The Black Mountain Institute Faculty Research Awards are designed to recognize faculty in UNLV's College of Liberal Arts, the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, and the College of Fine Arts, who have established a record of research and creativity and whose current project intersects with Black Mountain Institute’s mission statement (below). This award is open to faculty in the colleges listed above who have tenure and who are at the level of Associate Professor.

Awards will range from $1,000 - $3,000. Awards are meant to be used during January - June of 2026. Awards may be used for projects that qualify toward requirements of promotion in the applicant’s discipline and/or program. Awards are selected by a review-committee composed of BMI staff and community members.

Applicants must submit a 1-2 page proposal outlining how their project connects to BMI’s programs and mission along with a brief, narrative budget detailing how funds would further their research; they must also supply a CV. Questions should be directed to blackmountaininstitute@unlv.edu.

Please note: the awards are issued in a lump sum ahead of the proposed research. No reimbursements will be made. Successful applicants are responsible for using the funds as described in their application. One application will be considered per applicant.

Successful applicants will be asked to participate in a public program about their research in the fall semester following their award year. (So, successful applicants in the 2025 application cycle would participate in a program in fall 2026.)

BMI's Mission Statement: Black Mountain Institute at UNLV champions writers and storytellers through programs, fellowships and community engagement. We make space for meaningful collaborations and conversations; we understand service as vital. We ask questions about access, the environment, and labor. We find our home in Las Vegas–a place of hospitality in the middle of a desert. Between the manufactured and natural, urban and wide expanse, built and rebuilt, bounty and scarcity, we live within narratives of destruction and preservation. From the brightest spot on the planet, Black Mountain Institute amplifies writing and artistic expression to connect us to each other in the Las Vegas Valley, the Southwest, and beyond.