2024 Awards and Funding from the BYU Charles Redd Center for Western Studies

Annaley Naegle Redd Research Assistantship (BYU Faculty Only)

Annaley Naegle Redd Research Assistantships facilitate research on the American West by BYU faculty in any department. Grants of up to $12,000 enable faculty members to hire upper-division undergraduate or graduate students of their choice to work as research assistants on significant projects dealing with Western American studies. Rates of pay for research assistants should be commensurate with the wage scale for student assistants in the faculty member’s department. The term of employment for the research assistant is flexible. Preference will be given to applications that show clear benefits in terms of mentoring and acquisition of skills for students who are hired as research assistants. Assistants may be hired for a term, a semester, or a year.

Annaley Naegle Redd Student Award in Women's History 

The Annaley Naegle Redd Student Award in Women's History will be given each year to one undergraduate or graduate student doing research on women in the American West (west of the Mississippi River). It is named after Annaley Naegle Redd, a prominent southeastern Utah rancher and philanthropist and wife of Charles Redd. Awards may be used for any worthy project including preparation of seminar papers, theses, and dissertations. The award is a $1,500 grant to be used for research support (supplies, travel, etc.). The funds cannot be used for salary or capital equipment. Applicants not receiving the Annaley Naegle Redd Award will be considered for the Redd Center's other student grants ($1,500 maximum) if the study area is in the intermountain regions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, or Wyoming. Proposals in all areas of the humanities, arts, and social sciences are welcomed. 

Clarence Dixon Taylor Award

Clarence Dixon Taylor Research Grant

The Clarence Dixon Taylor Research Grant is named for a representative of the Taylor and Dixon families who established an endowment in memory of these families’ contribution to the economic development of Provo and central Utah. The grant provides up to $1,500 to encourage and facilitate research about central Utah (Utah, Carbon, and Wasatch Counties). The funds are to be used for research support, including travel and lodging expenses, and will be determined by the research needs of the applicant. The funds cannot be used for salary or capital equipment. Expected research outcomes include articles, monographs, books, theses, dissertations, symposiums, dramatic presentations, lectures, etc. Undergraduate and graduate students, independent scholars, and academic faculty are all invited to apply. Proposals in all areas of the arts, humanities, and social sciences are welcomed. 

Charles Redd Fellowship Award in Western American History

Fellowship awards of $1,000–$3,500 will be made on an annual basis to students and scholars interested in pursuing research in the intermountain regions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, or Wyoming at the Harold B. Lee Library L. Tom Perry Special Collections. Each award will fund up to one month's research in Special Collections. Award funds are to be used for research support, including travel and lodging expenses, but not as salary. The amount of the fellowship award will be determined by the research needs of the applicant. Awards are to be used for scholarly projects including preparation of seminar papers, theses, dissertations, monographs, and book length projects. Established in 1956, Special Collections has a large department of full-time curators. Manuscript collections number more than nine thousand, almost one million photographic images are held by the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, and more than three-hundred thousand rare books are available for use, along with extensive manuscript materials documenting 19th- and 20th-century Western American history. 

Independent Research and Creative Work Award

The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies invites applications from individuals who are not connected to a college or university, and who are interested in researching or writing on some aspect of the intermountain regions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Both new and ongoing projects are eligible. Award funds are to be used for research support and not as a salary. The amount of the award will be determined by the research needs as indicated in the application, up to a maximum of $1,500. 

Interdisciplinary Studies Grant

The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies invites applications for interdisciplinary research grants of up to $10,000. Applications will be evaluated based upon the following criteria: Does the topic deal with the Intermountain West? This is defined as portions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Does the project include researchers representing at least three separate disciplines? At least two of the researchers must be BYU faculty members. One researcher may be a faculty member at another university. Is each discipline's contribution unique and integral to the project? What will be the outcome of the project? Is the budget reasonable? (The budget can include conference and publication expenses.) What else has been done on the research topic? How is this project unique? What is the feasibility of the research plan? Is the project intellectually rigorous? 

John Topham and Susan Redd Butler BYU Faculty Research Award (BYU Faculty Only)

The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies invites applications for research awards funded by the Research Endowment. The proposed research should increase knowledge and understanding of the intermountain regions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, or Wyoming. Applicants should be faculty members at BYU. Both new and ongoing projects are eligible. Award funds are to be used for research support and not as a salary. The amount of the award will be determined by the research needs as indicated in the application, up to a maximum of $3,000. Research may be conducted at any location. 

