The Mercurians Travel Grants 2011 in the History of Communication Technologies

The Mercurians, a Special Interest Group of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), is offering a travel grant of US$1,000 to defray the cost of travel and housing to use a research collection.

The Mercurians began meeting in 1986 for the purpose of generating networks between people who share work and interests in the history of communication technologies, defining the field broadly. Our activities include publishing a semi-annual newsletter, Antenna, meeting during annual SHOT conferences, organizing paper sessions for SHOT meetings, and pursuing contacts between meetings via our Google Groups list. The newsletter serves both as a clearing house for readers and an informal forum for their ideas.

We have added this new initiative to encourage and reward high-caliber research in the history of communication technologies. One of the Mercurians’ missions is to encourage scholarship in the history of communication technologies. There is no travel grant program (either within or outside SHOT) that we are aware of dedicated to supporting scholarship on the history of communication technologies. While the history of communication technology literature is vast and always growing, the quality of the research effort or resulting publication too often falls short of scholarly expectations.

The travel grant is awarded in alternating years. We anticipate presenting the first travel grant during the SHOT annual meeting November 3-6, 2011, in Cleveland.

Eligibility
The grant is intended for and limited to junior scholars meaning either current graduate students or recent postgraduates (no more than three years beyond the terminal degree in their field).

Requirements and Application
Only travel to an appropriate archival collection to carry out research on an aspect of the history of communication technology, broadly defined, will be supported. The archive can be open to the public, private, or even closed, provided that necessary permissions have been obtained from the archive.

Complete the application form (available at: http://www.mercurians.org/grant-form.doc) and e-mail it and a curriculum vitae (no longer than 3 pages) as attachments to the Mercurians c/o abutrica@earthlink.net Your curriculum vitae should include pertinent publications, fellowships, or accomplishments relevant to your proposed research, and professional societies and affiliations.

The deadline for submitting an application for the inaugural grant is August 31, 2011.

For further information or questions, please contact Andrew Butrica at abutrica@earthlink.net

Mercurians
www.mercurians.org