Objective
With six grants per year, we wish to enable emerging international (and Canadian) scholars at the graduate and PhD level to visit a Canadian (or international) university or academic institution for 4 to 12 weeks in order to conduct research for their thesis or dissertation in the field of Canadian Studies.
Note: The scholarship is not intended to initiate a thesis or dissertation but rather to provide access to crucial scholarly information and resources in Canada (or international institution) in support of a thesis/dissertation at the point of being written.
Eligibility
Students in the social sciences or humanities who are in the process of preparing a graduate thesis or doctoral dissertation in Canada Studies (Master’s/PhD level).
Conditions
- The student must be at the thesis or dissertation stage.
- The student must have obtained in writing the support of a faculty member at a Canadian university or research institution (or equivalent international institution) who has agreed to act as the student’s academic mentor during the tenure of his/her scholarship. The mentor may act in an informal capacity and will arrange for library privileges, contacts with other faculty and students, and generally try to facilitate the student’s research. The academic mentor will not be expected to act in the role of supervisor.
NOTE: A copy of the awardee’s thesis, once completed, should be sent to the ICCS Secretariat as a pdf file.
Procedure
Each applicant should submit an application and all supporting materials directly to the President or Secretariat of his/her/their Member Association or Associate Member Association of the ICCS. Applications submitted directly to the ICCS by the applicant will not be accepted or redirected. It is the responsibility of the Member Association or of an Associate Member Association of the ICCS to forward no more than three nominations to the ICCS. No more than two scholarships per association will be awarded at each adjudication.
The nomination will comprise:
- a completed application form [PDF], which will be signed by the candidate and the President of the Member Association or the Associate Member Association of the ICCS.
- a one-two page (maximum) proposal outlining the thesis/dissertation project (Click here for an example of what a proposal should contain: title, short summary, theoretical and methodological approach, object of research and arguments, research questions, thesis statement). The proposal must also state clearly why work at the university or research institution (or international institution) in question is essential to the project and how such a visit will enhance the quality of the thesis or dissertation. It must also include a schedule of activities (1 page maximum) detailing arrival and departure dates as well as a 1-page budget outlining reasonable and researched travel and accommodation expenses. Additional funding sources must be listed.
- a copy of the most recent official university transcript (in countries where it cannot be obtained, a letter from the registrar is required) or a translation provided in English or French.
- a letter of support from the student’s thesis/dissertation supervisor.
- a copy of the letter from the faculty member in a Canadian university or research institution (or international institution) indicating his/her/their willingness to act as the student’s academic mentor.
NOTE: Incomplete files will not be considered.
Criteria
Successful applicants will be selected according to the following criteria:
- the clarity of the proposal and its methodology.
- the proposal’s potential contribution to knowledge in its field.
- the likelihood of the project being accomplished during the period of the award.
- the demonstrated need for the research to be carried out in Canada (or at the international institution).
- the strength of the letter of support.
- past academic awards as demonstrated by transcripts, awards and distinctions.
Selection
The nominations will be evaluated and ranked, and successful candidates selected by the Awards and Grants Committee appointed by the International Council for Canadian Studies. Decisions cannot be appealed.
NOTE: It will be the responsibility of each Member Association or Associate Member Association of the ICCS to ensure that individuals who agree to be academic mentors are informed in writing of the success or failure of each applicant in obtaining the scholarship.
Reporting
Within four months of the student’s return, he/she/they will file a written report (2–3 pages) to the ICCS, outlining what was accomplished during the tenure of the scholarship. This will be submitted as a PDF to the International Journal of Canadian Studies and considered for publication in the journal.
Some photographic imagery and a concise paragraph will be requested for publication in the ICCS newsletter. A standard format will be provided to the bursary recipient for this purpose following completion of the study visit.
Number of Scholarships
A maximum of six awards per year.
Value of Scholarships
The amount of the scholarship will be a maximum of C$4,000. Smaller awards may be made.
Deadline and Submission Information
- Please send a completed form, along with all required supporting documents, to the attention of the President of the appropriate Canadian Studies Association. (Please note that the deadlines for submission vary with each Canadian Studies Association. It is the candidate’s responsibility to contact the association in question to obtain such information.)
- All applications must be submitted by the member association to the ICCS by November 24.
- Following assessment and signature by the President of the association, your application may be directed by the association to the ICCS for final consideration by the Awards and Grants Committee appointed by the International Council for Canadian Studies. A decision will be made mid-January. Research stays may commence by April 1.
Request for information and submissions of nominations by ICCS member associations should be addressed to:
International Council for Canadian Studies
c/o Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, York University
723 Kaneff Tower
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
E-mail: iccsciec[at]yorku.ca
2024 WINNERS
Clara Aubonnet (Université Paris 8, France) | “Les feux de forêt transfrontaliers dans le Nord-Ouest américain : étude géopolitique en Colombie-Britannique (Canada) et dans l’Etat de Washington (États-Unis)”
Chen Zhitong (Sichuan University, China) | “The Economy of Prestige of Alice Munro’s Works”
Celia Cores-Antepazo (University of Salamanca, Spain) | “Literary theory and criticism; resilience and memory in North American counter-narratives”
Fernande Coeurbie Manga Diaba (Université de Lorraine, France) | “Federalism and sovereignty: study based on the case of the Belgian and Canadian federal states”
Alisa Preusser (Potsdam University, Germany) (declined) | “Resisting Water Colonialism: Indigenous Literary and Cultural Intervention”
Markus Schwarz (Salzburg University, Austria) | “Black Indigenous futurism and speculative writing at the intersection of climate change and outer space colonization discourses”
Robin Turner (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States) | “Stigmatized trailblazers to celebrated deviants: Heteronormative Discourses of (homo)sexuality after the Québec Quiet Revolution, 1969–1977”
Ilse Van Dijk (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) | “The relationship between culture and climate change, focused on the effects of climate change on culture/practices, coming from a climate justice and climate equity perspective”
2023 WINNERS
Claire Fouchereaux | “Representing one’s nation: rap, communities, and institution in Québec”
Jesse Robertson | “Fathoming Empire: Marine Knowledge and Colonial Navigation in an Indigenous Seascape, 1774-1914”
Kimberly Glassman | “Gender, Botany, and Empire: The Female Transatlantic Information Networks Behind William Jackson Hooker’s Flora Boreali-Americana (1829-1840)”
Lorenza Borba Santos | “Then, now here, and there: decoloniality in the works of Julie Doric and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson”
Lucile Chaput | Leș camps d’internement canadiens: l’internement des civils au Canada durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale”
Sara Riccetti | “Instead of ‘RedFace’: The Political Work of Contemporary Indigenous Women Playwrights from the United States and Canada”
Sigrid Verena Thomsen | “‘They Were Home, They Were Far From Home.”: Imaginative Mobilities in Caribbean Diaspora Literature”
2022 WINNERS
Ayman Al Joumaa | “Les stratégies d’intégration des réfugiés : Mémoire(s), resilience, reconciliation. L’exemple des réfugiés au Canada et en France“
Maria Tarasova | “The Work Is Not Done for the Glory: Russian-Jewish Anarchist Humanitarian Aid in North America, 1900-1950”
Sababa Monjur | “’They Were Not Human’: Rethinking Binaries, Bioethics and Eco-realities in Selected Works of Margaret Atwood and Larissa Lai”
Rita Nandori | “Acculturation and Cultural Identity in Canadian Inuit Poetry”
Núria Mina Riera | “A Poet’s Seasons: A Gerontological-Ecocritical Approach to Lorna Crozier’s Poetry”
Barbara Gfoellner | “Thinking with the Archipelago’: Diasporic Im/Mobilties in Anglophone and Francophone Carribean Poetry”