# CEGU

**Source**: https://cegu.uchicago.edu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/grants/
**Parent**: https://cegu.uchicago.edu/undergraduate-studies/

## [MAJOR AND MINOR IN ENVIRONMENT, GEOGRAPHY AND URBANIZATION (CEGU)](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/)

#### **[Overview](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/)**

#### **[Program Requirements](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/program-requirements/)**

#### **[BA Thesis / Community Project](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/thesis-capstone/)**

#### **[CEGU Minor](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/cegu-minor/)**

#### **[Advising & Office Hours](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/advising-and-office-hours/)**

#### **[Petitions & Forms](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/petitions-and-forms/)**

#### **[Grants & Prizes](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/grants/)**

#### **[Frequently Asked Questions](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/faq/)**

#### **[Courses](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/courses/2025-26/)**

#### **[Calumet Quarter](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/calumet-quarter/)**

####

#### [Overview](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/), [Program Requirements](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/program-requirements/), [BA Thesis / Community Project](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/thesis-capstone/), [CEGU Minor,](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/cegu-minor/) [Advising & Office Hours](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/advising-and-office-hours/), [Petitions & Forms](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/petitions-and-forms/), [Grants & Prizes](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/grants/), [FAQs](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/faq/), [Courses](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/courses/2025-26/), [Calumet Quarter](https://voices.uchicago.edu/cegu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/calumet-quarter/)

### [Grants & Prizes](https://cegu.uchicago.edu/undergraduate-studies/cegu-major-minor/grants/)

#### Charles M. Gray Research Fellowship

Third-year students in the CEGU undergraduate program may apply for research support from the Charles M. Gray Research Fellowship fund, which is administered through a competitive application process by the Social Sciences Collegiate Division.

Gray Fellows are expected to pursue original, faculty-mentored research. The research could be tied to a BA Thesis or Capstone project, or be an independent, faculty-mentored project. Fellowship applicants should seek to answer a research question of their own design by supplementing the knowledge that they gain from secondary sources with their own analysis of primary sources. These primary sources might include, but are not limited to, historical or contemporary texts, government documents, court decisions, data sets, interviews, letters, speeches, films, and the contents of archival collections.

All applicants must secure a faculty supervisor for their research before the application deadline, and they are strongly encouraged to prepare their application in consultation with this supervisor. Students can apply for grants up to a maximum of $5,000 per person. Applications are due on April 27, 2026. Details on the application process can be found [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc6a8nXju8LVK12FFjcszmwlVMfNcj7zNpkXh9ain-ilKewIQ/viewform?usp=dialog).

#### **Redekop Family Environmental Research Grant**

CEGU offers financial support for undergraduate research that engages with CEGU themes, including socio-environmental studies, urban environmental studies, energy histories and geographies, environmental humanities, and more. Grants can be used to cover field work related expenses including travel costs, lodging expenses, software expenses, access to archival or digital materials, and other research-related expenses. Grants cannot be used to fund interview compensation for human subjects, tuition expenses, or research assistants.

Eligibility is restricted to CEGU majors and minors, and to students who have not previously received funding from CEGU. The proposed projects must fall within the general themes and topics covered by the CEGU curriculum. Students can apply for grants up to a maximum of $2,500 per person. Awards will be announced in week nine. Please bear in mind that our pool of money is limited and that applying to a CEGU grant does not preclude you from applying for funding from other sources at the University and beyond. Applications are due on April 27, 2026. Details on the application process can be found [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc6a8nXju8LVK12FFjcszmwlVMfNcj7zNpkXh9ain-ilKewIQ/viewform?usp=dialog).

##### 2025 Recipients

Yufei Chen, “Carceral Ecologies: Environmental Design, Institutional Collaboration, and the Question of Rehabilitation at Stateville Prison”

Orion Douglas, “Coastal Governance and Colonial Afterlives in Jamaica: Tourism, Exclusion, and the Commodification of Place”

Davis Turner, “Creativity and Urban Form: Zoning in the Japanese Context”

Annie Yang, “Investigating the Synergies and Tensions Between Technocratic and Community-Driven Environmental Housing Design Strategies in Paris”

##### 2024 Recipients

Adera Craig, “Mapping Waste in the Lake Calumet Watershed: Using Maps and Museum Specimens to Trace Historic Pollution”

Caroline Hugh, “Central Planning and Peripheral Protest: Contested Urbanism and Suburban Annexation in Paris (1852–1871) and Chicago (1889–1909)”

Ella Tang, “Building on Fault Lines: Seismic Resilience and the Impact of 20th-Century Earthquakes and Housing Policy on 21st-Century Housing Affordability in San Francisco and Tokyo”

Jada Potter, “Transit in theory and in practice: Incorporating aspects of lived experience into measures of transit accessibility and justice”

Juliet Cairney, “Cultivating a Legacy: Exploring Inheritance and Succession Planning Strategies on Intergenerational Family Farms in Rural Georgia”

Maya McWilliams, “‘Whose Blok? Our Blok.’ Understanding community resistance to post-socialist urban developments in New Belgrade”

Addison Wood, “Lead Smelter in La Oroya, Perú”

Owen Castle “Undermined Landscapes: The History and Geography of Iron Mining in Republic, Michigan, 1869–1996”

##### 2023 Recipients

Shant Armenian, “Constructing Identity: (Re)Making ‘Armenian’ Space in Three American Cities”

Nate Drew, “Between Tradition and Innovation: Balancing Architectural and Societal Heritage through Conscious Stewardship of Garden Cities since 1903”

Jonathan Garcia, “Heads in the Sand: Beach Access and the Public Trust Doctrine under Future Climate Scenarios on Illinois’s Lake Michigan Coast”

Casey Mathur, “Sugar Cultivation in 19th Century South Asia”

#### Environmental Justice Research Grant (open to all third-year students in the College)

The Environmental Research Grant for Undergraduates will be dedicated to support BA research explicitly focused on **environmental justice.** Administered by the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU), these grants are part of a broader commitment to advancing environmental justice as a field of research, pedagogy, and community engagement. The grants are part of the newly launched **[Environmental Justice Project](https://cegu.uchicago.edu/research/environmental-justice-project/ "https://cegu.uchicago.edu/research/environmental-justice-project/")**(EJP), which brings together public programs, student initiatives, and research that critically engage with the intersections between environment, society, and justice.

The undergraduate grants are open to all third-year students whose research addresses environmental justice topics — including studies of environmental inequality and exposure to environmental harms, the socio-political dynamics of environmental decision-making, urban and regional case studies of environmental inequity, and other justice-oriented analyses of environmental transformation. These themes are deeply rooted in CEGU’s interdisciplinary scholarship across the social sciences and humanities. Students can apply for grants up to a maximum of $1,000 per person. Applications are due on April 27, 2026. Details on the application process can be found [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc6a8nXju8LVK12FFjcszmwlVMfNcj7zNpkXh9ain-ilKewIQ/viewform?usp=dialog "https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc6a8nXju8LVK12FFjcszmwlVMfNcj7zNpkXh9ain-ilKewIQ/viewform?usp=dialog").

#### **CEGU Undergraduate Conference Travel Fund**

CEGU offers funding awards for conference travel for which a CEGU student’s paper, poster, or other scholarly work has been accepted for presentation. CEGU majors and minors are eligible to apply for funding up to $1,000 per person. Students may only receive this funding for conference participation once during their College career. Note that graduating fourth-years whose conference is scheduled for the summer after graduation may NOT apply, as funds cannot be distributed once the student graduates. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and must be submitted one month before conference travel.

[Apply for CEGU Undergraduate Conference Travel Funding](https://forms.gle/dTQRBWrGZSCaDum17)↗ (Note: You must be signed into your UChicago Google account to access this form.)

#### **Prizes**

#### CEGU BA Thesis Prize

The CEGU Thesis Prize is awarded to exceptional thesis projects conducted by a fourth-year student in the CEGU major. The decisions will be made in the Spring and announced at the BA Symposium on May 29, 2026. No application is necessary.

#### CEGU Environmental Justice BA Prize (2026/27)

Starting in the 2026/27 academic year, CEGU will award the undergraduate research prize in Environmental Justice. Submissions of BA Thesis work explicitly focused on environmental justice topics will be accepted from across the College. Nominations can come from faculty advisors, Directors of Undergraduate Studies, or be self-submitted by students. The call for nominations will open in Spring Quarter 2027.