A. Requests for Conference Funding
The Graduate School revised its procedures for funding conference travel in 2007. What follows is an attempt to give an overview of the process and procedures. However, graduate students are advised to consult the Graduate School guidelines and forms posted on the Graduate School website.
Graduate students have both an annual limit of $650 and a career limit of $2500 during their time as a doctoral student. These funds are generally for students to deliver papers or chair conference sessions; however, in some cases, they may also cover simply attending a conference. In addition, students can apply for these funds to attend MLA for interviews. The $650 annual limit can be extended to $1000 for international conferences.
To apply for funds, students should download and fill out the Graduate School application for conference funds. This form must be signed by the student's advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. The student should then submit the form to the Graduate School. There is a monthly deadline on the 15th of every month, and the student should receive an e-mail notifying him or her about the funding within two weeks. The student can then submit receipts for reimbursement to the department's graduate coordinator (Melanie Tipnis).
In addition, students may be able to apply for an additional $100 of funding from the Graduate Student Council (GSC). See the GSC website for details.
B. Conference Guidelines
When thinking about conferences, graduate students should keep the following guidelines in mind:
- Conferences offer opportunities for you to share your research and to engage with scholarly communities beyond Emory. However, they also take away time from your research and your teaching. Consider your teaching and research schedule when planning conference presentations. Think of a conference presentation as a step toward publication or a dissertation chapter rather than an end in itself. While some conference presentations are expected on a vita, they are not as significant as journal publications.
- Involve your advisor as you make decisions about submitting abstracts to and presenting at conferences. Your advisor can help you to evaluate the suitability of a conference for your work and review your abstract.
- For some projects and fields, international conferences may be suitable; however, consider carefully the expense and travel time involved before applying to them. (The department’s funding cap makes it unlikely that the department will be able to cover the entire expense of the conference.). It is particularly important that you consult your advisor before applying to international conferences.
- Not every student will follow the same pattern of conference presentations during his or her graduate career. Generally, though, graduate students should select regional or graduate-student sponsored conferences for their first conference presentation. For example, the regional MLA conferences (such as SAMLA and NEMLA) are good forums for a 2nd or 3rd-year graduate student. More advanced graduate students who are working on their dissertations should seek national forums (for instance, the American Literature Association, the Modernist Studies Association, the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and, of course, the MLA) to present their work.
- Finally, do not forget about conferences meeting in Atlanta and other nearby locations. In particular, if you are a beginning graduate student who wishes to simply see what an academic conference is like, these can be excellent opportunities. Students can apply to the Graduate School to pay for registration fees in these cases.
Support Students are eligible to apply to the Graduate School for funding to support “supplementary training”—which includes language training as well as summer training institutes such as the Yeats International Summer School (Sligo, Ireland), the School of Criticism and Theory (Cornell), and the Futures of American Studies Institute (Dartmouth). The forms and guidelines related to this funding are on the Graduate School website.
Students may apply for any amount of funding for these activities. In all cases, an application will require the signatures of the student's advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. However, the student has a $2500 career threshold for these funds. What that means is that if a student has requested $2500 or less for supplementary training over the course of his or her career, then an application will be granted after only a cursory review by the Graduate School. On the other hand, if a student seeks more than $2500, or if the student is making a second request that would place his or her funding over this threshold, then the application will be reviewed through a competitive, Graduate School-wide process.
Please see the Graduate School guidelines for application deadlines.
D. Supplementary Research Funds
Students are eligible to apply for supplementary research funds, usually to support travel to archives and libraries outside the Atlanta area. The forms and guidelines related to this funding are on the Graduate School website.
Students may apply for any amount of funding for these activities. In all cases, an application will require the signatures of the student’s advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. However, the student has a $2500 career threshold for these funds. What that means is that if a student has request $2500 or less over the course of his or her career, then an application will be granted after only a cursory review by the Graduate School. On the other hand, if a student seeks more than $2500, or if the student is making a second request that would place his or her funding over this threshold, then the application will be reviewed through a competitive, Graduate School-wide process.
Students should plan their research travel carefully, and involve their advisors in discussions about when to apply for research funding. As a student progresses, it is absolutely crucial that he or she also apply to outside sources for research funding. When successful, outside funding applications can be a tremendous boost to an emerging scholar's reputation; when unsuccessful, they help a student demonstrate to Emory that he or she has made a good faith effort to seek all available sources of funding.
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