[funding opportunities] Modern Humanities Research Association

Conference Grant Fund

About the award. The Fund exists to support conferences or colloquia within the field of medieval and modern European languages and literatures, including English.

Conditions. To be eligible, the conference must be held in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland and must be organised by academics based at UK or Irish institutions. Awards will not be made to individuals to attend conferences, but to the organizers of conferences to provide assistance with organizational support and/or the travel and subsistence costs of certain participants, including postgraduate students.

Amount of funding available. In 2017, MHRA intends to make up to ten grants of up to £1500 each.

Next round. In 2017 there will be two application rounds, round A and round B, with up to five grants awarded in each:

• Round A covers conferences to be held in the first half of AY 2017/18 (specifically, from 1 August 2017 to 31 January 2018). The application deadline is 31 January 2017, and decisions are expected by mid-March.
• Round B covers conferences to be held in the second half of AY 2017/18 (specifically, from 1 February 2018 to 31 July 2018). The application deadline is 30 June 2017, and decisions are expected by mid-August.

Application form. Please click here to download the application form (in Microsoft Word format), which also contains detailed notes on the rules and process.

Enquiries. The Fund is administered by Dr Tyler Fisher, MHRA’s Conference Grants Officer, who will be happy to assist potential applicants who have questions. Email: funding@mhra.org.uk

Past winners. In 2016 Round A, the following conferences and organisers were successful:

• ‘Overstepping the Boundaries / Transgresser les limites: 21st-Century Women’s Writing in French’, 28-29 October 2016 (Kate Averis)
• ‘Convegno internazionale “Gianni Celati: Traduzione, tradizione, riscrittura” | International Conference “Gianni Celati: Translation, Tradition, Rewriting”’, 22-24 September 2016 (Mark Chu)
• ‘Animals in Visual Hispanism: An International Colloquium’, 9 September 2016 (Jo Evans)
• ‘James McLagan (1728-1805) and His Manuscripts’, 9 September 2016 (Sìm Innes)
• ‘Pacifist and Anti-Militarist Writing in German, 1892-1929: From Bertha von Sutther to Erich Maria Remarque’, 22-23 September 2016 (Andreas Kramer)

And in 2016 Round B:

• ‘Legacies of Conquest: Transnational Perspectives on the Conquest and Colonisation of Latin America’, 11-12 April 2017 (Rodrigo Cacho)
• ‘From Sarmatia to Mare Nostrum: Borderland Spaces in German-Language Literature and Other Media’, 27-28 April 2017 (Sabine Egger)
• ‘Literary Littorals: Slavery, Emancipation, Africa and the Spanish Empire’, 6-7 April 2017 (Brad Epps)
• ‘Transnational Portuguese Women Artists’, 15-17 March 2017 (Claudia Pazos-Alonso)
• ‘Latin Enlightenment: Knowledge, Identities, and Innovation’, 20 April 2017 (Floris Verhaart)

Research Associateships

About the award. MHRA Research Associateships are designed to hasten the completion of research projects of special importance through the provision of part-time research assistance.

Conditions. An award will be made solely for the employment of a researcher, normally post-doctoral, to be selected and appointed by the project in consultation with the Association, and bearing the title of ‘MHRA Research Associate’. Since another important aim of the awards is to provide an interim academic position to younger scholars who have not yet obtained a permanent academic post, the appointment should not exclude a limited amount of remunerated teaching in the host institution, or other approved work. The final details of the contract will be agreed between the MHRA and the institution concerned.

Amount of funding available. In AY 2017-18 the Association intends to make up to three awards of £23,000.

Next round. Applications for AY 2017-18 (for Associateships with a start date on or after 1 October 2017) are now open. Applications should be sent by email to funding@mhra.org.uk by 28 February 2017. For full details of the application process, see this document.

Enquiries. For further information, please contact the Research Associateships Officer, Professor Chloe Paver, at C.Paver@exeter.ac.uk.

Past winners. In the 2016-17 round:

• Dr Kalterina Latifi was appointed Research Associate to the Digital Critical Edition of Middle-Period Works by Arthur Schnitzler at University College London.
• Dr Sara Slinn was appointed Research Associate to the Collected Letters of Robert Southey project at the University of Nottingham.
• Dr Kathryn Simpson was appointed Research Associate to the project ‘David Livingstone’s Missionary Travels” at Queen’s University Belfast.

Research Scholarship in the Modern European Languages

About the award. This scheme is designed to give support to scholars in their early postdoctoral phase who are revising their theses for publication, but who have not yet obtained a full-time academic post.

Conditions. Applicants must have completed a doctorate in the field of Modern European Languages, excluding English, and must have an affiliation to a UK university department. Awards are for one year only, and recipients will be expected to produce, within 12 months of taking up the award, a manuscript of publishable quality or a minimum of three articles of publishable quality. The support of the MHRA will be acknowledged in the publication(s) produced on the basis of the work carried out during the period of the award.

Amount of funding available. In AY 2016-17, two awards of £11,500 each were made.

Next round. Decisions are made each year in April or May, for grants which begin in October. Applications for AY 2017-18 are now open, with a closing date of Friday 7 April. Please first see this document of details on how to apply. Applications should then be made by completing this application form and emailing the result to funding@mhra.org.uk.

Enquiries. For further information, please contact the Research Scholarship Officer, Dr Anne Holloway, at a.holloway@qub.ac.uk.

Past winners. In AY 2016-17, two awards were made. Dr Ina Linge (German and Dutch, University of Cambridge) is completing a monograph on Performing Queer Identities in German Sexological and Psychoanalytic Life Writings, which includes among other things the Lili Elbe case, recently depicted on film in The Danish Girl (2016), for Temple University Press. Dr Claudia Tardelli-Terry (Italian, University of Cambridge) will produce a new critical edition of Francesco da Buti’s commentary on Dante to appear with Salerno Editrice (Rome).

In AY 2015-16, Dr Alicia Spencer-Hall (Queen Mary University of London) was awarded a grant to complete Medieval Saints and Modern Screens: Divine Visions as Cinematic Experience (Amsterdam University Press), and Dr Alessia Ronchetti (University of Cambridge) for La donna e mobile? On authority and Female mobility in Bocaccio and Chaucer.