The Student Awards Committee disburses funds to support graduate students in their research-related activities and participation in professional conferences, with the goal being to promote student research accomplishments, as shown ultimately in publication. Research-related activities refer to the execution of research to acquire data sets or software, to conduct interviews or surveys, or to support travel to collections, etc. Research-related activities also include participation in summer workshops or seminars designed to increase skills needed for research, ranging from specialized instruction in research methods (e.g. summer workshops offered by ICPSR) to in-depth instruction in a substantive topic for research (e.g. participation in an NEH summer seminar). Participation in professional conferences refers to presentation of a research paper at a scholarly conference, clearly related to one’s professional development as a sociologist. The participating student must be either the sole author of the conference paper or the first author if the paper is co-authored.
Available funds are in short supply. Of the total allotment, over half will be reserved for support of research-related activities. The remaining amount will be reserved for supporting student participation in professional conferences. Half of this amount will be used to support student participation at the ASA meetings. The balance will be used to support student participation at other conferences, such as annual meetings of regional sociological societies or conferences within a student’s research specialty. Students presenting a paper at a professional conference that occurs either just before or just after the ASA meetings who are also presenting a paper at the ASA meetings will be allowed a small additional amount to help defray the expenses of attending both conferences.
Awards will typically be made on a first-come-first-serve basis. However, students may receive no more than two travel-to-conference grants in any one academic year and, if forced to decide between equally qualified applications for support, preference may be given to applicants who have not received a grant in the past year.
Students applying for assistance from the department are expected to apply for assistance from other sources from within or outside the university. Students who receive funds from multiple sources may only be reimbursed up to the total costs of the conference expenses, as authorized by the university.
Details of policies for awarding student funds in support of paper presentations at professional meetings and for research-related activities can be found on section 3.7 (Research and Travel Support) of the Graduate Program Handbook.