CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS! 

2026 Cleveland Humanities Collaborative Summer Seminar 

$1,000 Participation Award 

The Cleveland Humanities Collaborative (CHC) is pleased to announce that the application is now open for the annual, week-long, intensive summer seminar for faculty, staff, independent scholars, community educators, and graduate students. The dates for this year’s seminar are Monday, July 27, 2026 – Friday, July 31, 2026. All seminar participants will receive a $1,000 stipend upon completion of the program.

Kortney Morrow will facilitate this year’s seminar. Kortney is the Program Director of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards—the nation’s only juried prize dedicated to honoring writers that are writing about race relations and diversity. Kortney is a poet, arts advocate, and organizational strategist with over ten years of experience advocating for literacy and the literary arts. She holds an MFA in Poetry from The Ohio State University where she served as a Global Arts + Humanities Fellow.

Seminar Format 

On the Lip of Lake Erie: Tracing and Teaching Toni Morrison’s Ohio. “In my work, no matter where it’s set … the imaginative process always starts right here on the lip of Lake Erie.” -Toni Morrison. In this weeklong seminar, we will retrace Morrison’s Ohio with close readings of excerpts from The Bluest Eye (Lorain), Sula (a fictional Medallion, Ohio), and Beloved (Cincinnati). We will explore the ways landscape, place, and setting inform Morrison’s narratives, and we will trace Morrison’s influence on local Cleveland artists and literary arts organizations.

The seminar will meet in-person at CWRU and The Cleveland Foundation for five hours daily (July 27 – July 31). Location details will be provided in the schedule. The CHC will provide lunch, parking, and all required reading materials. The readings will be distributed to participants in advance.

Participant Eligibility 

The program is designed to enhance community and collaborations among a variety of key roles within Northeast Ohio’s educational institutions. The following roles are eligible to participate:

  • Faculty and staff from any higher-ed institution in Northeast Ohio, with priority given to community college educators.
  • Full-time staff from other educational, arts, and cultural institutions in the region.
  • Advanced graduate students in Northeast Ohio, with priority given to students who have a demonstrated interest in undergraduate teaching and community engagement.
  • Please note: We do not have funding for travel or housing, so all applicants must reside within Northeast Ohio (defined as within 90 miles of CWRU’s campus).

Seminar Expectations: 

1) Each participant needs to complete the assigned readings prior to each seminar meeting.

2) Each participant will agree to adhere to the community standards for engagement.

3) Seminar participants must attend and participate in all of the seminar meetings to receive their stipend.

How to Apply: 

To apply, please complete the  2026 CHC Summer Seminar Application by April 25, 2026. Space is limited to 12 participants. Selected participants will be notified the week of May 11, 2026.

If you have questions about the seminar, please contact the CHC’s Associate Director, Mr. Jamaal Hill, via email at jamaal.hill@case.edu.