Department Grants and Awards

Graduate School and Anthropology Department Travel Grant Application Form

For travel from September 1–August 31 of each fiscal year

Travel grant guidelines: Grants are awarded exclusively for travel to national and international conferences that occur between September 1 and August 31, for the purpose of presenting the results of research conducted during graduate coursework at UMass Amherst. Awards are for presentations rather than to attend a conference or facilitate a session. Grant funds apply to registration, transportation, and lodging expenses documented by receipts. Awards will typically range from $400–600. Meals, copying, and other incidentals are not reimbursable. Students are strongly encouraged to share travel expenses with others attending the conference. The applicant must 1) be enrolled (for credit or program fee), and 2) be accepted or invited to present at a conference or professional meeting.

 This is what you need to submit:

1. Submit the completed application (page 2 of this form) and the confirmation from conference organizers that your paper or poster has been accepted to Shelley Silva by (deadline late TBD) there is 1 fall and 1 spring call.
2. Ask your advisor to send a brief email of support to Shelley Silva to accompany your application (email must be received by the specified date TBD). See note below.  

Review, notification, and awards

All applications will be reviewed by the Graduate Studies Committee. You will be notified of the committee’s decision within a target of two weeks after the submission deadline. If you are awarded the funds, they will be paid out as a scholarship through your UMass Excess Express Account. If you have any outstanding debt that will be taken out of your awarded scholarship fund.

*IMPORTANT: Note from your advisor should include a brief assessment of the importance of attending this particular conference plays in your career at this stage (e.g., presenting dissertation data, getting ready to apply for jobs, networking with colleagues in view of collaboration, etc.).

The department is pleased to announce the Richard B. Woodbury Award competition. The award provides for a travel grant of up to approximately $500 to help underwrite the travel expenses that grad students incur in making their first presentation of a paper at a national or international anthropology conference during the twelve months from June 1–May 31. The deadline for submission for papers presented during the AY cycle is generally in March.

The award comes from the interest earned from the gifts provided to the university by and on behalf of Richard Woodbury, an Emeritus Professor of the university, and our first department chair, and his wife Nathalie, also an anthropologist.

The committee that screens applications will judge papers solely on their intrinsic intellectual quality. In fairness to all students, awards can be made retroactively for participation in any qualifying meeting held during the 12-month award period. The total amount of the prize will be dependent on the amount of interest generated by the Woodbury fund. Note that students may apply for both Woodbury and graduate travel grants (provided the student qualifies for the Woodbury).

The committee will meet during the spring semester to select up to two recipients. 

The Department of Anthropology awards a limited number of grants to graduate students under our Pre-Dissertation Study award program. The competition is open to students in all subfields. The Graduate Studies Committee critically reviews grant proposals. Grants are meant to enable students to undertake a feasibility study that will be conducted prior to beginning dissertation research. The purpose of the pre-dissertation study might include visiting research sites and establishing necessary contacts, refining research questions and collecting pilot data and testing research methodologies. The application procedures and accounting for the awards are designed to give students practice in all aspects of grant preparation and reporting. Well-conceived pilot studies are expected to produce information that can form the basis of grant proposals. If any dissertation data or information is to be collected from human subjects/informants during the course of this research, prior clearance from the UMass Institutional Review Board for working with human subjects is required. Students interested in applying for these awards should consider the following:

1. The grants are for a minimum of 2-8 weeks. They are not to fund Ph.D. research but rather the feasibility of carrying out the Ph.D. fieldwork (e.g. refining research questions and collecting pilot data, testing research methodologies, visiting research sites, establishing research contacts). While it is not the priority of the grants, language training may be supported in the case of languages that cannot be studied at UMass or nearby.
2. The maximum grant is $3,000 but normally they will be less than this amount. Students are normally awarded only a single feasibility grant, but should the dissertation project prove infeasible, or should circumstances beyond the student's control change so that the dissertation project becomes untenable, a second award may be granted. No student will receive more than $6,000 total, nor will any student be funded for more than two grant periods.
3. Assessment will include a consideration of the student's academic record and progress towards a degree.
4. Award will depend on whether the proposal describes a dissertation topic that is well developed enough that preliminary research will provide a foundation for further work, including a grant proposal.
5. Priority will be given to students who have submitted prior grant proposals for external funding, and who provide evidence that pilot data or other aspects of a feasibility study will increase the chance of obtaining external funding.
6. Proposals require a rationale and justification of the location(s) and duration of the pre-dissertation study.

