Application Guidelines for
The Visual Culture of the American Civil War
Summer Institute
Before preparing your application, please carefully review the NEH application and eligibility guidelines, selection criteria. All applications for The Visual Culture of the American Civil War Summer Institute must be submitted to the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning (ASHP/CML), not to the NEH.
We will accept applications either through e-mail, postal mail, or via our online application process (the latter available as of December 1). The application deadline is March 1, 2012; if the application is submitted by postal mail, March 1 is the postmarked deadline.
APPLICATION COMPONENTS
Regardless of submission method, required application components are:
1) A completed NEH application cover sheet (go to the NEH website at: https://securegrants.neh.gov/education/participants/).
* Once you have submitted this cover sheet to the NEH, either print a hard copy or save it as a .PDF to submit with your application to the ASHP/CML.
2) A detailed curriculum vitae (not to exceed five pages).
3) A brief application essay (of no more than four, double-spaced pages) that
• Addresses your reasons for applying to The Visual Culture of the American Civil War Summer Institute;
• Describes your qualifications, including ongoing research interests, to do the work of the Institute and make a contribution to it;
• Discusses what you hope to accomplish; and
• Describes the relation of the topic to your teaching.
4) Two letters of reference (see below for more details).
HOW TO APPLY: E-MAIL, MAIL, AND ONLINE
The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning will accept applications for The Visual Culture of the American Civil War Summer Institute either through e-mail, postal mail, or our online application process.
Those applying through e-mail should send a file containing the complete, collated components in Word or .PDF format to: cml@gc.cuny.edu (label the e-mail subject heading: “NEH Summer Institute Application”).
Those applying through the mail should send three complete, collated copies of the components to:
Donna Thompson Ray
Institute Director
American Social History Project
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7388
New York, NY 10016
The postmark deadline for mailed applications is March 1, 2012.
As of December 1, we also will accept applications submitted online. Those applying online will use the form found here. The form provides the applicant with fields to attach the completed NEH application cover sheet, the curriculum vitae, and the application essay. Two letters of reference must be mailed separately to Donna Thompson Ray at the above address. The receipt deadline for online applications is March 1, 2012.
LETTERS OF REFERENCE
All applicants must arrange for two letters of reference to be submitted on their behalf. The two referees may be from inside or outside the applicant’s home institution. Referees should be familiar with the applicant’s professional accomplishments or promise, teaching and/or research interests, and ability to contribute to and benefit from participation in the Summer Institute. Applicants who are current graduate students should secure a letter from a professor or advisor. All referees should be provided with the description of the Summer Institute and the applicant’s essay; the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning will not contact referees directly to solicit letters and will not forward an applicant’s materials to a referee.
All letters must be from an institutional email address or on preprinted letterhead signed by the referee. If applying via the online application process, please ask your referees to mail hard copies of their letters directly to Donna Thompson Ray at the above address, or email copies from an institutional email address to cml@gc.cuny.edu (label the e-mail subject heading: “NEH Summer Institute Reference”). If applying by hard-copy, please ask each referee to sign across the seal on the back of the envelope containing his or her letter and enclose the letters with your application.
QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about the application process or difficulty in accessing the online form, please contact Institute Director Donna Thompson Ray at dthompson@gc.cuny.edu or call 212-817-1963.
*Illustration: Southern Illustrated News, November 8, 1862. American Social History Project.
