Grant Program

Research Grants: Up to $5,000

In order to facilitate innovative forms s of embodied research and creative activity, IU Research will award grants of up to $5,000 to support faculty research projects that employ walking as a central methodology or focus. These grants are designed to enable walking—locally, nationally, or internationally—that will generate new scholarship or creative work.

We seek projects that:

• Use walking as a primary method of inquiry and knowledge production

• Examine walking as a cultural, historical, aesthetic, or political practice

• Engage critically with place, embodiment, mobility, and spatial justice

• Attend to who walks, who cannot walk, and under what conditions

• Generate humanities scholarship grounded in movement and observation

• Launch a new research program or extend an ongoing one

• Produce diverse outputs: scholarly articles, creative writing, exhibitions, performances, digital projects, public humanities work, etc.

What the Grants Support:

• Travel to domestic or international destinations

• Accommodations and related expenses

• Research materials, documentation, and archival costs

• Collaborative or solo walking projects

• Community engagement and public scholarship

Awardee Expectations:

In addition to conducting the proposed research, grant recipients are required to:

• In late May 2026: Attend a 1-hour zoom meeting to meet with the other awardees and discuss preliminary research plans.

• During the grant period: Contribute a dispatch from their walk (1-2 images and approximately 1 paragraph of text) to be featured on the Walking as Inquiry website.

• In late spring 2027: Participate in a symposium that will involve sharing research findings with the other awardees and a panel discussion for the broader IU community.

Application Requirements:

• A 1-2 page project statement that addresses:

  • The project goal and rationale

  • Description of how walking will function as method and/or object of study

  • Location and rationale (why this place, this route, this experience?)

  • Expected outcomes and outputs

• Detailed budget (up to $5,000)

• CV

Important Dates:

• Walking Summit: April 18, 2026, Bradford Woods

• Grant Proposals Due: May 11, 2026

• Awards Announced: Mid-May 2026

• Awardee Meeting: Final week of May 2026 (specifics TBD)

• Post-Project Gathering and Panel Discussion: Spring 2027 (specifics TBD)

How to Apply:

Please compile your application materials into a single PDF and email it to walk@iu.edu.

Questions? Please contact Laura Holzman (HolzmanL@iu.edu) and Shannon Gayk (sgayk@iu.edu).