The Selva J. Raj Endowed International Dissertation Research Fellowship

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About

The Selva J. Raj Endowed International Dissertation Research Fellowship is designed to support AAR student members whose dissertation research requires them to travel outside of the country in which their university is located, and whose research is focused in areas associated with Prof. Raj’s research areas.
The fellowship comes with a grant of  $5,000 USD  and is intended to help candidates complete their doctoral degrees by offsetting costs of travel, lodging, and other dissertation research-related expenses.

The Selva J. Raj Endowed International Dissertation Research Fellowship honors the life and work of Professor Selva J. Raj, a prolific scholar, a gifted teacher, and a magnificent human being who passed away unexpectedly in 2008. A graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School and a longtime member of the American Academy of Religion, Selva held several prominent leadership positions in the Academy and at Albion College, where he was Chair of the Religious Studies Department as well as the recipient of an endowed professorship and several other honors, grants, and student awards. Selva’s excellent scholarly contributions, his tireless passion for promoting scholarly exchanges, and his extraordinary collegiality are warmly remembered in the Academy and beyond. His ground-breaking field research-based scholarship on ritual boundary-crossings in Indian popular Catholicism greatly advanced our understanding of Indian Christianity, Hindu-Christian Studies, religious syncretism in India, popular religiosity in India, as well as ritual studies, inter-religious dialogue, and religious pluralism. In awarding the Selva J. Raj Endowed International Dissertation Research Fellowship, priority will be given to graduate students working in one or more of these areas.

The AAR will make grants only if there is a sufficiently diverse and rich pool of applicants.

View past winners

Criteria

To be eligible to apply to the grant program, applicants must have:

• Current AAR Membership.
• Current status as a graduate student.
• Completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except the dissertation by the time of application.
• Proposed work in the area(s) identified as focus for the Selva J. Raj Research Fellowship.

Previous applicants may reapply for a grant; however, previous recipients of the International Dissertation Research Grants are not eligible.

Ineligible Expenses

• Tuition
• Donations
• Indirecet of Overhead Costs
• Travel to attend the AAR November Annual Meeting, including lodging, ground transportation, meals, or other related expenses

How to Apply

Applications and materials must be submitted through the AAR Grant Application Submission System.

Hard copies, emailed, late, or incomplete applications and/or materials cannot be accepted. Only the letter of support from the dissertation supervisor may be emailed.

Application Materials

• Completed Application Form
• Proposal Documents – Applicants should be prepared to upload the following required proposal documents, all of which must be compiled into a single document in either PDF or Word format
• a) Cover Page:
  • Applicant name
  • Applicant’s institutional affiliation
  • Project title
  • Name of Dissertation Supervisor
• b) Project Description: a description (no more than 3 pages) of the research project and how support for on-site research is critical for the completion of the dissertation
• c) Budget and Timeline:
  • Completed budget template (us the template provided)
  • 1-2 page description of the research expenses with itemized costs
  • Project Timeline – 1-2 pages
• Current CV: No more than 2 pages
• Signed Consent: Signed consent that the project information (including applicant/grantee name, project title, project abstract, and portions of the narrative report) may be used on the AAR website or in related AAR publications. There is no required formatting, but the signed consent must be included as a separate document/page.
• Letter of Support: a letter of support from the applicant’s dissertation supervisor
  Please note: Dissertation supervisors must send letters of support electronically to grants@aarweb.org.
  To be eligible for consideration, the letter of support must be received by the application deadline.Additional material cannot be accepted.

Selection Process

All eligible grant proposals will be reviewed and assessed by the AAR Student Awards Jury using the following criteria:

• Clarity and focus of the research to be pursued
• Adequacy of the overall work plan, including goals, objectives, and time frame for the completion of the research

Application Status Notification

• Notification of application status will typically be sent to the applicant via email by early January.

Grant Award Period

• For awarded projects, research expenses may be undertaken anytime within the calendar year of the award year.
• The grant period starts on January 1 and ends on December 31. Successful applicants will have the entire calendar year to complete the grant funded activities.

Grant Winner Expectations

• Grant recipients must maintain their AAR membership throughout the grant period.
• For awarded projects, grant funds will be made payable to the applicant/grantee.
  Note: grant funds cannot be remitted to a grantee’s institution or someone other than the individual grantee.
• The grant payment will be made in the form of an electronic funds transfer.
  Grantees need to have a bank account that accepts wire transfers in order to receive the grant.
• For awarded projects, grant funds will be disbursed until June 30 of the award year.
  The required forms must be submitted to AAR Accounting by May 31.
• The AAR will issue the grant recipient a Form 1099 in the amount of the grant for income tax use. The grant recipient will be responsible for any applicable income taxes due on the grant revenue.
• A final report is due within 30 days of completion of the grant. By January 31 of the following calendar year, the grant recipient must submit the required grant reports.

Grant Reports

Grant recipients must submit the following reports by January 31 of the following calendar year:

• A written report of their research, including a budget narrative.

Questions

For any questions, please send an email to grants@aarweb.org.