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The Eugene M. Kayden Awards

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.

All faculty in CU Boulder's College of Arts and Sciences (e.g., instructional, research and clinical faculty) are eligible to apply. It is expected that Kayden award winners will be available to aid the awards committee in the selection of awards in subsequent years, as requested.

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:

  1. 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;
  2. A request for a specific amount together with a one-page budget;
  3. A complete list of the applicant’s publications.
  4. A list of past funding awarded by the Kayden Research Awards and the related publication outcomes.

Please submit your proposal, with all three of the above elements together, either in Microsoft Word or PDF format. 

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 $3,000. 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., Oct. 25, 2024.

For the Spring Research Grants please submit your application by 5 p.m., Jan. 24, 2025.

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 $4,000 grant to organize a one-day manuscript symposium. Edited book submissions will only be considered if all authors are currently employed at CU Boulder.

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:

  • Scholarly monographs will be under peer review by a scholarly press, and/or the author(s) will be in the process of final revisions in response to those reviews, and/or will be under contract with a reputable press but not yet in print.
  • Creative writing will be submission-ready, or will be under review, or will be under contract with a reputable press but not yet in print.
  • Digital projects will have the approximate scope of a book and will be original scholarly work (in the process of review) or original creative work (submission-ready, or under review, or under contract with a reputable press).

A book may be nominated by the author, or by another CU faculty member.

The application file will consist of

  1. a letter of nomination (maximum, 750 words), may be self-nominated or other;
  2. a copy of the book in digital format (or a link to a preliminary version of the digital project);
  3. a complete list of the nominee’s publications; and
  4. 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., Feb. 21, 2025.

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

The Kayden Translation Awards honor the memory of Eugene Kayden (a translator in his own right) by promoting the translation of texts that help disseminate the exchange of knowledge and research in the fields of the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

In recognition of an outstanding creative or scholarly translation, two types of annual awards can be given.

1)  The awardee will receive a $1,500 research account, and the awardee’s department will receive a $3,000 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 spring 2025, the award will be given to a book-length translation published in 2023 or 2024.

2)  The awardee will receive up to $10,000 to support the completion and/or publication costs of an already-accepted translation project. Awards may be for any legitimate research costs associated with the production and publication of original work, including translation costs. 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.  Funds must be disbursed by the end of the academic year following the award, or returned to the fund. 

The application file consists of:

  1. a letter of nomination (maximum, 750 words), may be self-nominated or other;
  2. a copy of the book in digital format;
  3. a complete list of the nominee’s publications; and
  4. other supporting materials (e.g. typically published reviews, peer evaluations, 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., March 14, 2025. 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

Spring 2024 Kayden Book Award

  • William Taylor (Anthropology) – Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History, forthcoming University of California Press
  • Laura Ann Winkiel (English) – Modernism and the Middle Passage, forthcoming Columbia University Press

Spring 2023 Kayden Book Award

  • Nuria Silleras-Fernandez (Spanish & Portuguese) – The Politics of Emotion: Love, Grief, and Madness in the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia, Cornell University Press, 2024

2021: History and the Arts (including Creative Writing, Musicology, Theatre, Dance, and Film)

  • John-Michael Rivera (Department of English): UNDOCUMENTS. University of Arizona Press, 2021
  • Lucy Chester (Department of History): Networks of Decolonization: Britain's Withdrawal from South Asia and Palestine. Oxford University Press

2020: Classics, Philosophy, Religious Studies

  • Celine Dauverd (Department of History): Church and State in Spanish Italy. Cambridge University Press, 2020
  • Tiffany Beechy (Department of English): Flesh of the Word: Materiality, Aesthetics, and the Incarnation in Early Medieval Britain. University of Notre Dame Press, 2021

2019: Literary Studies

2018: History and the Arts (including Creative Writing, Musicology, Theatre, Dance, Film)

2017: Classics, Philosophy, Religious Studies

  • Andy Cain (Department of Classics): The Greek Historia Monachorum in Aegypto: Monastic Hagiography in the Late Fourth Century. Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • Honorable mention: Terry Kleeman (Religious Studies/Asian Languages and Civilizations): History and Ritual in Early Daoist Communities. Harvard University Press, 2016.

2016: Literary studies

  • Deepti Misri (Department of Women and Gender Studies): Beyond Partition: Gender Violence, and Representation in Postcolonial India. University of Illinois Press, 2014.
  • Honorable mention: Antje Richter (Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations): Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China. University of Washington Press, 2013.
  • Honorable mention: Núria Silleras-Fernández (Department of Spanish and Portuguese): Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia. Cornell University Press, 2015.

2015: History and the Arts

  • Miriam Kingsberg (Department of History): Moral Nation: Modern Japan and Narcotics in Global History. University of California Press, 2013.
  • Ruth Ellen Kocher (Department of English): domina Un/blued. Tupelo Press, 2013.
  • Honorable mention: Laura Olson Osterman (Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures): The Worlds of Russian Village Women: Tradition, Transgression, Compromise. University of Wisconsin Press, 2013.
  • Honorable mention: Matthias Richter (Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations): The Embodied Text: Establishing Textual Identity in Early Chinese Manuscripts. BRILL, 2013.

