Early Career Historians

ECH Grants: Research trips and/or training events

Funding for research trips to archives and libraries or to undertake fieldwork or training is available from many sources.  Obtaining one or more of these small grants as a PhD student lays excellent groundwork for making more substantial grant applications as a postdoctoral researcher.  This indicative list will give you an idea of where to begin looking for funding options:

 

ECH Presenting Work – What happens in a viva?

A PhD viva is a unique opportunity to discuss your research with two experts. They will have read every word of your thesis and all their attention will be on you and your work.  Though any examination is nerve-racking, you should try to enjoy the viva; this detailed, thoughtful consideration of your work does not happen very often.

In contrast to most other European countries, UK vivas are rarely public events. There is no audience and very few people are in the room, often just the candidate and the two examiners one internal to your university and one from outside. In some universities another academic, who is not involved in examining the thesis, chairs the viva; in others the supervisor may be present with the candidate’s consent. Find out exactly what your university’s regulations for the conduct of viva voce examinations are.  The details varies quite widely, so make sure that you have the right information for your institution.

When preparing for a viva, remember that you are the expert.  Nobody else knows as much about your thesis as you do; the examiners will genuinely be interested in discussing your research and its wider implications.  Be prepared to explain how you came to this particular topic and why it merits dedicating three years of your life to it.  Step back from the detail of the thesis to think of its general importance.  How does it contribute to the historiography?  Why should historians outside the immediate field be interested in it?

A few days before the viva, think about how you will explain your thesis to the examiners. You should practise summarizing it; prepare both a five-minute explanation of the thesis and a two-minute one.  Identify what you think is most important and original about it and explain how the thesis relates to the published literature on the topic.

It’s also worth thinking carefully about method.  Why have you approached the topic in this particular way? Think about how to justify and explain your approach. Be prepared to answer a critique. Remember that, if you’re pushed on a particular point, you can bring the question back to the thesis by, for example, accepting that you didn’t do ‘x’ but pointing out that you did do ‘y’.

Don’t leave preparing for the viva to the last minute. You must read through your thesis carefully beforehand but do this at least 48 hours (and preferably a week) before the examination date so as to give yourself some distance from the thesis. This will help you to convey the overall shape and purpose to the examiners rather than simply the research detail.

During the viva itself, listen carefully to the examiners. Be polite and don’t worry if you have to ask for a question to be clarified or if you appear nervous. The examiners will be expecting this and suggestions and advice given by your examiners will be invaluable and should try to put you at your ease. Think before replying to the questions and give considered responses.  Look to develop a dialogue with the examiners, a probing but rewarding discussion on your work to date.  And remember that any piece of work benefits from this kind of review. If you are hoping to publish the thesis then the suggestions and advice offered by your examiners will be invaluable.

Return to main Presenting Work page

 

 

 

ECH – Open Access

All historians should want their work to be as accessible as possible – and so they ought to support ‘open access’ (i.e. free access to their work posted on the web), wherever possible.  But there are limits to what is possible without sacrificing academic freedom and quality.  For example, publication doesn’t come free – there are costs involved in editing your work and mounting it on the web.  Furthermore, as an author you have certain moral rights to have work properly used, reproduced and attributed, which not all forms of ‘open access’ respect.  What follows is a very rough guide to a complicated and ever-changing landscape.

 Manuscripts

You have the right to do whatever you want with your own manuscripts (drafts of papers, conference presentations, etc.), so long as you’re not using content that belongs to other people (e.g. images, music, major portions of copyright works).   Why not post them on your own website or a site such as academia.edu?  But you will need to consider what rights over your own content you wish to give to others.  You’ll need to indicate the terms on which you are posting.  If you say ‘all rights reserved’, then you are of course permitting others to read your work, but not to use it in any other way.  If you are happy for others to use your work – for example, to copy and distribute it – Creative Commons has designed a range of licences that you can use to indicate exactly what uses you are happy to permit (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/).  The most popular of these licences among humanities scholars tends to be CC  BY-NC ND.  This allows others to copy your work in full and distribute it intact, but not to alter it or to combine it with their other work in ways that make it difficult to distinguish yours from theirs, and not to make use of it commercially.  Just add the relevant CC logo to your paper when you upload it to show under what terms you are making it available.

