Modified Bursary protocol

Introduction

ADHO has a scheme for the award of bursaries in relation to its annual Digital Humanities conference.

As part of its commitment to promote the development and application of appropriate digital methods in humanities scholarship, each year ADHO awards up to TEN bursaries to students and young scholars who are members of an ADHO constituent organisation and who have papers or posters accepted for presentation at the annual Digital Humanities international conference. Applications for a bursary must be made in accordance with the Awards Procedure specified below. Because paper/poster acceptance is a pre-requisite, the ADHO Awards Committee can consider applications only after the Programme Committee has decided which papers are to be accepted. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application as soon as possible thereafter.

Purpose

The purpose of the bursary scheme is to assist students and young scholars to attend the annual Digital Humanities conferences, to encourage them to make a contribution to scholarship in the digital humanities, and to promote the involvement of outstanding young scholars in the application of information and communications technologies in humanities research.

Terms and eligibility

ADHO has attached the following conditions to the award of its annual conference bursaries:

 

  • The bursaries are intended to help defray expenses incurred in attending the conference such as the conference fee, airline/train fare, lodging, and meals paid by the recipient. ADHO does not require itemized accounting of costs, but recipients should keep documentation of their expenses nevertheless if the money might otherwise be subject to taxes.
  • Awards will be made only to paid-up subscribers to Literary and Linguistic Computing, the official print journal of ADHO. Subscription to the journal is the means by which someone becomes a member of one of the ADHO constituent organisations. There is a special rate for student subscribers. Applicants will be asked to quote their LLC subscription number in their application, and this will be checked by the Chair of the Bursary Awards Panel.
  • To be eligible for an award, an applicant must be either a 'student' or a 'young scholar'. To qualify as a 'student', an applicant must be able to supply evidence of registration for full- or part-time study at a recognized institution of higher education. To qualify as a 'young scholar', applicants must either (i) provide proof that they will be aged 30 years or less at the start of the conference; or (ii) explain clearly, with relevant substantiating evidence, why the Bursary Awards Panel should consider them to be 'young scholars', for example that they began their academic careers late, and have not yet had the opportunity to establish themselves in their discipline.
  • A participant in a multi-author paper or poster is eligible for an award, but evidence must be presented that s/he is contributing substantially to the paper/poster. If two or more co-authors are qualified, they may make a joint application and share the award.

Awards will be made only where sufficient information has been submitted to enable the Bursary Awards Panel to come to a confident decision. It is therefore in the interests of applicants to submit as full information as possible. Supporting documentation, e.g. proof of date of birth, is not required at the time of the application. However, the successful applicants may be required to provide copies of relevant documents when their awards are notified to them.

Awards procedure

  • The awards will be decided by a Bursary Awards Panel appointed by the ADHO Standing Committee on Awards (SCA). The panel will be chaired by a member of the SCA, and will normally include the other SCA members, the ADHO Treasurer and at least two members of the Programme Committee of the conference for which the bursary applications have been made. It may also be of practical benefit to include the Local Organiser or her/his representative as a non-voting member of the panel.
  • The decisions of the Bursary Awards Panel will be final.
  • Applications will be accepted from the beginning of the abstract submission period until shortly after acceptance notices have been sent, using an application form created and maintained by the SCA on the digitalhumanities.org website.
  • The Bursary Awards Panel will consider all bursary applicants whose papers or posters have been accepted by the Programme Committee of the conference.
  • Successful applicants will be notified as soon as possible after the awards are decided.
  • Award selection will be made based upon evaluation of the information from the application form and the applicant's session proposal, keeping in mind the purposes of the award expressed above. For this purpose, the Program Committee Chair or Local Organizer will give the review committee members access to accepted proposals once the selections have been finalized.
  • Applicants may be asked to provide any additional documentation necessary to support their application or prove eligibility, e.g. date of birth, student status, LLC subscription, etc.
  • The bursaries, in the form of a certificate and a cheque, will normally be presented at the Conference Dinner, which award winners will be invited to attend, free of charge, as guests of honour of ADHO.
  • Recipients will be asked to specify whether they wish to receive their award by cheque or by money transfer, and whether the payment is to go to them as individuals or to the institution where they are students or are employed.

Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the Chair of the ADHO Standing Committee on Awards:

  • to form the Bursary Awards Panel and appoint its chair in good time before the abstract submission deadline for the conference and to counsel with them as necessary in performing their duties outlined herein.

  • to maintain the application form, database, mailing list, and other on-going infrastructure on digitalhumanities.org .

It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Bursary Awards Panel:

  • to ensure that applicants are notified of the progress of the awards process, including confirmation of receipt of their application, and prompt notice of the outcome.
  • to correspond with the bursary winners to ensure they provide any additional information that may be required, and to ensure they understand the terms of the award, including attendance at the Conference Dinner as guests of honour of ADHO.
  • to notify the names and details of the bursary winners to the Local Organiser and the ADHO Treasurer in good time for arrangements to be made for their attendance at the Conference Dinner, and for the appropriate payment for this to be made to the Local Organiser by the ADHO Treasurer.
  • to arrange for suitable certificates of award to be prepared ready for presentation at the Conference Dinner.

It is the responsibility of the Program Committee Chair:

 

  • to provide access for review committee members to view accepted proposals once the selections have been finalized.

It is the responsibility of the Local Organiser:

 

  • to ensure that arrangements are made for the attendance of the Bursary winners at the Conference Dinner, and for the Bursaries to be presented at the appropriate time during the dinner.

It is the responsiblity of the ADHO Treasurer, in advance of the conference, to make the appropriate arrangements for each of the bursaries to be paid.

Resp: Chuck Bush.
Date: revised 22 June 2008
Status: Revisions adopted by ADHO Steering Committee at meetings on 20/22 June 2009, and ratified by the ACH Council and the ALLC Committee on 21 June 2009.

 

-- Main.ChuckBush - 22 Jun 2009