Bursaries and Prizes
Postgraduate presenters to the UK conference are eligible to apply for a Society bursary for conference fees. Please state if you wish to be considered when submitting your abstract.
Arts researchers/practitioners from the Caribbean are eligible to apply for a travel and conference fee bursary: see Bridget Jones award and/or the information below.
The David Nicholls postgraduate prize will be awarded to a Postgraduate at the 2009 conference.
The David Nicholls memorial trust invites applications for research bursaries and travel grants. For details see the David Nicholls Memorial Trust Website at http://www.davidnicholls.org/
The Bridget Jones award for Caribbean Studies
The Society pays tribute to the late Dr Bridget Jones who died of cancer on April 4, 2000. As a long-standing member of the Caribbean research community and a valued member and friend of the Society, Bridget is greatly missed. The main activity of the Society is its annual conference and 2008 will mark the 32nd year of Society conferences, held annually at a venue in the UK. The conference takes place in the first week of July.
For the next conference (2009), we are able to continue the travel bursary of maximum £650, plus full conference fees, to enable an arts practitioner/researcher from any region of the Caribbean to present their work at the Society's annual conference. We believe that Bridget would have approved of our scheme to facilitate greater participation in our conference by people from the Caribbean. In keeping with Bridget's broad-ranging interests we are encouraging visual artists, performers and creative writers to submit proposals in addition to the more usual scholarly research papers. Recent recipients of the Award have included Stanley Greaves (2002), Olive Lewin (2004), and Kei Miller (2006)
Eligibility
If you are an arts practitioner or researcher (postgraduate, postdoctoral or professional) working in any region of the anglophone, hispanic, francophone or Dutch speaking Caribbean, you may apply for the Bursary. The successful recipient will receive £650 towards travel expenses and, in addition, a full bursary to cover conference fees and accommodation. Applications are especially welcome from individuals with no institutional affiliations.
How to apply
To apply for the bursary you must submit either:
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* A proposal for a presentation of your work, in the areas of film, visual or performing arts.
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* A proposal of a reading of original creative work.
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Enquiries about the application procedure should be sent by e-mail to Kate Quinn Institute for the Study of the Americas in London, Chair of the Bridget Jones Award Sub-Committee.
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Applications should be in writing, including a covering letter, full Curriculum Vitae/resume and statements from two (2) referees who are able to comment on your work.
Completed applications must be received by January 12th, 2009 . A decision will be made by the committee in late January.
For a list of recent recipients follow this link
David Nicholls was an extraordinary and inspirational intellectual, activist, priest and friend to all who knew him. His modesty covered the vast scope of his successes and interests. After he died suddenly on 13th June, 1996, it was only at his funeral service in the parish of Littlemore near Oxford, where he had been the pastor since 1978, that many parishioners, Caribbeanists, political scientists and theologians fully realised the full breadth and brilliance of David’s work.
Involved with the Society for Caribbean Studies since its inception, and chair between 1991 and 1993, David was perhaps best known among Caribbean researchers for his internationally acclaimed work on Haiti. From Dessalines to Duvalier: race, colour and national independence (1979, 1988, 1996) has become a classic text, admirably supported by Economic Dependence and Political Autonomy: the Haitian experience (1974) and Haiti in the Caribbean Context: ethnicity, economy and revolt (1985). Having graduated from the London School of Economics with the Laski and Gladstone Prizes, David’s interest in the Caribbean was firmly established as a lecturer in Government at the University of West Indies, St Augustine campus between 1966 and 1973. He arrived via scholarships at Yale and Cambridge Universities, while pursuing lifelong interests in politics and theology. This intellectual mix often rightly ruffled the feathers of both the academey and the Church.
While his expertise on Haiti and the region’s Levantine communities is well known to many Caribbeanists, his academic writings moved well beyond any disciplinary cloisters. As a political scientist, his substantial works have influenced Bernard Crick and Paul Hirst. He helped to pioneer a restatement of pluralism, critiquing theories of state, democracy and power. Three Varieties of Pluralism (1974) and The Pluralist State (1994) became landmark texts. Beside political philosophy, his work on theology was similarly profound and among the most significant of his generation. He edited nine volumes of Faith and the Future (1983) and produced two further outstanding and challenging works, the first given as the Hulsean lectures in Cambridge: Deity and Domination: images of God and the state in the 19th and 20th centuries (1989) and God and Government in an Age of Reason (1995). The third part of this triology, Despotism and Doubt, remains unfinished.
A committed and active grassroots socialist and internationalist, he constantly welcomed a range of friends to the home he shared with Gillian in Littlemore. He was a charismatic and much loved figure, cutting a dash whether hurtling through Trinidad on his motorbike, or pacing the quads of Oxford kitted with poncho, sandals, Marxesque beard and the day’s cigar ration.
The David Nicholls Postgraduate Prize for Students Presenting Papers at the SCS Annual Conference
The David Nicholls Memorial Prize is awarded every two years to the author of the best postgraduate paper delivered to the Society for Caribbean Studies annual conferences. It is open to all post-graduate researchers who present papers in any discipline or topic associated with the Caribbean.
The most recent recipients have been Rivke Jaffe (2007), David Dodman (2005), Audra Diptee (2003), David Lambert (2001), Sandra Courtman (1999) and Mimi Sheller (1997).
The prize
To be confirmed
Entry details for the 2009 David Nicholls Prize:
- * Only papers presented by postgraduates at the 2007 and 2008 Society for Caribbean Studies Conferences will eligible.
- * Entrants must submit a written version of their conference paper before 1 October in the year the paper is presented.
- * The paper should be properly referenced and not exceed 7,000 words (including references).
- * The judging panel will consist of members drawn from the Society’s Committee and will evaluate of the originality of the research and the standard of scholarship.
Papers may be submitted by email or by post to:
Christer Petley
School of Humanities (History)
University of Southampton
SO15 1BJ
c.petley@soton.ac.uk
Please use the above contact details if you have any questions relating to the prize