Arts and Humanities Site-Based Research Residency

This program invites arts and humanities faculty at Oregon State University to propose a residency in a place uniquely suited to provide resources, context or community for their research or creative work. Or, if your research doesn't require a specific place, but you need time to work on your project, you can propose a residency in a space that is fundamentally designed for intellectual activity, such as a pre-existing residency location that requires participants to pay for their stay. 

Inspiration and Ideas: 

• A musician or visual artist developing a piece inspired by the Civil Rights Movement proposes a one-month residency in Montgomery, Alabama  

• A historian studying commercial fishing proposes a residency at Hatfield Marine Science Center for one week each month over winter term  

• An ethicist studying immigration rights proposes a residency at the US/Mexico border for two months over the summer  

• A poet and a literary critic propose a five-day residency to write a collaborative creative-critical work at Playa, Centrum or another location designed for intellectual or creative activity 

Some sample pre-existing residency locations include: 

• Playa Self-Directed Residencies in Summer Lake, OR 
• H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Western Cascades, OR 
• Centrum in Port Townsend, WA 
• Mineral Arts and Residencies in Mineral, WA (application necessary) 

Please consider the following things when developing your proposal: 

• Pre-existing residencies: PRAx offers a range of residency opportunities including the Spring Creek Project Faculty Residency and the Long-Term Ecological Reflections Residency, which are designed to support work at the intersection of arts, humanities, and environmental science. If those programs do not align with your project, we invite you to propose a residency suited to your needs. 

• Connection to your research: Carefully consider how a residency in this place will contribute to your research (e.g., affordances of being in a specific place, access to uninterrupted time for solitude and focus, or a location to come together with your collaborators).  

• Location: Please propose a location that supports your scholarship or creative work such as archives, museums, galleries, sites of ecological or cultural significance and/or research hubs. You are also welcome to propose a location that is near people who are key to your research such as oral history subjects, collaborators or interviewees.  

• Collaborators: If collaboration is important to your residency, you’ll be asked to provide information about potential collaborators.  

• Activities: Develop a plan for how you will spend your time during your residency. This could include things like writing or painting, visiting museums or archives, interviewing people at specific sites, collaborating with colleagues or working in a studio. 

• Lodging: Locations could include a hotel, Airbnb, cabin, campground or pre-existing residency site. 

• Duration: We encourage you to plan as much time as possible and we recommend at least seven days in residency.  

• Schedule: You are welcome to divide your residency into multiple stays (e.g., three long weekends) or to plan a longer stay (e.g., 2-4 weeks in one location). Please plan on completing your residency within one year of the award.  

• Budget: You will not be required to submit receipts for your expenses, but we will ask for a high-level budget including estimated costs for travel, lodging and food.  

• PRAx will transfer funds to the recipient’s academic unit for disbursement.  

For more Information:

Check the PRAx calendar for upcoming information sessions or contact Joy Jensen at [email protected] with questions.