Grants and Awards
In the months before the annual conference, the SAA accepts applications for the following awards:
- Conference travel grants for dissertation-level graduate students.
- Conference travel grants for independent scholars and contingent faculty.
- The J. Leeds Barroll Dissertation Prize.
- The SAA Shakespeare Publics Award.
- The SAA Innovative Article Award.
For application eligibility, procedures, and deadlines, see the tabs below.
Travel Grants
Overview
Each year, the SAA awards conference travel grants for contingent faculty and independent scholars, and for graduate students at the dissertation stage. Awardees receive $400 in travel support and remission of the conference registration fee. One may not receive travel grants more than twice in each category.
Applicants must be SAA members in good standing; must participate in the meeting program (by speaking in a panel, leading a seminar or workshop, or enrolling in a seminar or workshop), and must attend the full conference.
Application portals for the 2021 Travel Grants will open on 1 October 2020. The deadline is 1 November 2020.
Travel Grants for Contingents and Independents
Candidates include contingent academics—including adjunct and limited-term faculty, lecturers, instructors, and independent research scholars—who do not have access to institutional travel funding. Applicants for the Graduate-Student Travel Grants are not eligible to apply for the Contingent Faculty Travel Grants.
Each application is comprised of two parts:
A brief curriculum vitae that documents employment history.
A letter, not to exceed 400 words, that states the conference role the applicant will undertake, describes how participation will advance the applicant’s research, and confirms that the applicant does not have access to institutional support for conference travel. You may also explain your circumstances if your status requires it.
Graduate-Student Travel Grants
Applicants must provide proof for their ABD status. The SAA will contact your dissertation advisor to verify your status and to state your department’s funding policy and practice. Applicants for the Contingent Faculty Travel Grants are not eligible to apply for the Graduate-Student Travel Grants.
Each application is comprised of two parts:
A brief curriculum vitae.
A letter, not to exceed 400 words, that describes the student’s progress towards the degree, states the conference role the applicant will undertake, and describes how participation relates to the student’s dissertation in process. You may also explain your circumstances if your status requires it.
Deadline: 1 November 2020.
J. Leeds Barroll Dissertation Prize
The J. Leeds Barroll Dissertation Prize recognizes doctoral work with a significant Shakespeare component.
Dissertations submitted for the 2021 prize must have been approved between 1 September 2019 and 1 September 2020. Applicants must be SAA members in good standing.
Applications are comprised of three parts:
- A completed online form.
- An unsigned, anonymous cover letter of no more than two pages, providing an abstract of the dissertation, giving context for the submitted writing sample (see below).
- Twenty pages (maximum) from the introduction to the dissertation or from any chapter of the applicant’s choice. (The submission need not comprise a complete chapter.) Page headers must be purged of author names, and notes should not reveal author identity or affiliation.
The cover letter and writing sample should be in twelve-point Times Roman font, double-spaced, and with standard (one-inch) margins.
Submissions must be thoroughly anonymized, with no names or affiliations in the page headers and no author identities betrayed in notes or in acknowledgments. Submissions that have been incompletely anonymized will not be considered.
A short list of candidates will be asked to submit copies of their full dissertations for further review. Application materials are reviewed by a committee headed by a member of the SAA’s Board of Trustees.
The Dissertation Prize is presented at the SAA’s Annual Luncheon each year.
The deadline for applications is 1 October 2020.
SAA Shakespeare Publics Award
This award recognizes pioneering and/or culturally significant efforts to foster, engage, support and sustain broad and diverse Shakespeare publics through teaching, scholarship, performance and/or activism.
SAA members may apply directly or nominate other members of the Association. In the case of collaborative projects, at least one of the primary collaborators must be a SAA member in good standing.
Applications are comprised of three parts:
- An online form.
- A description of the project (maximum 500 words) that includes discussion of its objectives, its significance, and the diverse publics it has engaged.
- Documentation that demonstrates the importance, impact, and reach of the nominated project in terms best suited to its domain.
The deadline for applications is 1 November 2020 for award at the 2021 SAA meeting.
Selection shall be made by an ad hoc committee of three, whose chair is chosen annually by the Trustees of the SAA.
SAA Innovative Article Award
This award recognizes an outstanding scholarly article that leads the field of Shakespeare studies in new directions through creative and innovative scholarly approaches and methods. Eligible articles must be published in an online or print journal or anthology during the calendar year two years before the SAA meeting at which the award is presented, i.e. the prize in 2021 would be awarded to an article appearing in 2019. Article author(s) must be SAA member(s) in good standing.
SAA members, including the Trustees and members of the selection committee, may nominate their own work or that of others, with the stipulation that an author may nominate no more than one work of their own and that editors of journals or collections may nominate no more than one article per volume. Nominators must complete a nomination form and submit the article to SAA.
The deadline for nominations is 1 November 2020 for award at the 2021 SAA meeting.
Residential Fellowships
The SAA is pleased to acknowledge two fellowship partners: the Huntington Library and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Each welcomes an inaugural SAA fellow with a $3,000 award for a one-month residency between June 2020 and June 2021.
The Annual SAA/Huntington Fellowship
Applicants must be SAA members in good standing.
Each application is comprised of three parts:
- A curriculum vitae of no more than three pages.
- The names and contact information for two referees.
- A project proposal not to exceed 1,500 words. The proposal should include, in approximately 1,000 words, a description of the project and its significance, as well as, in approximately 500 words, a description of the specific Huntington materials to be consulted and an outline of the plan of work for the fellowship period.
Application materials should be submitted to the SAA directly.
The Huntington Library offers short-term fellowships for residencies of one, two, and three months. Applicants for the SAA one-month fellowship are not prohibited from applying to the Huntington directly for additional months or for other library fellowships.
Deadline: 1 November 2019.
The Annual SAA/Folger Fellowship
Applicants must be SAA members in good standing and must hold terminal degrees in their field.
Each application is comprised of five parts:
- A curriculum vitae of no more than two pages.
- The names and contact information for two referees.
- A 250-word abstract of the proposed project.
- A 1,000-word description of the project that puts particular emphasis on the intended use of Folger collections.
A one- to two-page list of Folger primary sources, rare materials, or digital assets to be consulted.
Application materials should be submitted to the Folger directly.
Deadline: 1 January 2020.