Application Guidelines

A. In 2-3 pages (single-spaced), provide brief narrative answers to the following questions:                

1)  What is the focus of your investigation and your goal for the research? (including the location of the study)
2)  Briefly discuss the major scholarly literature on your topic (mention at least several scholars whose work is relevant), and suggest how you hope to contribute to the discipline of anthropology.
3)  What are your proposed methodologies for conducting your pre-dissertation study?
4)  How will you investigate the feasibility of your project?
5)  Explain what contacts, arrangements, or on-the-ground knowledge you already have, and how you will initiate your investigation.

6) Proposal require a rationale and justification of the location(s) and duration of the pre-dissertation study.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
B. Complete the questions below (full sentences not required).                                              

1)  What language skills do you have that are relevant to your research?
2)  What permissions do you have or need?
3)  What transportation is available that you can use?
4)  Who is your advisor?  Has he or she read and approved this and written a recommendation?
5)  BUDGET (itemize and explain)                                                                                                                            

C. Attach (as an appendix): 1) a CV; 2) a brief letter of support from your advisor; 3) any previous proposals submitted and reviews received.

Human Subjects, Animal Care, Biosafety

The Department of Anthropology requires that you obtain approval(s) from the appropriate institutional boards if you are conducting research with human subjects, archives of human subjects, animals or biological materials. The GSC may require proof of IRB approval before an award will be made. For information on seeking IRB approval please consult: http://www.umass.edu/research/research-compliance

Deadline: Submit a proposal and supplemental material to Shelley TBA. Proposals will be reviewed by the Graduate Studies Committee and announced within 2-3 weeks after the deadline.

Post-Award Requirements:  Students who receive research grants will be expected to:

1) write regularly to their Academic Advisor

2) prepare a brief written report of the summer activities (suggested length of 500-1,000 words)

3) present a short (e.g., 15 minute) presentation at a department colloquium

4) prepare a financial accounting of the money. A copy of the written report and financial accounting should be sent to Shelley Silva, Academic Program Assistant, Department of Anthropology. The report will be made available to the Graduate Studies Committee for review and eventual placement in the student's file.  Courtesy suggests that the student also submit a copy of the report to their advisor. The report should include period of research (i.e., dates), place of research, and expenses for travel, per diem, and miscellaneous. Reports will also help the GSC assess whether the pre-dissertation funding is adequate.

The committee of the Armelagos-Swedlund Fund invites submissions for research presented at professional meetings. The funds available are for the presentation of papers during the 2016–2017 academic year. Priority is given to papers dealing with topics in medical anthropology, but related topics in biocultural and biological anthropology will be considered. If you have presented at this year’s meetings of the AAAs, Society for Medical Anthropology, Human Biology Association, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, or Society for Applied Anthropology then please consider applying. Also, if you presented at this year’s American Anthropological Association meetings, NEAAs, or other professional societies’ annual meetings then you also may be eligible.

The Armelagos-Swedlund Award is a scholarship for graduate students and not a travel award, so receipts for travel, fieldwork, etc. are not required.

In your application please include a brief cover letter, abstract, and a copy of the paper.  Please address to Alan Swedlund/Tom Leatherman, Department of Anthropology, Machmer Hall (@email; @email), submit an electronic copy via email and give a printed copy to Debbie Averill in the main office. This year’s review committee consists of Alan Swedlund and Tom Leatherman. The prize will be presented at the department’s spring lunch and awards ceremony. Submissions are due no later than TBA.

The Sylvia Forman Graduate Scholarship provides support for a semester of graduate study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The Forman Award is for people from communities traditionally studied by anthropologists. The goal of the award is to help transform anthropology by bringing the perspectives of these communities into the practice of anthropology. Although the primary aim of the scholarship is to support first-year students and students at the dissertation writing stage, the committee will consider applications from all eligible students.

Eligibility:

Applicants must be accepted as a degree candidate in the graduate program in anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Eligible applicants include citizens of the Global South, members of Native North American nations, or Black South Africans. Students who have had to flee war-torn areas of the non-western world, including predominantly Muslim countries, whose perspectives have not been widely represented in the discipline are eligible to apply.
A birth certificate may be required to demonstrate proof of citizenship. If a non-US citizen, ability to meet
all US Immigration and Naturalization Service requirements to enter and remain in the United States.