If you are a graduate student or a recently-awarded Phd attending the NCS Congress in Toronto 2018, this is to announce that NCS is now accepting applications for the Donald Howard travel awards. Details are below.

Please note carefully the eligibility criteria, especially this: “whose defense took place not more than two years before the date of the Congress, who do not have a tenure-track academic job.” This means that your defense/viva has to have happened at or after July 2016. That’s the cutoff point. If your defense was before then, you are unfortunately not eligible. But we know there are many eligible members out there, so send your applications to Ruth Evans at chaucer@slu.edu by December 15, 2017.

The New Chaucer Society supports the participation of graduate students and recent PhDs who do not have a tenure-track or equivalently secure position through its Donald Howard Travel Scholarship Fund. The Society aims to ensure that all eligible members receive financial assistance that will help them attend the biennial Congress, though actual awards will be dependent on the funds available in any given cycle and funding cannot be guaranteed for all applicants.

Active members of the New Chaucer Society are eligible to apply if they have had a presentation accepted for the official program, are organizing a session that has been accepted for the program, or have been admitted to the Graduate Workshop; and if they are: a) graduate students enrolled in an MA or PhD program; or b) recent graduates of a PhD program whose defense took place not more than two years before the date of the Congress, who do not have a tenure-track academic job.

The awards committee will assess applicants according to:

• individual financial need: applicants and their supervisor or a referee will be asked to describe the funding available to them from other sources for participation at the Congress.
• level of involvement at the Congress: the extra costs faced by those attending the Graduate Student Workshop will be taken into account. Constraints on the Howard Fund may make it impossible to support students who are only attending the Graduate Student Workshop; it may be an advantage to such students to have had a presentation accepted.
• previous support from the Howard Fund: applicants who have not received funding in the past will have priority. However, students or recent PhDs who have received support in the past are still eligible for funding.

The merit of an applicant’s proposed presentation will not be a factor in allocating funds; the committee will assume that any paper or presentation accepted by the program committee has merit.

APPLICATION PROCESS

NCS is now accepting applications. Applicants should indicate their academic affiliation and place within their degree program (second year MA, ABD, etc.) In a short statement (about 300 words), they should:

Describe the nature of their project, its relation to their ongoing research, and their likely date for completing their degree;

Indicate whether or not they have received previous funding through the Howard Fund from NCS; and

Indicate what other funding is available to them for attendance at the biennial Congress.
Please send the above information as a single document to Ruth Evans at chaucer@slu.edu.

Applicants should arrange for their advisor (if they are enrolled in a graduate program) or a referee (in the case of recent PhDs) to submit a letter to Ruth Evans at chaucer@slu.edu endorsing their work, and, where appropriate, affirming their good standing within their own programs. This letter should also address the availability to the applicant of funding for travel and lodging from sources other than NCS.

DEADLINE: 15 DECEMBER 2017