These awards, which are funded from the Eugene M. Kayden endowment, are intended to promote the completion of research and creative work in the arts and humanities, research leading to publication, and the celebration and dissemination of excellent arts and humanities research. The funds shall be used to promote scholarship and publication in the humanities at CU Boulder, across the broad range of humanistic disciplines, including the pursuit of those disciplines in other colleges.
There are three kinds of awards:
Kayden Research Grants
These are awards to foster and promote research, creative works and translations, which have a high probability of issuing in publication. The applicant will submit the following application file:
- A research/publication proposal (maximum 1,000 words) which explains the nature and significance of the project, the necessity for the funds, and the likely publication outcome;
- A request for a specific amount together with a one-page budget;
- A complete list of the applicant’s publications;
- A letter of support from the chair of the applicant’s department.
Please submit your proposal, with all four of the above elements together, either in Microsoft Word or PDF format with your letter of support as the last page/pages of your application submission. These can be e-mailed to Layne Lewis (layne.lewis@colorado.edu) before or on the day of the application deadlines listed below.
The maximum amount for any grant will be $3000. Awards may be for any legitimate research costs associated with the production and publication of original work in the humanities. Travel grants, including grants to finance conference travel, will be considered, provided there is clear evidence that conference attendance will promote or advance the published scholarly work of the applicant. Also eligible is the subvention of manuscript publication, for works that have unusual costs attached. Priority will be given to manuscripts already accepted by major academic presses. The manuscripts must not be textbooks, but may be translations. Funds must be used within 12 months of the notification of the award or returned to the fund.
For the Fall Research Grants please submit your application by 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022.
For the Spring Research Grants please submit your application by 5 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023.
The Research Award Committee will consist of the associate dean (chair) or his or her nominee, together with at least three faculty members designated by the associate dean each of whom will serve two-year terms. Those who serve on the Research Award Committee will not be eligible to apply to for Kayden Research Awards during their tenure on the Committee.
Kayden Book Awards
Each year faculty members publishing in the Humanities are invited to submit books in progress for the Kayden Book Award. An awardee will receive a $1000 research account, and their department will receive a $4000 grant to organize a one-day manuscript symposium.
The symposium will involve both the author and experts in the author’s field who will present critiques of the book to which the author will respond. The symposium will be open to the wider academic community and the public. Funds must be disbursed by the end of the academic year following the award or returned to the Fund.
To be considered, the project must be close to final submission for publication. For example:
A book may be nominated by the author, or by another CU faculty member.
The application file will consist of
- a letter of nomination (maximum, 750 words);
- a copy of the book in digital format (or a link to a preliminary version of the digital project);
- a complete list of the nominee’s publications; and
- other supporting materials (e.g. a contract letter from the press, readers comments, etc.).
For the Kayden Book Award, please submit your application file, consisting of the letter of nomination, the list of nominee’s publications and other supporting documents in a single Microsoft Word or PDF file. The application file should be submitted via e-mail to Layne Lewis (layne.lewis@colorado.edu) before or on the day of the application deadline, 5 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023.
Submissions for 2023 should follow the theme for that year: Classics, Philosophy, Religious Studies.
The Book Award Committee will consist of at least three faculty members nominated by the Divisional Dean of the Arts and Humanities. Members will serve for just one year. Those who serve on the Book Award Committee will not be eligible to be nominated for the Kayden Book Award during their tenure on the committee.
Kayden Translation Awards
Starting in 2016-17, the College instituted the Kayden Translation Awards to honor the memory of Eugene Kayden, a translator in his own right; and to reinstitute one of the original intents of the Kayden funds, which was to promote the translation of texts that would help promote the exchange of knowledge and research in a variety of fields. These awards will have biennial frequency and will be given in recognition of an outstanding creative or scholarly translation in the fields of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The awardee will receive a $1500 research account, and the awardee’s department will receive a $3000 grant to organize a one-day Translator Symposium. The symposium will involve both the translator and experts in translation studies who will discuss the translation. The symposium will be open to the wider academic community and the public. Funds must be disbursed by the end of the academic year following the award, or returned to the fund. In subsequent years, we intend to offer two awards, one following the guidelines mentioned above, the second to support the completion and/or publication costs of an already-accepted translation.
In spring 2023, the award will be given to a book-length translation published in 2021 or 2022.
The application file consists of:
- a letter of nomination (maximum, 750 words);
- a copy of the book in digital format;
- a complete list of the nominee’s publications; and
- other supporting materials (e.g. typically published reviews, but may include solicited outside letters, etc).
For the Kayden Translation Award, please submit your application file, consisting of the letter of nomination, the list of nominee’s publications and other supporting materials, all together, in Microsoft Word or PDF format, by 5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The application file should be submitted via e-mail to Layne Lewis (layne.lewis@colorado.edu) before or on the day of the application deadline.
Past winners of the Kayden Book Award
2021: History and the Arts (including Creative Writing, Musicology, Theatre, Dance, and Film)
2020: Classics, Philosophy, Religious Studies
2019: Literary Studies
2018: History and the Arts (including Creative Writing, Musicology, Theatre, Dance, Film)
2017: Classics, Philosophy, Religious Studies
2016: Literary studies
2015: History and the Arts
2014: Classics, Philosophy, Religious Studies
2013: Literary studies
2012: History and the Arts
Past winners of the Kayden Research Award
2021
2020
Past winners of the Kayden Translation Award
Background to the Eugene M. Kayden Fund
Eugene M. Kayden was born in Russia in 1886. He came to the United States at the age of sixteen, enrolled at UCB in 1908, and graduated in 1912 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. In order to improve his English while he was attending UCB, Kayden worked on translating Russian plays, poems, and other literary works into English. Kayden continued with the advanced study of economics at Princeton and Harvard and embarked on a distinguished career as a scholar and teacher of economics, serving on the faculty of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, from 1923-1955.
Professor Kayden focused his scholarly pursuits on literature and economics. He held two convictions that were fundamental to his achievements as a translator. He believed that the best way to understand Russia was through her literature, and that cultural understanding was basic to world peace. Professor Kayden always maintained a particular attachment and loyalty to the University of Colorado, the place where his lifelong interest in Russian translation began. His gifts to his alma mater resulted in the creation of the Eugene M. Kayden Fund, the income from which is used for the advancement of the humanities;
The Eugene M. Kayden Fund – composed of the Kayden Humanities Bequest, the Dora Kayden Gift, and the Eugene M. Kayden Gift – is administered by the University of Colorado Foundation. In 1980 the Kayden Advisory Committee was established and was responsible for advising the Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder on the distribution of the income from the Fund. In 2004 the Fund was transferred by the Chancellor to the College of Arts and Sciences. The Dean of the College assigned the management of the Fund and of the awards to the Associate Dean for Humanities and the Arts. In 2006, the Associate Dean convened a Committee of senior faculty to review the structure of the awards. The Review Committee made recommendations for restructuring the awards to make them more effective in promoting scholarship and publication in the Humanities. While the terms of these gifts are not as clearly documented as they would be now, within the Foundation documents a number of aims are described:
The Review Committee considered these to constitute a broad mandate to foster and promote publication in the Humanities, research leading to publication, and the celebration and dissemination of such excellent published scholarship. The Committee determined that the funds should be used to promote scholarship and publication in the humanities at CU, across the broad range of humanistic disciplines, including the pursuit of those disciplines in other Colleges. With this mandate the Committee approved the above structure for the awards.