0 Three Steps to Getting Grants for Graduate Students

I was one of the panelists at a grant writing workshop for graduate students at the American Studies Association meetings this past fall.  The panel was convened by Kritika Agarwal and included three panelists:  Maile Arvin, Monica Martinez, and myself.

This post is a summary of the best tips provided during that meeting and will provide you with guidance and food for thought as you prepare your grant and fellowship applications.

Step 1: Figure out where you are going to apply.

To figure this out, you first need to identify your needs. Do you need a grant – which will provide you with cash to do research or a fellowship – which will pay your salary as you focus primarily on writing?

Graduate students can use grant funding for a variety of expenses, including visiting archives, paying research participants, transcribing interviews, and completing fieldwork. Fellowships, in contrast, are primarily used to subsidize the time you spend writing your dissertation. Instead of having to teach to support yourself while in graduate school, a fellowship allows you to focus all of your work time on writing your dissertation.

There are large granting agencies that have funding for graduate students including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. However, there are also a plethora of smaller granting agencies that are specific to your field of study.

If you are at a PhD granting institution, there most likely an office on campus where you can get assistance with finding grants. Many times, this office will work with you to come up with a list of grants and fellowships that you can apply for. Many universities also have online databases that you can search to look for funding opportunities.

Kritika made the very practical suggestion that you look at the CVs of people in your field to find out what grants and fellowships they have been awarded. Maile suggested that you ask around in your program to find out what opportunities other students have sought out.

It is important to complete a comprehensive search as sometimes there are societies and archives that offer grants or fellowships you may have never heard of.  For example, did you know that the German Historical Institute offers fellowships in African American History? Or that L’Oreal USA offers fellowships for women in science?

Once you have your list of places to target, you can develop a timeline for applications based on their deadlines. You will need to plan far in advance – up to a year before the application deadlines.

Step 2: Prepare the Proposal

Think of your proposal as an argument for why reviewers should recommend your project for funding. Most well-formulated proposals will have the following six components:

1) An opening that draws attention. This often takes the form of an anecdote, a powerful statistic, or a compelling question.

2) A concise statement of what your project is about. The reviewer should know exactly what your research is about within 30 seconds of picking up your proposal.

3) A review of what we already know about the topic. You need to make a case for why your research is necessary. This requires showing that you have done your background research and demonstrating how your study is novel.

4) An explanation of how current literature leads to your research questions. Don’t just say: “No one has ever examined Polynesian birthing practices in this village.” Instead, draw from the current literature on Polynesia and birthing practices to make a case for how the current literature leads up to your research questions.

5) A description of how you plan to answer your questions. Now that you have set up your research questions, explain exactly what your methodology is and why it is the best methodology to answer those questions.

6) A timeline for completion. A successful grant proposal is compelling, creative, and feasible. You need to show that you have thought your whole project through and that you have a reasonable timeline for completion. Reviewers will find it hard to believe that you will write the last four chapters of your dissertation in a one-week residential fellowship, for example.

Competitive applications are crystal clear and free of jargon. They also render it clear how the project is related to the goals and missions of the funding agency. They are convincing in terms of the need for this project as well as the feasibility of the project. They make a clear contribution to research. Finally, they are aesthetically pleasing in terms of the page layout, margins, font, and headings.

If you know someone who has won the competition you are applying for, you should ask them if you can read their proposal. That will give you a good sense of what a successful application looks like.

Step 3: Prepare for Submission

You should never submit your proposal without having at least one person look over it. Ideally, you should get feedback from several people. You can get feedback from your peers, from your adviser, from the grant office on campus, and from friends who are not in your field.

Before you submit, review your application to make sure that you have followed the directions exactly. Have someone with a good eye for style and grammar review your proposal to make absolutely sure that there are no stylistic or grammatical or typographical errors.

Once you submit your proposal, congratulate yourself for having formulated a proposal and plan for your research.

Writing a clear and concise statement of your research project and plan for moving forward will help you with moving your research forward, regardless of whether or not you win the competition. In addition, you can repurpose that statement for other grant and fellowship applications. You also are likely to be able to revise that statement and put parts of it in your dissertation – particularly in the introduction.

It is always fantastic when you are awarded a grant or an application. But, it is also important to keep in mind that the only way to get a rejection is to put your work out there. Every rejection you get is a signal that you are stretching your boundaries. It also means that you are one less rejection away from reaching your goals!

Detail: Three Steps to Getting Grants for Graduate Students

0 Three children and a PhD in six years

I had three kids while I was in graduate school, yet managed to finish my MA thesis and PhD in six years. I think that many of the lessons I learned by being a graduate student with a family continue to be crucial to my success today even though I didn’t exactly plan to have three children before getting my degrees.

