history or written by Indiana authors. Preference is given to applicants needing funds to travel from out of state or out of the country and who plan to publish or publicly disseminate the scholarly results of their research. Recipients must submit a brief report about their research experience within one year of their visit.

The Cushwa Center established the Mother Theodore M. Guerin Research Travel Grant Program in 2018 to support scholars in any academic discipline whose projects feature Catholic women more prominently in modern history. Grants of up to $1,500 are made to researchers seeking to visit any repository in or outside the United States or traveling to conduct oral history interviews, especially of women religious. This program memorializes the historic connection between Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College and the University of Notre Dame. The grants are named for Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, a French missionary to Indiana who established the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, just north of Terre Haute, in 1840. Grant recipients will be asked to participate in an interview about their project and/or provide the center with a short report on the results of their research, acknowledge the grant in all publications which result from their research, and notify the Cushwa Center of any publication resulting in whole or in part from the grant. Applicants will be notified by early March after the December 31 deadline.

In partnership with the American Catholic Historical Association, the Cushwa Center has established the Cyprian Davis, O.S.B., Award recognizing works in progress that promise to make significant contributions to the study of the Black Catholic experience in North America and the Caribbean from the colonial period to the 20th century. This award celebrates the life and legacy of Father Cyprian Davis, O.S.B. (1930–2015), a Benedictine monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana, respected academic, and beloved teacher and lecturer. Father Davis served as archivist for the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, of which he was a founding member in 1968. Among his six books, The History of Black Catholics in the United States (Crossroad, 1990) won the John Gilmary Shea Prize for its groundbreaking contribution. Father Davis' comprehensive history helped restore the stories of Black Catholics to the writing and teaching of U.S. Catholic history and continues to inspire new scholarship on African American Catholicism. The center invites applications from scholars of any academic discipline. In addition to receiving a cash award of $1,000, each year's Davis Award recipient is invited to the annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association to be recognized along with other honorees of the association.