About the fellowship
AIIS is pleased to announce a new research and teaching fellowship opportunity for senior scholars in collaboration with Ashoka University, Sonepat, Haryana. In addition to support for full time research, an R & T fellowship gives senior scholars an opportunity to teach for three-and-a half months (if offering an undergraduate class), or for six weeks (if offering a mini-course for Ashoka’s Young India Fellows post-graduate program). Ashoka University is seeking senior scholars to augment its permanent faculty in a range of fields. The teaching commitment entails traveling to the University two days a week for class meetings and office hours, with the option of residing on or near the campus. It will be augmented by a period of funded research, which may be taken before or after the University course. (Additional information regarding Ashoka’s courses and annual schedule of teaching terms, and the potential duration of research awards is available on request.) Applying for this fellowship does not preclude applying for another category of AIIS research award.
- Junior Fellowships are for graduate students conducting research for their doctoral dissertations in India.
- Senior Long- and Short-term Fellowships are for those holding the PhD degree.
- Performing and Creative Arts Fellowships are available to accomplished practitioners of the arts to conduct their projects in India.
The 2017 fellowship competition for fellowships to be carried out in 2018-2019 is now open.
The AIIS fellowship competition is not restricted to those from its member institutions. Non-U.S. citizens may apply as long as they are either graduate students or full-time faculty at colleges and universities in the United States. Approximately 35 fellowships are awarded each year.
Applications from scholars who are part of a collaborative project involving other scholars are welcome, though AIIS fellowships are granted to individuals, not to teams. Amounts awarded to successful applicants who are members of group projects will be equivalent to fellowships awarded to scholars who submitted applications for individual projects.
Application
The application deadline for the 2017 AIIS Fellowship Competition is July 1, 2017.
Applicants for fellowships should complete the following steps:
1. Download announcement flier, application instructions, and check list (found below) and read carefully.
2. Create a single pdf file that contains all of the items listed in the checklist (except for the recommendation letters) and for junior fellowship applicants, scans of your transcripts (if you cannot scan your transcripts you may mail the transcripts to the AIIS office in Chicago along with your $25 application fee) APPLICATIONS MUST BE TYPED. MATERIALS THAT ARE HANDWRITTEN AND THEN SCANNED WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. We do not need a real signature on anything. Simply type in your name where a signature is requested.
3. Notify your three references that they should expect an email prompt to submit their letters of reference. You should forward them the reference letter form. You should fill out the top part of the reference form before sending it to them. We do not require a real signature–either yours or the recommender’s. The recommender needs to upload their recommendation letter as a SINGLE document so they should write their letter on the form or else append the letter to the form and create a single pdf file. It is the applicant’s responsibility to inform the recommender about the required procedure. Please note that recommenders may NOT email their letters directly to AIIS.
4: Register on our online portal and then log in to your portal account.
5: Follow the application steps: choose your fellowship category, submit your application and notify your references. Please refer to the application checklist. Make sure your application file name does not include any punctuation marks like commas or apostrophes. For instance–call your file “Sanjay application” and NOT “Sanjay’s application.” Please inform your letter writers as well. Please note that there is NO final submit button. Once you upload your application onto the portal it has been submitted. You can go into your account and all items that have been successfully submitted will have green check marks. You can check to see if your recommendation letters are in and if they are not in, you can “remind” the referees to turn in the letters.
6: There may be problems uploading materials for those who use the Safari web browser with a Mac computer. If you are encountering difficulties uploading, please use a different web browser such as internet explorer or firefox. Please also alert your recommenders to this.
Application Instructions and Guidelines
Please read all application materials carefully. All forms in the application packet must be completed and submitted electronically.
Guidelines
- Applications that do not meet the requirements listed below will NOT be considered and the processing fee will not be returned.
- Applicants will be notified of the selection committee’s decisions by the beginning of October. The earliest possible departure date for India by awardees is eleven (11) months following the date of application submission.
- Two full years must have elapsed between the completion of a previous AIIS fellowship and the current application deadline. This rule does NOT apply to recipients of AIIS language program fellowships.
- Those fellows selected in the July 2017 fellowship competition will be able to carry out their fellowships at a time of their choosing between June 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019; AIIS fellows may not hold another major grant that provides funds to support research conducted in India concurrently with the AIIS fellowship during this period. We do permit fellows to hold grants that would support research and writing in a country other than India or which could be used to purchase equipment or to carry out lab work that cannot be supported with the AIIS grant.
- Applications from scholars who are part of a collaborative project involving other scholars are welcome, though AIIS fellowships are granted to individuals not to teams. Amounts awarded to successful applicants who are members of group projects will be equivalent to fellowships awarded to scholars who submitted applications for individual projects.
Evaluation Criteria
The Selection Committee will assess each application on the following basis:
- The project description
- The candidate’s academic and/or professional record
- The quality of references.
Members of the Selection Committee represent a number of different academic disciplines within the field of Indian Studies, so the applicant must explain the nature and significance of the project in terms intelligible to a non-specialist audience. Please avoid jargon and be as concise as possible. Applicants who are not affiliated with an AIIS member institution are WELCOME to apply.
For more information click "Further official information" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://www.indiastudies.org/research-fellowship-programs/