Human in the Data Summer Graduate Fellowship Application

Applications Due: Friday, March 27, 2026

We invite applications for University of Minnesota graduate student summer fellowships in the amount of $7,000 each to fund research on the humanistic implications of data and its use. This fellowship is intended to fund non-traditional scholarship and engagement work that might not normally fit within standard disciplinary graduate research. Students in the humanities, arts, and humanistic social sciences are eligible to apply. Up to five fellows will be selected.

Data is ubiquitous in our world. Experts from different fields apply sophisticated algorithms to extract insights from data sets, and expectations are high that these insights will aid decision making in areas such as health, food, energy, education, environment, design, technology, and social policy. The use of quantitative data for decision-making has 19th-century roots, but in the 20th and 21st centuries, new technology has enabled more complex collection and application of large datasets. When represented by numbers and numerical proxies, individuals and social relationships are abstracted and obscured to both researchers and end users. Yet data is used to explain, predict, and direct human behavior and define research agendas. This shift has had, and will continue to have, significant humanistic dimensions.

Co-sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study, AI Hub, and the University of Minnesota Libraries / Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services (LATIS).

About the Fellowship

  • We will invite a cohort of graduate student fellows to critically explore the intersection of data and the humanities during the summer.
  • Projects should generate a tangible outcome in the course of the summer term. Acceptable products include but are not limited to: an original data set, art, a website, protocols for evaluating the ethics of data collection or analysis, software, or a community event.
  • The fellowship begins in residence at the IAS for the first two weeks, May 18–29, 2026. 
  • Fellows are required during the fellowship to participate in the two-week residential work group and in a virtual, bi-weekly work group convened by the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), AI Hub, Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services (LATIS), and related faculty members.
  • Fellows are required to give a presentation at an AI Hub event.
  • Fellows will be given work space at the IAS for summer 2026. They will have access to computational resources including those of LATIS and the AI Hub.
  • Applicants will be notified of their award status in April. 

Eligibility

  • The fellowship is open to doctoral students and students in another terminal degree program, such as an MFA, in the humanities, arts and humanistic social sciences at the University of Minnesota. 

  • To allow fellows the time to concentrate on their projects, fellows may hold an additional appointment no more than 25% during the summer fellowship term.

  • Students who have previously held a MnDRIVE Human in the Data Summer Graduate Fellowship are not eligible to apply.

Application Instructions

Graduate students wishing to apply will submit the following via InfoReady. Please log in with your University of Minnesota credentials.

  1. Name of applicant, email, and home department
  2. Title of project
  3. You will be asked to provide a faculty or other reference (name and email contact). This person can be your advisor or another faculty or staff member, and should be someone who can discuss your preparation for this project and your ability to contribute to the Human in the Data work group. Be sure you share your proposal with this person and let them know that we may be contacting them.
  4. Project abstract. Important: If your application is successful, this abstract will be used to promote your project on the IAS website. (900 characters max)
  5. Description of the proposed research and how it engages with the intersection of data and humanistic questions. (500 words max)
  6. What the proposed research will produce. Discuss how that product relates to or stands apart from your graduate research. What resources (e.g., support staff, training, or technology) will you require to complete that product in the course of the summer? (300 words max)
  7. If your project includes visual media or images, you may upload up to three images where indicated.
     

Applications close Friday, March 27, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CT.

Apply Now

Questions?

Questions? Email [email protected].