Before submitting a new seminar proposal, please take a moment to look at the listing of current seminars. If there is another seminar already on the subject you are proposing, please address this in your letter. It is possible to have multiple seminars in a particular field if the approach or subject matter differs enough from the existing seminar to qualify as a new seminar.

All seminars must include participants from more than one department, and from outside Columbia. Members (from Columbia), and associate members (from elsewhere), must have PhDs or equivalent expertise. Some seminars admit selected graduate students as guests; some do not.

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis through Submittable and are reviewed by a committee.

Authors who have presented their work in a seminar meeting are eligible to apply for publication subventions from The University Seminars. Authors cannot apply after the book has already been published. They must apply before the book is in production.

Starting with Fall 2024, applications for publication subventions will be reviewed twice a year. The deadlines for applications are September 15, 2024, and March 1, 2025. The application process remains the same. All applications are to be submitted via Submittable.

TYPES OF FUNDING

The Leonard Hastings Schoff and Suzanne Levick Schoff Memorial Fund is used for indexing, translating, technical editing, illustrating, or other publication costs of manuscripts or monographs produced under the auspices of The University Seminars in the fields of economics, sociology, psychology, penology, or the behavioral sciences which have already been approved for publication.

The Aaron Warner Fund supports the publication of materials that emerge from a University Seminar. These publications do not need to fall under a specific field. This book subsidy fund is in honor of the social scientist, Aaron Warner, who was Director of The University Seminars for decades, and whose devotion to music on the one hand, and to the world of physics at Columbia, on the other, carried him far beyond the social sciences.

Before applying, the following conditions must be met:

• The book or article must be accepted by a peer-reviewed academic publisher. The alternatives of self-publication and print-on-demand publication need to be justified to the Publication Committee and may be recommended for consideration as an exceptional case by the Executive Committee.
• Some or all of the publication was influenced by participation in a seminar; a portion of the work was presented and discussed at a seminar, and that discussion affected the book.
• The book or article is not in production / has not already been published.

The University Seminars Publication Committee considers the value of the book and its involvement with a seminar in comparison with other requests. Funding requests are subject to the following priorities:

• Books produced entirely as a seminar's project, e.g., a conference or symposium.    
• Monographs by regular seminar participants, including chairs and co-chairs, of which some part was presented and discussed at a seminar meeting.        
• Monographs including materials presented and discussed by a speaker at a seminar meeting.
• The Committee will consider works by a seminar's rapporteur where the work was clearly influenced by participation in the seminar. 

After the proposal has been submitted, an email confirmation will be sent from Submittable, a non-CU, third party application. Please add notifications@email.submittable.com to your contact list to ensure you receive all communications regarding your application. 

The Committee will respond to all requests. You can check the status of your submission at any time through Submittable.

THE BELO AWARD

The Belo Award aims to encourage participation in The University Seminars by emerging and independent scholars, as well as non-tenured professors. Awardees can use the funds for expenses related to attendance, including dependent or elder care and other incidentals. 

Applications for the Belo Award will be reviewed by a committee.  

For questions about this award, contact Susan Boynton: slb184@columbia.edu.



 

Before you begin, please review the MINUTES section of The University Seminars Administrative Portal.

Seminar-supported conferences come from the work of a seminar and must be proposed by a chair or member of the seminar. Conferences may not be organized and run solely by graduate students or post-docs. 

For conferences to be held in Fall 2025, the submission deadline is September 3, 2024. For conferences to be held in Spring 2026, the submission deadline is January 21, 2025. 

After the proposal has been submitted, an email confirmation will be sent from Submittable, a non-CU, third party application. Please add notifications@email.submittable.com to your contact list to ensure you receive all communications regarding your application. 

While the Conference Committee makes every effort to review proposals in a timely manner, responses may take up to two months and, if necessary, the committee may ask for additional materials or clarifications. Submitters may edit a submission only at the request of the committee. 

The status of the proposal can be checked at any time by logging into Submittable. 

Guidelines are found in The University Seminars Administrative Portal.