Special Call for Projects 2018-2019 – Provost Initiative on Confronting Extremism

Dear Members of the UCI Faculty:

We are writing to invite your participation in this Special Call for Projects on Confronting Extremism, a collaboration between the Office of Inclusive Excellence (OIE) and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). Within the framework of the Provost Experiential Alliances to Confront Extremism (PEACE), the proposed projects will engage undergraduate or graduate students in opportunities to honor free speech while developing campus action strategies in one of three focus areas listed below.

1. Confronting the denial of our common humanity - working on faculty projects that explore the origins and sources, causes and consequences, methods, and the representations of and responses to engagement with extreme narratives and actions denying civil, political, and human rights to communities and individuals.

2. Confronting the denial of science - contributing to projects focused on the place of science and scientific validity in society while critically examining arguments and consequences associated with denial of scientific evidence in such areas as climate change, public health, and other areas.

3. Broadening critical inquiry through course experiences - engaging in projects aimed at promoting civil dialogue and critical analysis in student experiential learning. Proposals in this area address how activities enhance learning, align to learning outcomes for student breadth or core discipline-based tenets and involve the development of evidence about the potential for learning and student success.

Please submit your project information, by Friday, October 26, 2018, via this link: https://uciadvance.wufoo.com/forms/z8c960v0v09cr8/

The selected projects will be announced to students on the UROP Web site (http://www.urop.uci.edu/mdp.html), with project titles starting with (Special Call – Confronting Extremism). Undergraduate and graduate Students will be invited to apply and indicate projects that interest them. Selected by the mentors, the teams will incorporate their multidisciplinary knowledge and skills in developing a solid project by the end of Spring 2019. Each team is expected to submit an itemized budget not to exceed $1,000. Budget requests will be due early December and all approved funds must be expended no later than the end of Spring quarter.

PEACE Fellows will be invited to participate in various workshops and other activities to ensure the success of each team and their overall experience. Students will receive academic credit through courses under the mentors' names. Supported projects will be highlighted at the UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium, and recognized at a special reception showcasing these projects. Final reports are due to the Office of Inclusive Excellence no later than June 10, 2019.

For questions or more information, please contact Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth at mbonoush@uci.edu and Roxane Cohen Silver at rsilver@uci.edu.

Thank you for your consideration and support.

Sincerely,

Douglas M. Haynes
Vice Provost for Academic Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Said M. Shokair
Director, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program