Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Provost Office Faculty Development Annual Report
Brie Gertler

Call for Proposals
Race, Place, and Equity COLA courses, fall 2023
DUE DATE: JANUARY 18, 2023
Course enrichment grants
In an effort to encourage long-term reciprocal partnerships between UVA faculty, students, and community partners, the RPE program is offering $2,000 grants to support courses that include a strong element of community engagement. Faculty members are encouraged to apply for funding to support courses that deploy place-based and community-based learning.
Call for Proposals
Development grants for community-engaged courses
Note: the application cycle will open again in spring 2023. In the meantime, the CFP for spring 2022 is below.
Call for Proposals for RPE First Year Advising Seminars
CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Race, Place, and Equity SARC SEM Courses. Due date April 18, 2022
First Year Advising Seminars
The initial round of first-year advising seminars funded by the Mellon Race, Place, and Equity program took place in Fall 2021. Eight professors in various disciplines in Arts and Sciences, and three in the School of Architecture, worked alongside approximately 35 community members to teach 200 first year students.
Community Partners and Resources
Community Advisers
A foundational premise of the grant is that university faculty, staff, and students work with community partners in a reciprocal manner to further the equity-based missions of community groups, and provide UVA students with a variety of perspectives, expertise, and lived experiences.
We are grateful to our community partners for generously and actively helping us develop the programming of the Mellon Race, Place, and Equity grant. Read more about them and their work here:
Curriculum in race, place, and equity
The Mellon RPE program supports curriculum development that fosters nuanced understanding of the intersections of race, place, and equity. A series of Advising Seminars in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Architecture introduce first-year students at UVA to local, place-based histories and legacies that have shaped the University and Central Virginia. Three-credit courses featuring community partnerships and place-based, community-engaged teaching help build an outward looking, public-service university.
RPE Faculty
The Mellon RPE program is providing start-up funding for three tenured or tenure track positions to contribute to the broader race, justice, and equity hiring initiatives at UVA. Two positions have been filled (see below); the third will address North American Indigenous Studies.
RPE Postdoctoral Fellows
Over the five-year grant period, UVA will hire 30 Race, Place, and Equity Postdoctoral Fellows/Research Associates across a variety of schools and disciplines to advance research, creative practice, and teaching related to race, justice, and equity. Fellows will carry out transformative, cross-disciplinary research; contribute to the understanding of the legacy of racial inequity using place-based methodologies for research or artistic expression; and strengthen existing initiatives that address issues of race, justice, and equity, particularly in North America.
Position openings
Our Postdoctoral Fellows will be hired over four application cycles, with the first cohort arriving in fall 2021.
Our application cycle for our third cohort of Fellows is underway. Check below for more information as these positions get listed.
You can read about the program and about cohorts one and two here.
Research and Teaching
The Race, Place, and Equity program will hire a total of 30 Postdoctoral Fellows and provide seed funding for three faculty hires over the course of five years. These commitments will foster groundbreaking research, publishing, and teaching from a new generation of equity-minded scholars, and will enrich the fabric of UVA’s faculty, research, and course offerings.
Photo credit: Dan Addison