Signature Programs are projects that best exemplify the spirit of the Institute. Vassar faculty and others collaborate with partners across the campus, in the local community, and around the country to engage in meaningful work and dialogue about the most pressing issues of our time.
Awards for 2024–25
These projects from the Vassar community were awarded grants
for the academic year.
The Entrepreneurial Mind and the Liberal Arts
This program seeks to disrupt traditional models of entrepreneurship by engaging the values of the liberal arts to inspire new approaches to how individuals can mobilize vision into action and real-world problem-solving.
Law and Ecology: Legal Innovations for a Heating Planet and Eco-Visions: Finding Your Place in Environmentalism
This program that aims to provide participants with opportunities to see how environmental action can take shape in all aspects of life and highlight how legal innovations might be underused tools to aid and contribute to climate justice.
Transgressing Borders: Reimagining Education and the Role of Learning and Community
This program is a multi-day workshop and festival aimed at reimagining how institutions of higher education and local community members work together in a generative way. The event aims to reshape how we think about “town-gown” dynamics and explore opportunities for shared learning and development.
Belonging and Beyond: Using Future Histories to Reimagine Teaching and Learning
This program offers educators and students an opportunity to use “future imagining” methodologies to generate radically inclusive and exciting teaching and learning spaces in higher education.
Promoting Partnerships to Advance Educational Justice in Poughkeepsie
This multi-day workshop will explore the social, political, and historical factors contributing to educational inequities within the city and town of Poughkeepsie and how youth and their families experience these inequities both in school and through interactions with criminal justice systems. Participants will develop real-life avenues for coordination between programs and services that support at-risk youth and help them complete their secondary education.
Soundscapes and the Anthropocene
This program will explore how humans influence natural sound environments and how sound environments in turn influence us by drawing on a broad range of disciplines including ecology, animal behavior, sensory neuroscience, human psychology, sociology, music, the arts, and architecture.
How to Submit a Proposal
All members of the Vassar community are invited to submit proposals to convene an Institute for the Liberal Arts program.
Deadline for submission: to be announced Fall 2024.
Criteria for Proposals
- The proposal has a clear and reasonable budget that is consistent with College policies and practices.
- The speakers, guests, or other programmatic desires are viable and attainable by the applicant/submitter (i.e. is it possible that the key aspects of the proposal can be materialized).
- The proposal demonstrates values of inclusion and Engaged Pluralism. Importantly, the content of the proposal reflects an appreciation for and inclusion of heterogeneous perspectives/ideas that embody the principles of speaking across difference.
- The proposal demonstrates robust collaboration across the campus or off-campus communities. The program is not situated in a narrow department or office, but rather engages various on- and off-campus constituencies.
- The proposal aligns with the Institute’s mission to create a space for intellectual exploration.
- The proposal aligns with the “Vassar In the World” pillar of the capital campaign, in that it amplifies Vassar voices and engages contemporary thought-leaders in public discourse.
- The proposal lends itself to the creative use of resources to attract and engage alums, faculty, students, and others who may not be geographically proximate to campus.
- The proposal demonstrates a compelling reason why the proposed activities should be Institute-branded. The proposal demonstrates alignment with the specific mission of the Institute, distinct from Vassar’s overall mission as an institution of higher education.
Apply for a Signature Program
Download and complete the Call for Proposals Form. Deadline for submission: to be announced Fall 2024.
Funding Awards
The Committee of the Institute for the Liberal Arts awards up to $25,000 for each accepted Signature Program.
You can review examples of Signature Programs and past Summer Institute programs. Do not feel you need to replicate this model; there are many ways Institute programming can embody the values of the College and the Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts.
Thank you.
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