2008 Tinker Grantee Narratives
The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center is pleased to announce the 2009 competition for The Tinker Field Research Grant. This travel grant is open to MA and Doctoral Students attending Stony Brook University in any field of Latin American and Iberian Studies. The Tinker program encourages preliminary travel and exploratory fieldwork by graduate students who are in the process of defining their future research and/or Ph.D. proposals. Supported by a grant from the Tinker Foundation (New York), it is being matched by Stony Brook University contributions from a range of programs and departments interested in the advancement of new global scholarship. LACS expects to award 15-20 travel awards, each worth in the range of $1,000-1,750 each, depending on the destination. LACS will be accepting applications until March 2, 2009, for travel --of at least four weeks duration-- during the Summer (or Fall) of 2009.

ELIGIBILITY AND REQUIREMENTS:

The Tinker Grant covers primarily TRAVEL COSTS (airfare and associated travel costs with some per diem expenses covered based on merit of request.) for the preliminary fieldwork experience, including the possibility of in-country travel for multi-sited research. Graduate students in good standing from any discipline or program are welcome to apply--be they social scientists or humanists, natural scientists or professional MA students with an international dimension to their work. “Field-work” is broadly defined: it can be traditional archival or data-collection, or it can involve interviews, surveys, textual analysis or it may involve immersion with the subject, groups, prospective colleagues, cultural institution, site or environment of future research and writing. Tinker funding is available only for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (excluding Puerto Rico) and Spain or Portugal. (Students working on Puerto Rico, Belize, Indigenous languages, Latinos in the U.S., or Anglophone or Francophone Caribbean are unfortunately not eligible.) If travel is at least four weeks, it can also occur during the December-January academic break, with approval from LACS.

Priority will be given to students at the defining moment of their research, prior to proposal writing, major grant funding, previous fieldwork and actual dissertation writing. LACS will favor students who have not had prior opportunities to travel to their prospective research sites, but funding is possible for students to travel to their home countries. Students are eligible for only one Tinker grant per graduate career. Interdisciplinary projects are encouraged. There are no nationality restrictions.

Students must write and submit a brief and exact report, along with travel receipts, on their field experience due by September 15, 2009, and will participate in an interdisciplinary forum on fieldwork in the Fall semester. LACS expects this program to run for three rounds, 2008, 2009, and 2010. Eligible Proposals will be judged by an interdisciplinary LACS faculty committee, with funding results announced by April 1^st.
STONY BROOK-TINKER APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

The following materials must be included in all fellowship application packets:

• A completed application form (see form below)
• A short cover letter stating the relevance to your academic and career goals.
• Two letters of recommendation from faculty members who you work with.
• A current Stony Brook University academic transcript.
• A curriculum vitae that also indicates relevant language competency.
• A proposal (not to exceed four single spaced pages) that clearly specifies the relevant literature on the topic; the research objectives, design and methods; the duration and agenda of activities; the names of on-site institutions with which you may affiliate.
• A timetable and budget (with estimated travel expenses) for the proposed project (see form below).