Funder: Modern Language Association
Due Dates (Anticipated): September 2027 (Application due)
Funding Amounts: $3,000 per grant; approximately five awards anticipated in the 2026 cycle
Summary: Supports new initiatives improving workforce fairness and working conditions in language, literature, writing, and culture departments or programs.
Key Information: Applicants need active MLA membership or affiliation with a MAPS-member department at application and award.
Description
The Modern Language Association’s Humanities Innovation Grants: Workforce Equity supports research, development, implementation, and sustained use of practices that improve academic working conditions. Funded through the MLA’s Paving the Way: For the Future of the Humanities fund, the program supports individuals and small teams pursuing departmental or program-level improvements, especially for graduate students and non-tenure-track faculty.
Supported approaches include mentoring, departmental professional development, cross-unit collaborations supporting career outcomes, and data collection such as climate surveys. Projects may also improve workload policies, reduce precarity among faculty, graduate students, and staff, or develop ethical and equitable hiring practices. The emphasis is on initiatives with the potential to demonstrably improve working conditions for the people they serve.
