I’m looking for information about summer funding while I work on a digital archive of an early 20th century arts magazine, handmade by a group of women artists and poets in St. Louis. I’ve looked into most of the fellowships and grants out there associated with library work and dissertation research, but this project isn’t a fit for either category. In order to complete the project in an efficient window of time, I need summer support so that I’m not dividing my time and labor between research, the DH project, and working a job. Any suggestions? Many Thanks.
Summer funding for DH project?
(8 posts) (6 voices)-
Scott
MemberThis might be a good project for Kickstarter, http://www.kickstarter.com/.
Posted 2 years ago Permalink -
I'm curious to know what you're seeing in grants for dissertation research that makes you think your project isn't a good fit! Have you talked with your director of graduate studies, or the office of your dean or the dean for research? My sense has been that local programs for grad students (within their own universities, where available) are a likely source of funding for small projects like these. Big, national funders are often restricted from supporting work toward a degree -- and major fellowships from professional societies are generally a bigger deal than it sounds like you're looking for.
This may well have been the slowest-to-be-responded-to English-language question on DH Answers! I think that's because it's a hard one. (It also lacked tags! I'm going to add some.)
Funding for small projects by grad students is so idiosyncratic and school-based. I'd be eager to hear from national funders and to see other scholars post their experiences here.
Posted 2 years ago Permalink -
amyEelkins
MemberThank you for this thoughtful reply! The project isn't technically for my dissertation, and I've not yet entered candidacy. I'm interested in making the resources available digitally primarily as a pedagogical tool and as a resource for other scholars. Most grants, even at the more local level, want you to be at this stage before they consider funding a project. By this point (and the reason for my delayed response), I've searched high and low for graduate microfunding for digital projects, and I'm not sure it exists yet. I'm certainly putting out feelers in many directions, though, so perhaps something will still come through!
The tags are a welcome addition to the thread. I appreciate it.
Posted 2 years ago Permalink -
Amy, you say that the project isn't technically for your dissertation, but is there a way you can adjust it so that it is related to your dissertation, or seems related-enough to qualify for dissertation-proposal-development funding? (Until you've advanced to candidacy, that's the only possibility I can easily imagine.)
A few other ideas: Does your university have funding available for innovative experiments in pedagogy or course development, where this project might fit in somehow? Is there a way you can make your project relevant to some organization (on campus or off) that does have funding available?
To answer Bethany's request for experiences from grad students: The way I've funded my digitization work to date (photos of archival materials, from a range of different physical locations in the US, all related to my dissertation research) was to apply to as many different history-subfield-related travel fellowships as possible and to have a wildly broad range of relevant subfields. Even small fellowships/grants were useful; in my applications, I explained that $500 (or whatever) in travel funding would go farther because I was using digital photography to capture what I needed rather than planning to sit in the archives for weeks. (Most of those images aren't yet online, though some are, and putting the images online was specifically not in my funding applications.)
I don't know whether my applications worked because of my choices in wording or because of the oddity of my topic, but maybe this will be helpful to someone else.
Posted 2 years ago Permalink -
betsyk
MemberReplying to @amyEelkins's post:
Hi Amy,
Is this your personal collection or is it owned by a library in St. Louis? If by a library, you might check to see if they have a digitization program and would be willing to include it. My library (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is always willing to assist faculty and grad students with digitization of materials in our collection. What's the name of your journal?Posted 2 years ago Permalink -
amyEelkins
MemberShane: Thanks for sharing your experience. As the project develops, it's looking more and more like something that I'd want to work into a diss chapter. Your other suggestions are also good, and I've started networking more on campus by talking with others who have worked on DH projects in my community. I especially like your suggestion about putting funding emphasis on the pedagogical dimensions of building the archive. I'm going to follow that lead.
Betsy: The collection is currently house in 3 libraries. Two of the libraries are totally on board with doing the digitization legwork (for free!), but the St. Louis library holds the biggest collection and they charge a lot for the digitization process. It's possible that I'll go there to do some of the digitization in the future, and I've also recently made a wonderful faculty contact in St. Louis who has worked in the archive in the past. Part of the summer project will be getting in touch with them and working out the kinks. The magazine is called the "Potter's Wheel" and was created by Sara Teasdale and a group of women in the early 20th century. Really lovely.
Thanks all for the suggestions and information. Ideally, graduate programs would be able to offer 12-month funding so that graduate students could pursue professional goals during the summer when they have the time.
Posted 2 years ago Permalink -
Ethan Gruber
MemberSorry for not seeing this sooner. Since the content is art-related, I would have recommended applying for a digitization grant through the Kress Foundation: http://www.kressfoundation.org/grants/default.aspx?id=66
Unfortunately, the due date for the application is tomorrow, and I'm not sure you'd receive funding for this summer anyway.
Posted 2 years ago Permalink
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