CFPs: Media Studies Grant Program

Junior and senior researchers from across different disciplines (e.g. media studies, history, sociology, political sciences, cultural studies, environmental studies, anthropology, conflict studies, etc.) are encouraged to apply. They particularly encourage researchers from outside Europe to apply.

Objectives

• Research commissioned via the Media Studies Grant aims to valorize scientific knowledge for the benefit of archival practice.
• All applications should make a realistic and compelling argument on how the knowledge resulting from the proposed research makes an impact on broadcast archives.
• Results of research carried out as part of the Media Studies Grant should be presented and disseminated in a way that they can be placed in close dialogue with the interests, needs and archival practices of FIAT/IFTA archive members.

Aim

• They aim to commission two small-scale projects that centre on archive-based research. The commissioned research should aim to bring value to broadcast archives it studies by:
  • exploring current societal challenges (e.g. climate change, sustainability, populism, disinformation, etc.) and demonstrating the value of broadcast archives for intervening in present-day societies;
  • historicizing current phenomena (from political events, to cultural trends and contemporary social practices and societal behaviour) and thus, highlighting how archives of the past help inform our understanding of the present;
  • unearthing unexplored or marginalised narratives of the past or revisiting existing narratives and in doing so, underscoring the renewed potential, applicability and versatility of broadcast archives;
  • comparing or providing grounds for comparison on how archives respond to problematic historical pasts (e.g. colonial pasts, authoritarian pasts, etc.);
  • studying work practices and work cultures within an archive, adding to actualized understandings of archives as cultural agents.

Areas of Research 

• The following impact research domains are prioritized for this year’s Media Studies Grant:
  • Archives as Interventions into Problematic Pasts: This domain invites research that demonstrates how archives can intervene in, address and help understand problematic pasts. The following topics can serve as a point of departure, but proposed research does not need to be limited by these:
    • decolonisation of broadcast archives;
    • postcolonial approaches to archival practice;
    • revisiting harmful narratives in the archives;
    • archive-based reimaginings of pasts and futures;
    • archival reparations for problematic pasts;
    • gaps, silences, biases and obliterations in the archives;
    • politics of archiving the past.
  • Archives as Actants in Responding to Present-Day Societal Challenges: Research in this domain should aim to demonstrate the value of broadcast archives for understanding and responding to present-day societies. Applications can focus on engaging with specific broadcast archives to understand and address current societal challenges among which, but not limited to:
    • climate change;
    • sustainability and environmentalism;
    • propaganda and disinformation;
    • populism;
    • the rise of far-right ideologies;
    • anti-establishment societal sentiments;
    • archive-driven activism, including data activism;
    • archives as technologies of social integration;
    • curtailment of rights and civil liberties as documented in the archives.
  • Archives as Lived Work Cultures: Research in this domain should aim to study and approach archives as lived cultures, generating situated knowledge that can serve as additional context and metadata for assessing archival sources. The following approaches to the study of archives as lived cultures can serve as points of departure, although applications do not need to limited themselves to these:
    • ethnographic and anthropological approaches to archives;
    • sociological or organizational approaches to archives;
    • science and technology approaches to technology adoption in the archives;
    • material culture approaches to archives;
    • feminist approaches to archival practices;
    • comparative approaches to archiving practices and organisations.

Funding Information

• Applicants can ask for a budget up to €3500 to support their research costs for the purpose of the proposed study.

Eligibility Criteria

• Junior researchers (including PhD students) as well as senior researchers affiliated to a university or research institute can apply for the Media Studies Grant. Applicants from around the world are encouraged to apply.
• PhD students applying for a Media Studies Grant need to send in together with their application a letter from their thesis supervisor showing support for the proposed study.
• Awarded studies would ideally be affiliated to a FIAT/IFTA member archive, either by exploring their collection or datasets for research purposes and/or carrying out research that is of direct relevance to a member archive institution. Applications that are not affiliated to a FIAT/IFTA member archive are eligible as long as they make a compelling argument on their contributions to the wider FIAT/IFTA archiving community.
• Applicants should provide a support letter from the archives providing the collections which will be used in the study.

Application Requirements

• Candidates are required to send in their application in PDF format by the deadline date;
• Awarded candidates need to sign a funding agreement with FIAT/IFTA;
• Awarded candidates should report back on their work in progress to the Media Studies Commission at regular intervals, as specified in the funding agreement;
• Awarded candidates are expected to deliver by the end of their grant period:
  • A written research report at the quality standards of a scholarly article, but written for a readership made up of broadcast archivists.
  • A discussion of their research findings at the FIAT/IFTA World Conference in Rome, 28-31 October 2025, pitched to an audience of FIAT/IFTA members.
  • A short video to be distributed further on social media and which highlights some of the interesting discoveries, curiosities or inspirations of their research.
  • Other forms of creative output aiming to disseminate the research findings to a wider audience are encouraged (e.g. audiovisual essay, an interactive digital story, creative demo, etc.). Please make sure there are no copyright restrictions for the archival material you may want to re-use in this type of output.
• All output needs to mention the support of FIAT/IFTA and should be made available to FIAT/IFTA.
• Candidates may be asked for promotional interviews and/or to share their research progress during an online session.
• FIAT/IFTA reserves the right to make accessible the output of funded studies on its own website.
• Proposed studies can be part of a bigger project (e.g. a PhD dissertation, book project, etc.) or can be stand-alone research initiatives that the candidate wishes to pursue.

For more information, visit FIAT/IFTA.