 Dissertations

This is a particularly vexing subject.  Most universities are now developing institutional policies for dissertations produced by their own students, but these vary widely.  All universities require you to deposit your dissertation in their libraries (or, increasingly, their online repositories), but many offer ‘embargoes’ that prevent others from accessing your work without your permission for a period of 2-6 years or longer. This is because, in our discipline, dissertations do not (as they often do in the sciences) bring together work that has been published elsewhere in article form, and they are often seen only as rough drafts for a book that will eventually be published.  It’s not clear whether the availability of your dissertation will interfere with your ability to publish a book based on it.  So the embargo gives you some control over the dissemination of your work until it is published.  The American Historical Association encourages universities to permit embargoes of up to 6 years (see http://blog.historians.org/2013/07/american-historical-association-statement-on-policies-regarding-the-embargoing-of-completed-history-phd-dissertations/).  You should find out for yourself what is your own institution’s policy.

 Journal articles

This is the area where open access has extended furthest (reflecting the centrality of the journal article in the sciences, where the open access movement began, and upon which many policies are based).  Funding bodies are now often mandating open access – that is, if they pay for your research, and you publish it in the form of a journal article, you must make it open access according to certain prescribed conditions.  So your approach to your own journal articles will depend on who (if anyone) has paid for you to do your research.  The RHS has prepared information sheets explaining the open-access conditions for those funded by the research councils (e.g. AHRC, ESRC) – which are particularly stringent – and those employed on teaching and research contracts by universities who are eligible for submission to the REF.    A good general rule of thumb – you don’t need to pay an ‘Article Processing Charge’ (APC) or any other publication fee in order to ensure ‘open access’ for your article.  Any publisher that insists on payment without offering free open-access options merits the closest scrutiny.

 Books

There are at present no mandates from any UK funders of historical research (except for the Wellcome Trust who fund research in the history of medicine) requiring open access for work published in book form, including chapters in collections of essays.  (Some mandates refer to ‘conference proceedings’, but this refers to journal-like forms of publication common in the sciences and does not cover collections of essays published as books, even if they derive from conferences.)  In other words, you are unlikely to be required to put your work published in book form on open access anytime soon – and certainly not for the next REF (c. 2020).  Because publication of books is a good deal more expensive than publication of articles, there are formidable barriers to providing open access for books in ways that do not discriminate against un- or under-funded historians (i.e. most of us!).  Nevertheless, there are some interesting experiments in open-access publishing for monographs and if you have an opportunity to take part in such experiments, without paying a publication fee, we encourage you to do so.  We’re happy to provide informal advice on this subject to people who email us about specific schemes.

Return to main ECH Open Access page

 

 

EHC Presenting work: Intervening in academic discussion

Questions after a seminar or conference paper provide an important opportunity to participate in academic debate. This can be nerve-racking. Some university cultures have a robust style of questioning, which can lead to a critique, for example from the panel chair, to which you are expected to reply. In others, questions are much longer than the repartee style of question and answer than is common in Britain. Try to find out as much as you can in advance about what to expect.

It is also worth thinking about the kind of questions that you might be asked. Don’t plan this out in too much detail—you will have to improvise at least some of your answers—but try to identify some ‘big’ questions about your work and plan a response. These questions can be hard, particularly when compared to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of doctoral work.  Historians often ask about the nature and limits of sources, so it’s definitely worth having something to say about them.

It’s useful to note down what people are asking you, particularly if the panel chair is taking several questions together. Be prepared to defend your position, both in replies to questions and in the questions you put to others.  Conferences are great opportunities to intervene in debates; if you don’t agree with a critique of your work then say so, and explain why.  Again, it’s worth knowing your audience. Interdisciplinary or general audiences tend to pose broader problems while specialist audiences may pose more complex, detailed questions. Whatever the framing, however, always take the question seriously.

Conferences also provide opportunities for discovering other forums for debate and outlets for your work, such as newsletters, virtual discussion groups or blogs. Getting involved in some of these will allow you to exchange ideas and address wider audiences, including public ones.

Return to main ECH Presenting Work page.

 

ECH – Preparing and presenting a conference paper

Conference papers are shorter than seminar papers—commonly twenty minutes—and run more tightly to time. You will present as part of a panel, and you should determine the kind of audience you are speaking to—whether specialist or general, historical or interdisciplinary—and be clear as to how long you have to speak.

There are limits to what you can do effectively in twenty minutes.You will need to ensure your paper is accessible to non-specialists without boring the specialists or using all your time on background. It is a good idea to speak more slowly than you think you need to; rushing through material is difficult for an audience, particularly a multilingual one.  More than ten pages of double-spaced typescript will be difficult to deliver properly in twenty minutes. It is also hard to convey more than three to four substantive points in this time.

If you are using PowerPoint slides or other visual aids, be clear about what you want them to do. They are a supporting act; what you say is the main attraction. You should use slides selectively and not include too many, particularly in a short paper. There is no need to provide a summary of your text on the slides: a paper is not an undergraduate lecture. In contrast, providing maps, tables or other complex data in visual form can add to the paper and save you time. If you are using pictures, ask yourself what they add. Does the image contribute to the analysis or simply illustrate the subject?  If you are presenting a quote, remember to give people time to read it.

The main pitfall in using a PowerPoint presentation is privileging format over content. It is surprising how often slides work against what’s being said during a presentation by, for example, presenting too much tangential material. Allowing the PowerPoint to drive the paper can also be difficult if you have to adjust timings. If an earlier speaker has run over, you may be given less time than you were expecting. Plan how to shorten the paper if you need to. What are the key points you want to convey?

If you are giving a paper abroad, familiarize yourself as much as possible with the academic culture. Twenty-minute papers are standard in the UK but may be shorter elsewhere. How large are the panels? This is likely to have a direct bearing on how long you have to speak and how intently the audience is listening. If you are taking part in a workshop rather than a panel conference, papers will probably have been circulated in advance. In this case, you will need to make the spoken paper distinctive; reading out a paper the audience has already read is pointless.  Ask advice from friends and colleagues who know the country and approach the conveners as to what you should expect. Try not to be put off if you are interrupted by the chair; they will simply be trying to manage the time.

Conference participation and particularly responding to questions is a key part of Intervening in academic discussion. The RHS encourages Early Career Historians by supporting conference travel in the UK and abroad.

Return to main ECH Presenting Work page.

 

ECH – Preparing and presenting a seminar paper

There is a lot of advice available on the internet; some of it is extremely detailed and not all of it is good. UK and US university websites are a reliable source of sensible advice but this can be prescriptive, and not all of it will work for you.  A perennial controversy is whether to speak from notes or a written paper. Don’t expect to find a definitive answer to this. Opinions differ and the advice is contradictory: ‘never speak from notes’; ‘reading from a script is mind-numbing’. The choice depends partly on you and partly on the kind of paper you plan to deliver.

Generally speaking, few early career historians are comfortable speaking from notes, particularly the first time they give a paper. You will almost certainly want to write it out in full though you may aspire to speaking from notes with more experience. Think of the seminars that you have attended. Which ones have really worked and why? How might you emulate some of the techniques the speaker employed? Play to your strengths; avoid devices you are not comfortable with—telling jokes doesn’t work for everyone—and focus on what you are confident you can do well.  If you have teaching experience, you may have used a similar exercise to prepare students for presentations. The principles are the same.

