The goal of the Bridging Differences initiative is to improve understanding and engagement across divergent perspectives at Tufts, through effective communication and programming. Our focus is on all members of our community—students, faculty, and staff, with an appreciation that lessons learned at Tufts can be applied in other contexts.
The Bridging Differences Grant program will support, develop and launch multiple new initiatives that support the Bridging Differences mission and vision. Recognizing the need for seed funding to support initiatives that can meet this need, we are soliciting requests from Tufts students, faculty and staff for funding of events, projects, and programs that can bridge differences across Tufts. Our plan is to enable our campus community to develop programming that will broadly support and develop structures, processes, and skills for students, faculty, and staff to engage constructively across differences.
If you have questions in anticipation of the funding deadline, please contact BridgingDifferences@Tufts.edu.
Any Tufts student, faculty, or staff member may apply for up to $2,000 in funding for projects that will be implemented during the current academic year. We also encourage submissions that represent projects between multiple participants (ie. collaborative projects between students, faculty and staff, cross-school projects).
All proposals are required to support the Bridging Differences Mission. The BDTF encourages applications that are proposed by members of multiple campuses or by a cross section of students, staff, and faculty. Projects that aim to unify multiple campuses or cross sections of the Tufts community are highly encouraged.
Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure: All proposals will be deemed proprietary and confidential and will be protected against any unauthorized use and any unauthorized or uncontrolled disclosure beyond Tufts.
Relevance – ability to meet objectives and mission of the Bridging Differences initiative
Significance – quality and merit of the proposed project/program
Innovation – potential for impact through development of novel solutions and processes
Applicants – qualifications of the individuals or teams to carry out proposed program/project
Budget– need for resources to support proposed research
Approach – rigor of design of the plan to meet proposed objectives and goals
Evaluation – effective plan to measure success and impact of the program/project
Future Plans and Long-term impact
Funding Decision
Final funding decisions will be made based on funding recommendations, overall impact score, available funds and the funding level required for study implementation. All applicants will be informed of the outcome of their submission via email. Reviewers’ comments will be provided to all applicants, regardless of whether or not they are awarded funding.
Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure
All proposals will be deemed proprietary and confidential and will be protected against any unauthorized use and any unauthorized or uncontrolled disclosure beyond Tufts.
Complete the application form here.
Applicants should submit a fully completed application by Friday, February 12th at 5:00pm. All applicants will receive notification on their proposal and all accepted projects will be posted on our website.
Project Leads:
Kyla Martin, Resource and Prevention Specialist
Collaborators:
Dates:
Ongoing throughout the Spring 2020 semester
Overview:
To expand outreach to specific identity groups and education around the intersection of identity and sexual violence, the Center for Awareness, Resources, and Education (CARE) is proposing four initiatives for the Spring:
Project Leads:
Collaborators:
Dates:
Ongoing events throughout Summer and Fall 2020
Overview:
The Color of Us (CoU) project addresses the lack of diversity and inclusion resources available to black students, staff, and faculty on the Tufts Boston Campus. CoU aims to collaborate with Medford-based Tufts organizations to foster cross-campus inclusion initiatives that celebrate all black identities represented in the Tufts community.
Project Lead:
Tatiana Henry, Student and Tufts Veterinary Council on Diversity (TVCD) Co-Chair
Collaborators:
Dates:
Ongoing events throughout Spring 2020
Overview:
Generational Leadership Advancements for Minorities (GLAM) is a lecture and workshop series designed to address the unique barriers to diversity and inclusion in veterinary medicine.
Project Leads:
Lilian Mengesha, Fletcher Foundation Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature
Collaborators:
Dates:
March 26-27, 2020
Overview:
There is a need in our community to deepen the understanding of Indigenous people, and Indigenous Arts, Theory and Practice (IATP). IATP is a two-day interdisciplinary symposium that will bring together a diverse group of artists and scholars working within critical Indigenous studies and the performing arts. The focus is on interdisciplinary thinking, doing, and collaborative creation within critical Indigenous studies, an interdisciplinary field concerned with the history and traditional/contemporary practices of Native people in the Americas.
