2018–19 Application Deadline: 25 June 2018

Link to Application Form

An anonymous donor has generously given $15,000 to the RSA in order to support innovative teaching projects in Renaissance studies by RSA members who teach in secondary schools. This donation responds to what many RSA members indicated in a recent survey about the future of the society—that we need to be promoting the study of the Renaissance among the next generation of students.

In order to administer this donation, RSA President Clare Carroll has formed an interdisciplinary committee made of up members who all have experience teaching at the secondary level. The additional members of this committee include Lorenzo Buonanno (Assistant Professor of Art, University of Massachusetts, Boston), Lawrence Rhu (Professor Emeritus of English, University of South Carolina), and Susan Forscher Weiss (Professor of Musicology, Johns Hopkins, Peabody Institute). We have been charged with calling for proposals for innovative teaching projects, and reviewing and selecting two winners each year for the next three years (2019–21). Each grant will be for $2,500. These innovative teaching projects might include, but are not limited to, such activities as attending a theatrical or musical performance, bringing visiting specialists to the school to work with students, and studying early modern art objects in a museum or rare books in special collections. Whatever the proposed project, there is an expectation that the project would result in work done by the students that could be shared in some form on the RSA website so that it might serve as a model for other teachers and students. We also expect that the teachers leading these projects will present an account of their experience at the RSA Annual Meeting. Of the $2,500 granted, $500 can be used to defray the costs of travel to the conference. The registration and hotel costs of both grant winners will be covered.

Educators who are not current RSA members are invited to complete the application. Those selected for a grant will be required to join the society or renew their RSA memberships upon receipt. Please contact rsa@rsa.org with any questions regarding the submission process.

Please click on this link to access the application, which will be due on June 25, 2018. The winners will be announced on July 9, and their projects will take place during the 2018–19 academic year before the RSA Annual Meeting in Toronto, March 17–19, 2019.

Clare Carroll
President, Renaissance Society of America
Chair, Committee on Renaissance Studies for High School Students