Many people prefer to give their first paper in familiar surroundings, with an audience of peers. Your university should provide such opportunities but you could also organise such a session informally. Always ask for feedback; there are real benefits to working collectively with people in the same position as you.

When you give a paper in unfamiliar surroundings, arrive in time to look around the room and check that everything you need is there and working. Be very clear as to timings. A forty-five minute seminar paper is a substantial undertaking, given that a double-spaced 12-point printed page will take around two minutes to deliver. This is a rule of thumb, not an absolute as you will want to engage with the audience, looking round the room or moving ‘off-script’ for emphasis or add a point of detail.This helps you look confident and pleased to be there, no matter how nervous you are.

When writing and practising the paper—which you should do even if you plan not to read it—it’s worth thinking carefully about prose and style. An oral paper is different from a written chapter: the argument needs more signposting and too much detail will be hard to follow. A discursive style works better than a literary one. Try to break the paper down into smaller sections and practise it several times. You might want to record it so you can listen back to it.  Put yourself in the listener’s place.  Can you identify the main points?  How much background knowledge do you need to follow it?

Other points you need to consider include visual aids and how to respond to questions. These are covered under Preparing and presenting a conference paper and Intervening in academic discussion.

Return to main ECH Presenting Work page

 

ECH Grants: Post-doctoral projects

For post-doctoral projects: Very few historians gain permanent academic employment immediately upon completion of the PhD degree.  Most historians who succeed in gaining such posts experience one or more years of part-time or fixed-contract teaching, or serving as a research assistant on a senior academic’s grant, while they build a publication profile.  Gaining an external postdoctoral fellowship in your own name during this period will allow you to focus on publishing your doctoral research, and crafting a new postdoctoral research programme.  In the UK, postdoctoral fellowships are often advertised in Jobs.ac.uk (http://www.jobs.ac.uk/ ). But you should also keep an eye on the Tuesday edition of the Guardian newspaper:
http://www.theguardian.com/education/higher-education
H-Net http://www.h-net.org/ and the TLS.
Most postdoctoral schemes advertise with only one application deadline per year.  If you start investigating possibilities a year before your PhD viva, you will know well in advance which deadlines you will be eligible to apply for, based on your viva date.

