Hospitality Initiative Call for Proposals
Think of hospitable entities, spaces, processes, practices, productions, pedagogies, of being welcomed and included: these thoughts may inspire beautiful and comforting images. Yet, is hospitality inherently good? Who or what is host evokes questions of sovereignty and power, property and gift. Who or what is guest distinguishes between the visible and invisible, the welcomed and unwelcome. “Hospitality” explores the possibilities and limits of hospitality, belonging, and gathering through human and non- human entities, mobile and fixed bodies, temporary and permanent spaces. The sites, gestures, acts, and relationships of welcoming or gathering contain power dynamics that reflect financial, social, political, speculative, or imagined currencies, often with burdens and expectations of reciprocity and gratitude. Sites and gestures of hospitality can be found in life, work, theater, performance, leisure, and study: these places and acts invite and even demand critique. Those who are offered hospitality or summoned to belong may resist inclusion and reject invitation given their often heavy price. Is hospitality always a moral imperative? Under what conditions may one choose to be inhospitable? “Hospitality” wonders what languages, methods, and models for inclusion and exclusion can be explored: translation and immersion, hosting or hosted creatures, processes that host, others that squat, still others that repurpose/redesign (e.g., palimpsest and pentimento).
As we leave the “Borderlines” initiative, interrogating hospitality, welcoming, gathering, and belonging, seems a logical next step—and an urgent one.
In Fall 2023 CAS will begin a three-year initiative on the topic of “Hospitality”, for which three projects will be funded. Alexa Woloshyn from the School of Music and Anne Lambright from the Department of Modern Languages will coordinate the Hospitality Initiative.
We are calling for proposals that will be led by a tenure-track, tenured, or teaching-track CMU faculty member (or members) of the College of Fine Arts and/or the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. We plan to fund one or two projects to begin in Fall 2023, in this first round. An additional one or two projects that will begin in 2024 will be funded in a future round.
The projects will be funded for three years; the project leader will receive a one-month $5000 summer salary supplement for each of the three years, plus $20,000 in additional funds to develop and produce the project over its three-year time span. Additional funding that includes publication and project related course development will be available. Project leaders must be faculty members of Dietrich or CFA; projects can be proposed by teams of more than one project leader. Projects should involve multiple participants and have a public presence within and outside Carnegie Mellon. The proposed projects also should be “productive,” meaning they aim to realize significant works over the course of the funded period. These may take the form of publications, electronic projects, events, or other forms of scholarly or artistic production.
To submit a proposal for consideration, please upload a document that contains: your name(s) & departmental affiliation(s); a one paragraph project description; a one sentence example of an event that might occur during your project; and a link or brief synopsis to an example of a completed project or manuscript where you or the team members were the primary authors or creative lead on or before midnight on Monday, April 24, 2023 to this BOX folder (direct upload).
Your proposal must be a single document (word or pdf). If your proposal is accepted at this first stage of consideration, you will be asked to develop a more detailed proposal for final approval.