I spent the summer after my second year of graduate school with my fiancé in Brazil – learning Portuguese and doing preliminary research on the construction of race in Brazil.

While in Brazil, I found out I was pregnant. Soon after returning to North Carolina to begin my second year of graduate school, I learned that I was pregnant with twins.

My twins were due in March, so I asked my advisor if she could give me a flexible job assignment during the Spring semester. She gently suggested to me that I take the semester off – having twins would be a significant interruption in my life. I had not considered the option of taking a semester off, but decided to ask my mother if I could move in with her for the semester. Taking the semester off meant I would have no income, so I would not be able to afford to pay rent. You see, my fiancé – Nando - was still in South America, waiting to get a visa to come to the United States.

So, I packed up and moved back to my parents’ house in December and got ready for the birth of my twin babies. I took plenty of reading material to prepare for my comprehensive exams (which I never touched). Caring for twin infants turned out to be a lot more work than I expected!

As I was unemployed and uninsured, I was eligible for the state health insurance, so I did not have to worry about the costs associated with the birth of my twins. As a person who strongly believes in universal health care, I was all too happy to have state-financed health care, even if it was just for a few short months. Plus, technically, I paid for it, with all the taxes I have paid over the course of my life.

Nando’s visa finally came through and he arrived in time to witness the birth. Luckily, he also was able to get a job so that we would have money to buy diapers and other essential items for the babies. With generous friends and family, however, we did not have to buy much. When the twins were five months old, in August, we made our way back down to North Carolina, and I began my third year of graduate school.

Nando and I agreed that I would go to school and work each day from 10am to 3pm and that he would stay home with the children. At $1,000 per child for month for daycare, we figured it was better for Nando to stay home and take care of the babies. Plus, we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for our twin daughters to bond with their father.

As I had limited time at school each day, I was very focused and was able to complete nearly all of my work between 10am and 3pm. I often had to catch up on reading in the evenings, but I could do that after the babies went to sleep or on the weekends. I defended my M.A. thesis in the Spring and then began to prepare for my comprehensive exams, which I passed the following year.

For me, having my kids in graduate school had several benefits. Firstly, it meant that I was less likely to fall into an existential crisis. As I clearly divided my time between home and school, I had plenty of time when I barely thought about school and did not allow myself to be consumed with the minor crises and daily drama in graduate school. For me, this continues to be a benefit – I rarely talk about work with my husband or children. This gives me an emotional and mental break from work when I am with them. I think that is a good thing.

Secondly, having children meant that when I was at work, I focused on work and did not allow myself to spend hours chatting in the hallway about random topics or gossiping in the computer lab. Of course, it is crucial to engage in dialogue with your colleagues, but my limited time mean that I was judicious with regard to how much I allowed myself to participate in the hallway conversations. Learning to focus and get my work done in a limited amount of time is a skill that has been useful throughout my career.

If you are an academic woman and are considering having children, I think my story points to a few things you should consider.

1) Do you have a supportive partner and/or community? I have the great fortune of having an extremely supportive partner, family and community. A supportive partner is crucial. However, I also think that single mothers and women with partners with demanding jobs can find ways to make sure they have the time they need to get their work done by building support networks.

2) When you have limited time, are you able to focus and get things done? If you have trouble with this, there is no reason you can’t start practicing now. Make a conscious decision to complete your most important tasks for the day between 8am and noon and then reward yourself with an afternoon off. Being able to focus and get things done in a narrow time frame is crucial for being a successful academic parent.

3) Are you comfortable with seeking out help when and where you need it? Delegating tasks can make life as an academic parent much, much easier. Instead of spending hours verifying your bibliography, are you willing to pay a student to do it? If you really need Saturday mornings to catch up on reading, will you be willing to hire a sitter? Instead of poring over Strunk & White yourself, are you willing to hire a professional editor to get your manuscripts ready for submission?

4) Do you have the option of taking some time off or greatly reducing your workload when your baby is born? Having a baby is a tremendous task. Your body needs time to recuperate after the baby is born and it will be months before you get enough sleep. The good news is that all of this is temporary. Nevertheless, the whole process will be much easier if you can take at least three months off after the baby is born. As academics, many of us have the luxury of taking eight months off – if you take off a semester, you also have the summer before or after it. If that is a possibility for you, I highly recommend it.

After my twins were born, I went on to have my third child while I was conducting dissertation fieldwork. But, that is another story!

Detail: Three children and a PhD in six years