  • British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships: This highly competitive fellowship scheme is open to UK or EEA nationals and persons who have completed a PhD in the UK, within 3 years of completion of the doctorate. An outline application is made in the autumn; short-listed candidates complete a more detailed application in the New Year.  The scheme funds up to 3 years of postdoctoral research.  In preparing your application, it is essential to liaise carefully and well in advance with the proposed host institution and supervisor, which must support your application: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/Postdoctoral_Fellows.cfm
  • European Research Council Starting Grants: These grants are designed for researchers with 2-7 years of postdoctoral experience. If planning to apply for an ERC award, make use of any and all training events organised by your home institution as ERC applications are quite bureaucratic: http://erc.europa.eu/starting-grants
  • Economic & Social Research Council: Historians of any nationality with a social science emphasis are eligible to apply for ESRC Future Research Leaders postdocs within 4 years of submission of the PhD. It is essential to liaise well in advance with your proposed host institution, which must demonstrate a robust programme of support for your research.  The application deadline for this scheme is normally in the autumn.  See: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/
  • European University Institute: The EUI, based in Florence, offers a number of residential postdoctoral fellowships for ECRs. Details are available from:
    http://www.eui.eu/ProgrammesAndFellowships/Fellowships.aspx
  • Fulbright: The US Fulbright Commission offers a postdoctoral fellowships, which can be held at US universities. If applying for a Fulbright, give serious thought to applying outside the US equivalent of the ‘Golden Triangle’—that is, the north-east coast, Chicago and California.  The scheme is designed to send Fulbright postdocs throughout the US.  By applying to be based at an appropriate university outside these areas you may enhance your chances of success.  For application details, see:
    http://www.fulbright.org.uk/study-in-the-usa/short-term-study/postdoctoral-study-and-research
  • Humanities Centres & Institutes of Advanced Study: Both within and outside the UK, these specialist research institutes often offer residential postdoctoral fellowships that typically range for 3-24 months and provide some combination of office space, library access, research funding, salary or stipend and/or housing.  Examples include:  Central European University IAS, Budapesthttps://ias.ceu.hu/Junior_Senior CRASSH, Cambridge University: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/programmes/fellowships ; IASH, Edinburgh University: http://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/fellowships/ ;  Simon Fellowships, Manchester University: http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/research/simonhallsworth/fellows/ ;  and Warwick IAS: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/ias/current/prf/
  • Institute of Historical Research, London: The IHR serves as the umbrella organisation for a number of postdoctoral fellowships funded by UK scholarly societies and charities, including the RHS, the Economic History Society and the Past & Present Society. Applications are typically accepted from January to c. March each year.  See http://www.history.ac.uk/fellowships/junior
  • Junior Research Fellowships: JRFs, typically of 3 years’ duration, are advertised each year by several Cambridge and Oxford colleges, and occasionally by other UK universities.  Some JRFs are open to postdoctoral researchers in any field of study; others specify history as an eligible or desired field of appointment.  For Cambridge JRFs see: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/ ; for Oxford advertisements, see the Oxford Gazettehttp://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/currentvacancies/
  • Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships: ECRs with a recent UK PhD or a fixed-term (not permanent) UK academic appointment are eligible for this scheme, which funds 3-year postdoctoral fellowships with limited teaching duties. Because the host institution must share at least 50% of the cost of the fellowship with the Leverhulme Trust, not all universities support applications.  Investigate whether your preferred institution supports application in the autumn, to ensure that you can locate a host institution well in advance of the February application deadline.  (Many institutions have internal deadlines for this scheme that are significantly earlier than the Leverhulme’s deadline).  Note that you cannot apply to hold this award at the institution from which you obtained your PhD.  For details, see http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/ecf/ecf.cfm
  • Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowships: These European Commission awards fund 2-3 year postdoctoral fellowships with generous funding for relocation, research costs and salary. The scheme’s emphasis is on mobility, so expect to hold the award if successful in a country other than the country of your PhD.  Advance planning and communication with your proposed host institution is essential.  The UK Research Office https://www.ukro.ac.uk/mariecurie/Pages/default.aspx offers helpful workshops about these applications annually at various locations in the UK, and many universities also offer specialist guidance on applications, which are highly competitive.
    For details of the scheme, see http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/
  • Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships: The US Mellon Foundation funds a number of humanities-based postdoctoral fellowships which combine teaching and research. Most are based in the US or Canada, but a few UK institutions also offer Mellon postdocs.  A good source of information on individual Mellon fellowships is:
    http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/careers/career-planning-resources/186-postdoctoral-teaching-fellowships ;
  • Specialist Libraries: Several of the specialist libraries noted above under ‘Research Trips’ also offer 3-24 month residential fellowships for national and/or international postdoctoral research fellows. See their websites for details and deadlines.
  • Wellcome Fellowships: The Wellcome Trust funds a number of multi-year postdoctoral fellowships each year in the medical humanities (including history of medicine and history of science).
    For details see: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Medical-humanities/Funding-schemes/Fellowships/index.htm .

 

 

 

 

 

ECH Grants: Public engagement and/or impact work

For public engagement and/or impact work:

  • Your ‘home’ institution: Many UK universities offer training and/or funding to undertake public engagement/impact activities.  Especially if you hope to gain employment in the UK HEI sector (whether as an academic or in an administrative role), it is very much to your advantage to take up these opportunities.  A strong track record in public engagement as a doctoral student will significantly enhance your subsequent application for a research assistantship on a collaborative project in the UK (or for employment in many parts of the charitable sector).
  • AHRC/ESRC: The research councils occasionally offer training and/or funding for public engagement activities.  Keep an eye on their websites for more information, and for contextual information on public engagement and impact more broadly: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Pages/Home.aspx and http://www.esrc.ac.uk/collaboration/knowledge-exchange/index.aspx ;
  • NESTA: This UK charity seeks to enhance innovation across a range of public domains and at intervals provides funding for public engagement for which academics can apply. See http://www.nesta.org.uk/get-funding .

