PJR grants are awarded on an annual basis to faculty interested in developing projects that serve our Bergen community and enhance the mission of the Center.

PJR is pleased to announce our faculty mini-grant award program for the 2021-2022 academic year. Awards of up to $1,000 each are available to support faculty interested in designing projects that enhance the mission of the Center.

Founded at Bergen Community College in 2009, PJR develops educational initiatives, exhibitions and dialogues. Its purpose is to examine issues of war, genocide and social justice, and to develop skills in conflict resolution through interdisciplinary study.

PJR encourages a wide range of approaches, such as:

  • Performing arts and visual arts projects
  • Projects related to environmental sustainability
  • Translation of works of scholarship and curriculum materials into English
  • Curriculum design and materials development
  • Video interviews with scholars, survivors, artists and activists
  • Faculty research, conference presentation and publication
  • Campus and community-based lectures, symposiums, workshops or dialogues

 

Eligibility

All Bergen Community College faculty, including lecturers and adjunct faculty are eligible to apply. PJR welcomes proposals from across the academic disciplines, and invites faculty at each Bergen location to participate.

Application Guidelines

The deadline for proposals is Monday, April 19th, 2021. Applications should include a description of the project, including outcomes, relevance to the mission of the Center, estimated costs and expenditures, and a projected date of completion (grant projects must be completed within the academic year, September 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022). Proposals should be submitted via email to [email protected] with “Faculty Grant Proposal” as the subject.

2021- 2022 Award Winners

  • Melissa Krieger for Faculty-Led Mindfulness Meditation Program for Students
  • Tom La Pointe for Chasing the Dragon: Opium Smoking and the Making of the Chinese American Alien
  • Jamie Lombardi for A Bergen Community College Chapter of Corrupt The Youth
  • Thomas O’Neill for I Am Free: Performance Art Project

2018-2019 Award Winners

  • Jessica Datema: In partnership with the Literary Arts Series, this grant project helps brings to campus National Book Award winner for fiction, and veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Phil Klay.
  • Jim Bumgardner: Partnering with Bergen Pride, the LGBTQ+ Alliance of BCC, and the Office of Student Life, this grant helps bring to campus hall of fame triathlete Chris Mosier as the keynote speaker for the annual LGBTQ+ Awareness and Education Day.
  • Maria Makowiecka: A partnership with Elysium Between Two Continents, this grant project commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Rosentrasse Protests in which thousands of Berliners risked their lives to protest against the deportation of Jews by the Nazi Gestapo.
  • Ilan Ehrlich: This grant supports ongoing research into and a campus presentation about the origins of political violence in Cuba, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic in the early 20th century.

2016-2017 Award Winners

  • Christine Eubank: “Challenging Immigration Detention.” This project brings a Soros Justice Fellow to Bergen for a series of activities – including a lecture and workshop – devoted to immigration detention and prison privatization
  • Stacey Balkan: “Environmental Sustainability in the Age of Global Agriculture.” This award supports a conference presentation, the creation of a digital archive of teaching resources, and a workshop on pedagogical approaches to the teaching of environmental imperialism.
  • Ellen Feig: “A Proposal to Create a Center for Cree Research.” Designed in partnership with the Cree Nations, this grant supports the creation of a resource center, a living history program, an academic conference, and a Cree/BCC scholarship program.

2015-2016 Award Winners

  • Janette Dishuk and Micheline Farhat, a dance-centered and creative arts outreach program for juveniles in the justice system
  • Thomas O’Neill, a project to facilitate the writing of student narratives about displacement and identity, and to develop one of them into dramatic form for a BCC performance
  • Cristina Haedo, a program of events designed to raise awareness, through film, music, dialogue and academic lecture, about the psychological and social impact of genocide, particularly the Armenian genocide.

2014-2015 Award Winners

Special consideration this year was given to proposals designed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

  • Sarah Shurts “Speaker Series in Genocide Studies: Armenia, Rwanda, and the Holocaust”
  •  Laura Schneider and Melissa Harwin, “Bring Back Our Girls,” an installation and conference designed to raise awareness of the plight of women and girls in conflict zones.
  • Ellen Feig, “William Saroyan: a Symposium to Commemorate the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide”