Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation: Exploratory Travel Award

Exploratory Travel Awards will enable students to develop viable and innovative research projects for future application to pre-doctoral fellowships.

Funding Information

• Grant amount: travel grants of up to $5,000.
• Duration: The Exploratory Travel Award is intended to fund travel of 1-2 months in Latin America as preparation for more extensive archival and collections-based research in the future.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be enrolled in an accredited PhD program. This funding is intended only for early-career PhD students; for example, in Europe, this generally refers to students in their first year of study, and in the United States, it means pre-candidacy. Students whose institutions offer similar preliminary travel funding are not eligible for the award. Individuals in Europe and Latin America, where comparable sources of external funding are less available, are strongly encouraged to apply.
• As with other Thoma Foundation awards and fellowships for individuals, the Exploratory Travel Award is intended for projects that will contribute to the study of the Art of the Spanish Americas (roughly 16th-19th c.) Projects will be considered from all areas of Latin America and the Caribbean; however, the Foundation will give preference to projects that make specific contributions to the history of painting and sculpture in viceregal South America.

Application Requirements

• Application
• CV
• Letter of recommendation from PhD supervisor
• Project description of up to 1200 words plus a 1-page bibliography. Project description should:
  • Briefly introduce the applicant’s prospective dissertation topic with reference to existing scholarship. Recognizing that the Exploratory Travel Award is designed to help students develop and focus their dissertation proposals, this synopsis might be framed as a research question rather than as a firm thesis statement. Where possible, however, students are encouraged to outline the proposed intervention and speculative scope of the dissertation.
  • Detail the applicant’s research plan during their stay in Latin America, noting the collections, archives, or other institutions the applicant intends to visit, as well as listing the names of scholars whom the applicant will contact in advance of travel.
  • Explain how the travel grant will help develop this project and what aspects of its feasibility or planning will be addressed during travel.
• Travel budget (1 page max):
  • Budget should note the total amount requested (maximum $5,000) and include airfare and ground travel, estimated accommodation costs, and a project allowance. The project allowance may be used to cover archival access fees, reproduction costs (e.g., photocopying), and book purchases.
  • The award may not be used for equipment purchases (such as cameras and laptops) nor for expenses like conference attendance or travel within the United States.

For more information, visit Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation.