Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr., Research Grants
The Keats-Shelley Association of America, Inc., awards two $2,500 grants annually to support research in the field of British Romanticism. Named in honor of the Association's most generous benefactor, the Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr., Research Grants support the work of advanced graduate students, independent scholars, and untenured faculty. The awards honor the late Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr., a past President of the Association and among its most vigorous advocates. He also headed The Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation, Inc., long distinguished for funding scholarship centered on early nineteenth-century English literature. Applications are solicited for this year's $2,500 Research Grants, which will be announced in December. Winners will be guests of the Keats-Shelley Association at its Annual Awards Dinner, held during the MLA annual convention.
Application Deadline: November 1.
Eligibility: Advanced graduate students, independent scholars, and untenured faculty.
Purpose: To provide funding for expenses related to research in the field of British Romanticism and literary culture between 1789 and 1832, especially projects involving authors featured in the Keats Shelley Journal bibliography.
Application Procedures: A complete application must include:
1. Application form.
2. Curriculum vitae.
3. Description of the project, not to exceed three pages. This brief narrative should clearly describe your project, its contribution to the field, and your plan for use of the money.
4. A one-page bibliography of publications that treat the topic.
5. Two letters of reference from people who know your work well and can judge its value. These letters should be sent directly by your referees to the Chair of the Grants Committee and be postmarked before the application deadline.
Please include four copies of your application form, CV, project description, and bibliography and return them to: Chair, Grants Committee, Keats-Shelley Association of America, Inc., Room 226, The New York Public Library, 476 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018- 2788.
If you are unable to print the application form from this Website or have further questions about the awards, please contact Doucet Fischer, the Administrator of the Grants, at the address listed above (phone: 212-764-0655) or send an e-mail to: doucetfischer@nypl.org.
Report to the Association: The Keats-Shelley Association expects awardees to file project reports by the following December describing how the grants furthered their research.
KSAA Mentoring Project
The KSAA Mentoring Program is designed to aid junior scholars in the crucial early stages of their academic careers. The Mentoring Program aims to formalize one of the Association's most important features--the exchange of expertise and practical professional information between junior and senior scholars. Through this program, senior scholars can offer to be mentors for a protégé on the specific scholarly or professional topic(s) of their choosing (e.g., Mary Shelley, teaching generalist courses in a small institution, etc.). Junior scholars can request a mentor by describing their own scholarly interests and professional concerns. Mentors and protégés commit to one year of conversation (vocal, written, and/or electronic). By volunteering, mentors commit themselves to being interlocutors only. It is not a condition of participating in this program that mentors act as professional advocates for their protégés (for example, by writing letters of recommendation for cases of tenure or promotion or for grant proposals), though of course they may do so if they wish.
Prospective Mentors. We welcome offers to serve as mentors from Romanticists at the Associate Professor level or higher. Although volunteers need not be members of KSAA, we welcome them to join the Association. You can volunteer by sending us a short email providing your contact information and affiliation, as well as the authors or topics of interest to you. The KSAA hopes that the Mentoring Project will appeal particularly to those who are retired faculty or who are teaching at non-PhD-granting institutions and who might enjoy an opportunity to pass on advice, expertise, and street-wisdom to younger members of the profession.
Prospective Protégés. Any junior Romanticist working on authors and topics that fall under the umbrella of the KSAA, and who has completed the PhD but has not yet earned tenure, is invited to request a mentor. Membership in KSAA is not a requirement for applicants, but anyone accepting a mentor must join the Association. Your request should consist of a C.V. and a one- or two-sentence description of what you are looking for in a mentor. We particularly encourage junior scholars to apply who find themselves at smaller institutions where they may not have access to other scholars in their field or discipline.
Timetable. Mentoring matches are made in the early fall of each year, so please submit your offers and requests by September 30. (If you find you do have outstanding needs during the academic year, however, feel free to write and we will attempt to find someone to work with you at that time). If we do not have a sufficient number of mentors for the applicants, preference will be granted to protégés with the longest memberships in the KSAA.
We are committed to bringing more junior and senior scholars into mutual conversation and to offering concrete support to the rising generation of scholars.
Contact. Please contact Lucy Morrison (LXMORRISON [at] salisbury.edu) to apply to be a protégé, to volunteer to be a Mentor, or to ask questions about this program.