Call For Applications: 2011 Religion And International Affairs Dissertation Workshop
The SSRC program on religion and the public sphere will convene twelve advanced graduate students and five distinguished professors for a five-day dissertation workshop on religion and international affairs.
The workshop will provide participants with a unique opportunity to share their ongoing work and to receive critical feedback from their peers as well as from a small group of distinguished faculty members. During the course of the workshop, students will lead discussions of their own projects and entertain critiques from both student and faculty participants on their fieldwork or research plans, writing strategies, and conceptual frameworks. Prior to the workshop, participants will prepare synthetic essays incorporating what they take to be the key methodological and thematic issues in each of the projects to be presented at the workshop. These synthetic papers will also be presented at the workshop and will help to orient discussions.
The workshop will take place June 5-9, 2011, at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California. In most cases, the SSRC will fully cover participants' travel, lodging, and meal expenses for the duration of the workshop. Limited funds are available for participants traveling from outside the United States.
Eligibility The SSRC Workshop on Religion and International Affairs is open to students from all fields in the social sciences and humanities whose research engages the study of international/world affairs, transnational politics and civil society, and global socioeconomic development, with a particular emphasis on religion. Specific thematic areas may include (but are not limited to): religion, conflict, and peacebuilding; religion and gender in international perspective; religion, development, and modernization; religion, pluralism, and human rights; and religion, secularism, and democratic politics in comparative international perspective. Students whose projects do not fall neatly into one or more of these categories but nonetheless engage centrally and substantially with religion as a factor in international affairs are encouraged to apply.
The SSRC welcomes applications from graduate students at US or Canadian institutions, regardless of citizenship, who are about to embark on their research or who are currently working in the field (or the archive), as well as those who are in the process of writing their dissertations. Applicants must have an approved dissertation prospectus at the time of application but must not have submitted a final version of the dissertation for review.
Application Requirements
In addition to the official application form, each applicant must submit (a) a 5-10 page narrative description of his/her thesis and (b) a letter of recommendation from his/her primary advisor.
Applications must be postmarked by March 15, 2011. Applicants will be notified of their status by April 15, 2011. Completed applications must be submitted by mail to:
Social Science Research Council
Religion and International Affairs Dissertation Workshop
One Pierrepont Plaza, 15th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA
For clarification of instructions and eligibility, contact: religion@ssrc.org
Program Director Jonathan VanAntwerpen