John Topham and Susan Redd Butler Off-Campus Faculty Research Award

The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies invites applications for research awards funded by the John Topham and Susan Redd Butler Research Endowment. The proposed research should increase knowledge and understanding of the intermountain regions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, or Wyoming. Applicants should be faculty members at an institution of higher learning. Both new and ongoing projects are eligible. Award funds are to be used for research support and not as a salary. The amount of the award will be determined by the research needs as indicated in the application, up to a maximum of $3,000. Research may be conducted at any location. 

Public Programming Award

The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies invites applications from private or public organizations for its public programming award. Any organization that is planning a conference, museum exhibit, lecture series or similar public program is eligible to apply. The proposed program should increase knowledge and understanding of the intermountain regions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, or Wyoming. Advertising for the project should list the Charles Redd Center as a sponsor. Specific questions may be directed to the Center. The award carries a stipend of up to $3,000. The funds may be used for research or the actual costs of presenting the program and may also be used as a cash match for funding from a state, national humanities, arts council. New programs and special aspects of ongoing projects are eligible. Please note that indirect costs are not eligible to be covered by this award. 

Publication Grant (Presses Only)

The Charles Redd Center gives grants of up to $3,000 to assist in the publication of scholarly studies on Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, or Wyoming. The grant will be given to academic publishers to help offset the costs of publishing books in order to lower the book's selling price. The book should have been accepted for publication by the press and be ready for publication but not yet be printed. If funded, acknowledgment to the Center must be included inside the final publication. 

Senior Seminar/Capstone Project Grant (BYU Students Only)

Charles Redd Center Senior Seminar/Capstone Project Awards will be given each year to BYU undergraduate students who are writing a paper on some aspect of the American West. The award of up to $500 can be used to cover gasoline, parking, copying, travel, and lodging expenses.

Visiting Lecturer Program (BYU Faculty Only) 

The Charles Redd Center will provide funds for BYU departments to bring visiting lecturers in western studies to BYU. The Center provides a stipend up to $300, reasonable travel costs, food, and lodging. Applications are accepted at any time during the year.

Visiting Fellow Program

The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University invites applications for its Visiting Fellow Program in Western Studies each academic year. University faculty of all ranks, independent scholars, freelance authors, and other public intellectuals who are working on a significant article- or book-length study are eligible to apply for this position. The visiting fellow may be in residence for two to four months during either the Fall Semester (September–December) or the Winter Semester (January–April). The Center will provide a stipend of $2,500 per month of residency, office space, a networked computer, campus library and activity privileges, and limited photocopying and printing. Upon request, the Center will provide a part-time research assistant.

Visiting Fellows will enjoy library privileges, including access to BYU's extensive western and Mormon archival collections. Major western collections at BYU include the papers of Zane Grey, Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala Sa), Elizabeth Custer, William Henry Jackson, Charles R. Savage, Thomas F. O'Dea, Arthur Watkins, Reed Smoot, Wallace Bennett, Walter Mason Camp, Earl A. Briningstool, Robert Spurrier Ellison, Finis Ewing, and the Utah Parks Company as well as over fifty overland trail journals. Major Latter-day Saint collections include the papers of Newell K. Whitney, Hyrum Smith, Emmeline Wells, Thomas and Elizabeth Kane, John Steele, L. John Nuttall, J. Reuben Clark, Adam S. Bennion, David M. Kennedy, Gustive O. Larson, and Ernest L. Wilkinson as well as a rich array of Latter-day Saint missionary diaries.

The 2024–2025 Visiting Fellow Program will be contingent upon COVID-19 restrictions on BYU Campus.

Young Scholar Award (BYU Faculty Only)

The Butler Young Scholar Award in Western Studies, sponsored by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, has been created to promote significant scholarship in Western American studies by junior faculty members. The award acknowledges outstanding academic promise, based upon a faculty member's record of research, teaching and citizenship. The Butler Award is funded through the John Topham and Susan Redd Butler Research Endowment. Karl Butler was instrumental in establishing this endowment in 1986, and the award is named in his honor. The award carries a $3,000 annual salary stipend and a $5,000 annual research support award, subject to all university financial policies, and with any capital equipment purchased from these funds becoming the property of the university. Any unused funding may carry over for the duration of the award. Appointments are for three consecutive years and may not be renewed. Any accumulated funding not expended within three (3) years after the expiration of a Young Scholar Award will revert to the Charles Redd Center for reallocation. A faculty member should have been in a faculty position for at least three years, but not more than ten years since completing the terminal degree, and in a rank of Assistant or Associate Professor. The faculty member should be engaged in significant scholarship in Western American studies and is nominated by his/her department chair.

If you are interested in being considered for this award, please contact your department chair and make arrangements for a complete nomination packet. This packet should include a detailed description of what “western” projects the candidate will pursue in the following 3–5 years.