Specifically, this symposium will impact the campus social climate by bringing a visible and important presence of transnational and pan-Indigenous artists and scholars in conversation across the Americas including First Nations, Native American, mestizo/a/x and Indigenous people of the Latin America. The invited speakers are leaders in their respective fields of dance, language reclamation, theatre, new media and performance art.
Project Leads:
Collaborators:
Dates:
Ongoing throughout Spring/Summer and Fall 2020
Overview:
This project proposes student-focused and led talk-back (town-hall) sessions organized as a joint and collaborative partnership between the Public Health Department’s Diversity Committee, the Latino Medical Students’ Association, the Black Students’ Alliance and the Public Health and Professional Degree Program Student Senate. The proposed talk-back sessions will include discussions that address current gaps in inclusion and diversity efforts on campus. Points raised at the talkback sessions will be presented as action points to the larger Tufts community and serve as input into the university’s future diversity efforts.
Project Leads:
Eileen Crehan, Assistant Professor, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development
Collaborators:
Dates:
Overview:
This series of programs will be provided by Eileen Crehan, Assistant Professor and Clinical Psychologist with a specialty in autism in adulthood, Kate Pillette, SAS Learning Specialist and nationally certified school psychologist, and Julia, a student with an ASD diagnosis. The goal of these trainings is to make the academic and social spaces on campus more accessible to neurodiverse students by educating faculty and student support staff on ways they can create a welcoming and accessible environment for all.
Project Leads:
Collaborators:
Dates:
April 3-4, 2020
Overview:
The Refugees in Towns Conference and Arts Festival is a two-day program linked to the Refugees in Towns (RIT) research project on refugee integration which runs through the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University since 2017. The goal of this conference and arts festival is to deepen understanding on refugee experience and support inclusion from host institutions and the wider Boston and global community. The RIT Conference and Arts Festival addresses refugee integration at a localized, grass-roots level through case studies of integration written by refugees in different towns both domestically and abroad.
Project Leads:
Carolyn Gideon, Adjunct Professor of International Communication Policy, Director of Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs, Chair of Diversity and Inclusions Committee
Collaborators:
Dates:
Ongoing
Overview:
In trying to make Fletcher a more diverse and inclusive community, this initiative seeks to increase the recruitment of under-represented minority (URM) students and better achieve inclusive excellence to make all feel welcome, comfortable, and supported for success. While information has been collected from a variety of sources, including climate surveys and other student surveys, there is much more to learn in order to continue to improve inclusiveness. This is essential both for attracting more URM students and for improving the experience of those who do enroll at Fletcher.
This project is designed to help more fully understand what URM students are truly looking for when they choose where to apply and where to enroll. To better understand Fletcher’s gaps in creating an inclusive community where URM students strive and want to join, in-depth focus group discussions will be conducted with admitted URM students, both those who do and do not choose to enroll at Fletcher.
Project Leads:
Alejandro Baez, Student and Vice President, Tufts United for Immigrant Justice
Collaborators:
Dates:
April 3-5, 2020
Overview:
The CAIR Conference has been organized to bring together college students, activists, scholars, and other members of the national pro-immigrant rights community to share strategies and empower ourselves in our pursuit of achieving comprehensive and humanitarian immigration reform. The conference will focus on the empowerment of the student body in action towards immigrant justice, while emphasizing and encouraging solidarity across movements in immigration. This focus is important as the conversation surrounding immigration has largely been Mexican-centric and has often excluded the voices of those outside of this topic.
Daniel's work centers the struggles and existence of Central Americans, who as of 2017, make up a community of 3,527,000 (per data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2017 American Community Survey (ACS). The integration of Daniel's work and the varying perspectives that he covers will increase the diversity of what is considered to be an immigrant. To rely on past approaches that only centered Mexican immigrants won't encompass the needs of those from a different country or culture.