Call for Applications
BMI Summer Institute
University of Illinois Chicago
July 21-25, 2025
Theme: Environmental Justice
The Black Midwest Initiative (BMI) at the University of Illinois Chicago invites applications from early-career scholars, artists, and community organizers to its 2025 Summer Institute on Environmental Justice. This convening will bring together 15 participants, designated as BMI Fellows, who are doing work around environmental justice issues affecting Black people and communities within the Midwest and Rust Belt regions of the United States for a week-long series of discussions, presentations, and workshops with leading figures in the field. In alignment with environmental sociologist David Pellow, we conceive of environmental racism as a “form of violent control over bodies, space, and knowledge systems.” Accordingly, we define the parameters of the environmental justice issues applicants might propose to address broadly—from urban agriculture, toxic emissions, natural disasters, and climate change to carcerality, housing instability, residential segregation, community health and wellness, and beyond.
After the conclusion of the Institute, each Fellow will also work to develop a project, individually or in collaboration with one or more other Fellows, that will be incorporated into the Black Midwest Justice Hub (the HUB)—a digital platform we will launch in the fall of 2026 that will serve as a resource repository for the BMI Environmental Justice Collaboratory, a cohort of environmental justice courses that will be taught across multiple midwestern colleges and universities during the 2026-27 academic year. HUB projects may ultimately take any number of forms that can be accessed digitally, including but not limited to short films, virtual exhibits, traditional academic papers, storymaps, graphic notes, sound recordings, oral histories, interviews, and introductory essays or lectures.
Institute Facilitators:
Adrienne Brown, University of Chicago
Lydia Hicks, Black Eden Arts Alliance
Fayola Jacobs, University of Minnesota
Tonika Lewis Johnson, UnBlocked Englewood
David Pellow, UC Santa Barbara
LaShawnda Crowe Storm, Indianapolis, Indiana
Monica M. White, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Please check this page frequently for updates regarding Institute Facilitators.
Eligibility:
Emerging artists of all genres (including filmmakers, dancers, poets, and other literary, visual, sound, and performance artists), community organizers and activists, graduate students, junior faculty, adjunct and non-tenure track faculty, independent scholars, and postdoctoral scholars whose work deeply engages with environmental justice issues affecting Black communities in the Midwest or Rust Belt regions of the United States.* Approximately half of the Fellows selected will come from UIC and the Chicago metro region, while the other half may be drawn from anywhere throughout the country as long as their work engages Black communities in the Midwest or Rust Belt.
Details of Participation:
Fellows from outside of the Chicago area will be expected to arrive in Chicago on Sunday, July 20, with departure scheduled for the morning of Saturday, July 26. Most days of the Institute will feature a morning session during which facilitators will discuss their work with the Fellows and an afternoon session during which the Fellows will present their work to the group. There will also be a site visit during the week to a location TBA that is engaging critical EJ work in the Chicago metro area. Fellows will be expected to attend all sessions, including the site visit and final group dinner, to complete any readings or screenings assigned by the facilitators, and to prepare a presentation of their work to be shared during one of the afternoon sessions. All sessions will be in-person.
Each Fellow will receive up to $500 toward their travel expenses to attend the Summer Institute. Lodging will be provided in UIC campus housing for all Fellows coming from outside of the Chicago area. Breakfast and lunch will be provided each day of the Institute, as well as dinner on Friday. After the conclusion of the Summer Institute, each participant will receive a $1000 stipend to be used toward the costs associated with their HUB project.
This opportunity is made possible with the generous support of the Mellon Foundation.
The 2025 BMI Summer Institute will be hosted at the UIC Institute for the Humanities.
Application:
tinyurl.com/bmisummerinstitute2025
The BMI Summer Institute Application requires a 500-word project statement and a 5-page cv or resume.
Application Deadline: March 7, 2025
Applicants will be notified of decisions by April 10.
Questions?
Please feel free to email theblackmidwest@gmail.com with any questions.
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*For these purposes, eligible applicants may be working in any of the twelve states that make up the Midwest census region, as well as other areas of the U.S. that have experienced similar labor and industrial patterns.