Deadline: 01-Dec-2025
The Teagle Foundation is seeking applications to revitalize the role of the humanities in general education through its “Cornerstone: Learning for Living” initiative.
This program aims to help colleges and universities embed transformative texts and humanistic inquiry into curricula so that students build critical thinking, communication, and intellectual community early in their academic careers.
Eligible applicants include regionally accredited public or private nonprofit institutions of higher education such as community colleges, liberal arts colleges, regional comprehensive institutions, and research universities. The initiative offers two types of awards: Planning Grants of up to $25,000 over 6–12 months to lay the groundwork for curricular redesign, and Implementation Grants of up to $300,000 over 24 months for full-scale reform efforts. Applicants will go through a two-stage process, beginning with a brief concept paper due December 1, 2025, and, if invited, a full proposal.
The initiative places special emphasis on faculty-led and faculty-owned efforts that create common intellectual experiences anchored in transformative texts for incoming students, establish coherent pathways through general education that link humanities to students’ professional aspirations, reach a significant share of the undergraduate population including STEM and pre-professional majors, and build sustainable programs that will be institutionalized beyond the grant period. Institutions must include tenured or tenure-track faculty as co-principal investigators, demonstrate plans for assessment and dissemination, and design reforms that will be absorbed by the institution over time.
For institutions interested in revitalizing their general education offerings and elevating the humanities as a central pillar of undergraduate experience, this initiative represents a significant and timely opportunity to secure funding, galvanize faculty engagement, and build curricula that promote deeper learning, student belonging, and intellectual community.
For more information, visit The Teagle Foundation.