Research Fellowship
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
Deadline: January 15, 2015

The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) is pleased to announce the fifth annual Gale Dissertation Research Fellowship, made possible by the generosity of publisher Gale, part of Cengage Learning, in support of dissertation research that makes substantial use of full-text digitized collections of 19th-century British magazines and newspapers. A prize of $1500 will be awarded, together with one year’s passworded subscription to selected digital collections from Gale, including 19th Century UK Periodicals and 19th Century British Library Newspapers.

PhD candidates working on any aspect of the periodical press in the long 19th-century may be interested in apply for this Fellowship sponsored by Gale/Cengage and the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. It should be of particular interest to students whose home libraries do not have good holdings in recently digitized material.

Purpose: The purpose of the Gale Dissertation Research Fellowship is two-fold:
(1) to support historical and literary research that deepens our understanding of the 19th-century British press in all its rich variety.
(2) to encourage the scholarly use of collections of full-text digital facsimiles of these primary sources in aid of that research.

Eligibility: Eligible for this award is any currently enrolled postgraduate student, in any academic discipline, who by the end of 2014 will have embarked on a doctoral dissertation or thesis that centrally involves investigation into one or more aspects of the British magazine and newspaper press of the 19th century. Preference will be given to projects that are interdisciplinary in approach, and that propose to use innovative methods of exploration that are uniquely possible with online collections. The digitized collections used in this research may include those created by any publishers or projects, whether commercial or non-commercial. Applicants who were unsuccessful in previous years are encouraged to apply again if they continue to meet the above criteria.

Applications: Applicants should send a c.v. and the names and contact information of two scholars who are familiar with the applicant and his or her dissertation project; it is expected that one of these will be the student’s dissertation director. The project description (approx. 500-800 words) should concisely explain the aims of the proposed research and the key importance of the role of full-text digitized collections in that research. Applications for the Gale Fellowship for dissertation research to be undertaken in 2015 must be submitted in electronic form and sent to galefellowship@rs4vp.org by January 15, 2015. Any queries about the application may be sent to the same address.
For more information please visit: http://rs4vp.org/gale-research-fellowship/