Yes, that's right, ladies and gentlemen, it's grant application season.
What this means is that, every September for the past, say, five years of my life, my attention, and that of my colleagues, has been focused on producing pages and pages of bullshit that will, provided they are stunningly brilliant enough, be sufficient to wrangle modest sums of money from the government.
Every year I apply and every year I am turned down. Every year it's a struggle to get the appropriate reference letters and meet the deadlines, not to mention the stress of putting your whole life down within the allotted space on the damned form.
This year it's a little different for me, as I am preparing to entire the final stages of my doctoral degree, and this funding could mean the difference between carrying out my fieldwork, and NOT carrying out my fieldwork. Things are rather crucial at the moment.
I'm applying to three very different foundations this year for funding. One, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, is an American outfit dedicated to funding anthropologists who carry out fieldwork that will further the power of anthropology in North America and around the world. It's a strange application, with a billion hard questions, and doesn't require reference letters but instead a detailed curriculum vitae from my supervisor. Odd. Funding from Wenner-Gren is a one-time offer of up to $15 000 US. Deadline: 1 November.
The second is my personal favourite, the Trudeau Foundation. If an application could be a hippie, it would be this one. In addition to putting down my life story as reflected in publications and scholarships, this application requires me to write a two-page "personal statement" regarding exactly what it is that influenced me to become so fascinated with my project of study. Winners of the Trudeau Fellowship get up to $40 000 Canadian a year for the duration of their studies, plus an additional $20 000 Canadian travel bursary, used to shuttle the winner all around the world to various Trudeau-sponsored conferences. Deadline: Sometime in December.
The third is the big poop of scholarships in the social sciences: SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council). Government-run, government-funded, this particular organization lost out to Stephen Harper last year and as a result had to cut its funding to half its recipients. Still, if you've got a SSHRC you're essentially IN wherever you want to be. Scholarships from SSHRC amount to about $20 000 Canadian a year. Deadline: 13 November.
So in addition to those, which are all so incredibly different from each other that I can't simply copy and paste my answers, I have also taken advantage of a research position offered by one of the members of my committee, which will involve a tremendous amount of work on my part and a shortly oncoming deadline.
My second comprehensive exam is looming in the second week of November, as well, and I'm a little behind (as usual) in my readings. The wedding kind of took out all my will to school, as it were.
Oh yeah, and I still have a part-time job as a librarian.
So I'm a little busy.
In addition to this, Andy has recently started working at Future Shop as a Home Entertainment specialist, and is still trying to nail down a regular schedule and cope with his mounting pile of homework and assignments.
I can't say things around here are relaxed.
But you should check out pictures of the last time we were relaxed by clicking here.
Posted by Ally at September 27, 2009 02:28 PM