2014: Classics, Philosophy, Religious Studies

  • Jackie Elliott (Department of Classics): Ennius and the Architecture of the Annales. Cambridge, 2013.
  • Robert Pasnau (Department of Philosophy): Metaphysical Themes, 1274-1671. Oxford, 2011.
  • Honorable Mention: Elspeth Dusinberre (Department of Classics) Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatoli. Cambridge, 2013.

2013: Literary studies

2012: History and the Arts

  • Thomas Andrews (Department of History): Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War. Harvard University Press, 2010.
  • Honorable mention: David Ciarlo (Department of History): Advertising Empire: Race and Visual Culture in Imperial Germany. Harvard University Press, 2011.
  • Honorable mention: Keith Waters (College of Music): The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Past winners of the Kayden Research Award

Fall 2024:

  • Emmanuel David
  • Patrick Greaney
  • Henry Lovejoy
  • Natalie Mendoza
  • S.N. Nyeck
  • Nisha Shanmugaraj
  • Stephanie Su

Spring 2024:

  • Annette W. de Stecher
  • Katherine Alexander
  • Michela Ardizzoni
  • Emmanuel David
  • Matthew Gerber
  • Patrick Greaney
  • Jeanne Liotta
  • Alejandro Cremaschi
  • Richard Saxton
  • Skinner Myers
  • Elika Ortega-Guzman

Fall 2023:

  • Andy Cain
  • Molly Dierks
  • Elspeth Dusinberre
  • Sanjay Gautam
  • Zachary Herz
  • Megan O’Grady
  • Dimitri Nakassis
  • Kelly Sears
  • Christian Hammons
  • Nishant Upadhyay
  • Nicholas Villanueva

Spring 2023:

  • Hilary Kalisman
  • Patrick Greaney
  • Crystal Nelson
  • Tony Wood

Spring 22:

  • Tania Martuscelli
  • Brian Catlos
  • Brian Valente-Quinn
  • Brianne Cohen
  • Emmanuel David

​Fall 22:

  • Tiffany Beechy
  • Julie Car

2021

  • Lauri Reitzammer (Department of Classics): Research associated with the publication of the book, Resident Aliens and Sacred Sightseers: Female Immigrants and Travelers in Athenian Tragedy.
  • Lori Emerson (Department of English): Research associated with the publication of the book, The Lab Book: Situated Practices in Media Studies.
  • Nick Villanueva (Department of Ethnic Studies): Research associated with the publication of the book, Rainbow Cattle Co.: Liberation, Sport, and Gay Rodeo.
  • Sarah James (Department of Classics): Field work associated with the West Argolid Regional Project.
  • Nicolo Spera (Strings, College of Music): Funding for recording of a new major work for guitar and choir: Door Out of The Fire.
  • Javier Krauel (Department of Spanish & Portuguese): Funding for Archival research at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam to complete the third chapter of Sentimental Publics: Struggles for Freedom and Equality in modern Spain (1812-2017).
  • Kristie Soares (Department of Women & Gender Studies): Funding for permission costs for reprinting the archival materials for the book manuscript, Joyful Protest: The Political Work of Joy in Latinx Media.
  • Yumi Roth (Department of Art & Art History): Funding for essayist and the spinners who are being interviewed for the project Spin (after Sol LeWitt).
  • Beth Dusinberre (Department of Classics): Funding for research associated with the book, The Lesser Phrygian Tumuli Part 2: The Cremations.

2020

  • Brian Catlos (Religious Studies): Research associated with the publication of the book James the Conqueror: A Crusader King and a Forgotten Renaissance.
  • Susan Kent (Religious Studies): Illustration associated with the publication of the book, Gender: A World History.
  • David Ciarlo (History): Research associated with the book Selling War: Advertising, Propaganda, and the Roots of the Fascist Aesthetic in German Advertising, 1910-1923.
  • Jackie Elliott (Classics): Research associated with the publication of Early Roman Poetry and The History of Cato's Origines.
  • Kirk Ambrose (Art & Art History): Research associated with the publication of the book Global Urnes: A Norwegian Stave Church in International Context.
  • Michaele Ferguson (Political Science): Research associated with the publication of the book Iris Marion Young: Gender, Justice, and the Politics of Difference.
  • Nuìria Silleras–Fernaìndez (Spanish & Portuguese): Research associated with the publication of The Politics of Emotions: Grief, Love and Madness in the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia.
  • Sarah James (Classics): Research associated with the publication of the book Exploring the Neighbourhood: The Role of Ceramics in Understanding Place in the Hellenistic World.
  • Phoebe Young (History): Research associated with the publication of the book Camping Grounds: Public Nature in America from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement.

Past winners of the Kayden Translation Award

  • Annette de Stecher (Art & Art History) –  Wendat Women’s Arts, McGill-Queen’s University Press
  • Holly Gayley: Research and one-day Translator Symposium associated with the manuscript, Inseparable Across Lifetimes: The Lives and Love Letters of the Visionaries Namtrul Rinpoche and Khandro Tāre Lhamo.
  • Patrick Greaney: Research and one-day Translator Symposium associated with the manuscript, An Austrian Avant-Garde.

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:

  • “to advance humanities by aiding in the publication of deserving works”
  • “support faculty publication in the field of the humanities”
  • “financial assistance should be granted for creative work and not for textbook writing.”
  • “subsidize original works in the history of philosophy”.

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.

Updated May 10, 2024