SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Peter Stoicheff
• April 6, 2006

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
  of Canada sshrc.ca
• Funded by Industry Canada
• Its purpose is to fund research in the Social
  Sciences, Humanities and, recently, Fine Arts

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• There are two other research funding councils
• NSERC
• CIHR
• The three (SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR) are called the
  Tricouncils

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Many SSHRC programs for faculty researchers
• Three programs for graduate students under the
  Canada Graduate Scholarships program
• Doctoral Scholarships (35K/year for 3 years)
• Doctoral Fellowships (20K/year for 4 years)
• Masters Scholarships (17.5K for 1 year)

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Eligibility you must
• be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada
• be applying for support to pursue your first PhD
  (or equivalent)
• be pursuing doctoral studies (or a combined
  MA/PhD) in the social sciences and humanities

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Eligibility you must
• Not be applying in the same year to NSERC or CIHR
• Not already have received a Doctoral award from
  any of the Tricouncils
• Not be under any SSHRC sanction for financial or
  research misconduct

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• 3 parts to the application
• Transcripts
• 2 letters of reference
• Program of Research description

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Application Procedure
• Go to sshrc.ca website for printable forms
• Arrange for transcripts
• Arrange for 2 letters of reference
• Write Program of Research

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Application Procedure
• Submit transcripts and Program of Research to
  your home department
• 2 letters of reference will be sent by referees
  to your home department
• All this will be done well ahead of SSHRCs
  November 15th deadline because

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Application Procedure
• Your home department will rank you among all
  those being submitted from your department
• That ranking, and the applications, will be sent
  to the College of Graduate Studies and Research
  which will
• Rank all the applications from the whole
  university into 2 categories

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Application Procedure
• Those that will be sent on to Ottawa
• Those that wont

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Application Procedure
• There is a formula that determines how many the
  College of Graduate Studies and Research is
  allowed to send to Ottawa

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Application Procedure
• SSHRCs head office in Ottawa will send each
  application it receives from every university to
  one of 4 committees (based on your choice)
• Each committee will rank the applications it
  receives
• Those rankings will go back to SSHRC
• SSHRC will tell applicants the results in
  mid-April

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Transcripts nothing much to say
• 2 Letters of Reference
• Ask referees if they can write strong letters
• Ask someone who knows your work
• If youre a 1st-year Ph.D. student, ask your M.A.
  supervisor

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Program of Research
• Lots to say
• Only 2 pages
• Youre writing for a non-discipline-specific
  committee
• Theyre reading tons of applications
• So make it understandable by

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Program of Research
• Not using jargon
• Recalling youre not writing for a specialist
• Imagining youre writing for a student colleague
  whos not in your department
• Recalling youre not writing for a journal in
  your area or for a prof in your department

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Program of Research
• Be concrete and practical
• Be feasible i.e. it is a do-able project in the
  amount of time remaining
• Sound as if you know what youre doing not
  speculative but convinced of your project
• Understand why it contributes to knowledge in the
  area

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Program of Research
• Show you know the field, and the literature in it
• Show you know where you fit in the field (i.e.
  youre not doing something already done)
• Show you are capable of doing what you propose
  (the methodology is sound)
• Show why you want to do it at the particular
  institution

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Program of Research
• Show connections between your proposed Doctoral
  work and what youve done before
• Show any conceivable connections between what you
  propose to do and the larger, non-academic
  community (that can be a tough one, but let me
  explain )

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Program of Research
• Remember to use correct grammar and punctuation
• Get someone else to read it
• Work closely with your supervisor
• Assume you will go through at least 5 drafts

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Other suggestions
• Assume it will take you more than one kick at the
  can
• Use all of the available 2 pages of the Program
  of Research
• Follow SSHRCs rules about font size and margins
  to the letter you will otherwise be
  disqualified

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SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships Workshop

• Other suggestions
• Assume the committee is looking for reasons NOT
  to give you the award because it reads many good,
  worthy ones
• Therefore, dont give them any reason!