2017 Kosmos Seed Grants | Call for Proposals ‘Activism for a New Era’
December 27, 2016 Kosmos Community News


Activism in the New Climate | Kosmos Panelists Share Insights

Kosmos offered a live online panel event for the Kosmos Community on January 10 2017. History-making activists from three countries and wide experience joined to discuss the outlook for activism in 2017. How does the new political climate, as well as the increasing pressures of climate chaos and exploitative and extractive practices, impact the attitudes and tactics of changemakers in the times ahead? Watch here.


2017 Kosmos Seed Grant Guidelines

Kosmos is pleased to announce the third year of the Kosmos Seed Grant initiative. Seed Grants of $2,500 will be awarded in Spring 2017 to individuals or organizations working to advance social change using new and experimental approaches to break through cultural barriers.

Guidelines for applicants are as follows:


Millennials and the Shifting Political Climate: A Chance for Libertarianism to Emerge

By Kristin Tate
Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2016

The 2016 presidential election has been a disaster for young people.

Between the dishonest pandering of Hillary Clinton and the perceived boorishness of Donald Trump, many millennials are stuck in no man’s land.

But the future of politics may not be as bleak as it seems. Libertarian views will likely shape the ideologies of tomorrow, and as this shift occurs, millennials will become increasingly eager to engage in the political landscape.


Polarized America. Polarized Self: A Call for Collaboration

By Rebecca Mendoza Nunziato
Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2016

I live in a polarized body. My very being is compromised by competing characteristics. Mexican-American heritage–bilingual, bicultural. College-educated millennial on need-based scholarship. Latina social justice leader in white evangelical conservative communities. Independent voter in hyperpartisan America. I have no tribe that can truly represent me; my identity lacks clarity. I am politically, ethnically, spiritually homeless.


Finding Political Understanding with a Single Question

By Sean Long
Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2016
Disruption. Innovation. Disruptive innovation.

These oft-cited drivers of sustained and meaningful change will not lead Americans to a better democracy. We do not need to call upon an external agent, an ‘Uber for American politics,’ to save us. Rather, we need to take it upon ourselves to be better communicators. It starts with asking a simple question when speaking with anyone who holds a difficult, uncomfortable view.

Before jumping to a conclusion or typecasting the person’s view into an established camp of thought, ask this question: What experiences in your life led you to that view?


America’s Dirtiest Secret: How to Take Your Power Back

By Erik Fogg
Kosmos Journal, FALL | WINTER 2016

I’ve got a dirty secret that almost nobody in America knows. You see, Americans have this very popular notion that we can’t agree on anything politically. It’s so pervasive that to suggest otherwise seems like a bit of a fairy tale. Americans of each party look upon the other with ever-increasing antipathy—so much so that almost a third of party voters see the other party as a threat to the nation.