 

ECH Grants: Conference attendance & organisation

For conference attendance:

  • Your ‘home’ institution: As with travel for research trips and training, this is always the place to start. Most (but not all) internal funding opportunities are advertised at roughly the same time each year within a given institution.  Acquainting yourself with the normal deadlines for these internal pots of money in your first months/year of study will increase your likelihood of being funding, and enhance your ability to coordinate internal and external funding applications;
  • Royal Historical Society: The RHS provides funding to assist doctoral candidates and postdoctoral early career historians to give papers at national and international conferences.  Remember that the total number of RHS applications you can make is limited: don’t lose the opportunity to apply for an expensive conference late in your degree by applying for multiple less expensive, local ones early in your studies.  Details of RHS conference funding are available here.
  • Scholarly societies: The scholarly societies that organise many conferences offer bursaries to assist some ECRs to attend their events. Information on this funding will normally be provided when you register for a conference or submit a paper for consideration.

For conference organisation:

  • Your ‘home’ institution: As always, this is the most sensible place to start. Many departments, faculties and graduate schools offer ECRs funding to organise conferences.  You will enhance your application for external funding if you have already applied for/secured internal funding of this kind;
  • British Academy: The BA/Leverhulme Small Grants scheme (noted above) can be used to organise workshops or conferences. For eligibility and terms, see http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/srg.cfm ;
  • Economic History Society: The Society provides funding, on a competitive basis, for conference organisation on topics related to economic and/or social history. See http://www.ehs.org.uk/the-society/grants-awards-and-prizes/initiatives-and-conference-fund.html ;
  • Paul Mellon Centre: This centre provides funding, once annually, for conferences in the field of the history of art and architecture. See http://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/11/
  • Royal Historical Society: The RHS provides funding for conference organisation twice a year.  Full details are available here. 

 

ECH Grants: Generic tips

  • Start small, build up a profile, and then expand your ambitions: There are many small pots of funding available for early career historians (including from the RHS). Use applications for these funds to hone your application skills and to build up the ‘Grants’ section of your CV  Then you will have the experience and profile to submit successful applications for larger projects;
  • Know your grants: Many grants are advertised on a regular cycle, with deadlines at established points each year. If you familiarise yourself with the available funding landscape before you require funding, you can plan ahead, and apply at the right time for the right funding.  Don’t try to force your project into a funding scheme for which it is not appropriate, or for which you are not eligible. Instead, find a scheme for which you and your project are an appropriate fit;
  • Read, address and adhere to the application criteria: Address the specific criteria of the funding scheme to which you are applying, answering every question you are asked. Aim for clarity, and avoid jargon. Applications will often be read by assessors who are not specialists in your field of history. Be careful to convey what research questions your project addresses, why those questions are important, and how you are addressing them. Do not exceed the word/page length specified in the grant application. Check any budgets you provide carefully, and make them as specific as feasible. If you know someone who has made a successful application to the scheme you are applying for, ask if you can read their application in advance of submitting your own.
  • Work to the application’s deadline: Many grants require letters of support from supervisors or other academics who know your work. You will need to ensure that anyone writing on your behalf has a copy of your application and CV in time to write a reference by the application’s stated deadline. (Ideally, you should provide your PhD supervisor with a draft of your application sufficiently in advance for him/her to provide feedback). Don’t assume that your application will be accepted if submitted late: most funding bodies automatically reject applications that miss the deadline.
  • Proof-read your application carefully: A grant application larded with grammatical, spelling or other errors makes a very poor impression on the assessors. Funding bodies typically have far more applications than they can support.  Don’t auto-eliminate by detracting from the substance of the application through careless presentation.