Dowd History of Capitalism Initiative Student Summer Research Awards Program, 2017

UNC Charlotte History Department Dowd History of Capitalism Initiative Student Summer Research Awards Program, 2017 Call for Proposals and Proposal Guidelines

Overview o f the P ro gram : With the support of the Dowd Foundation, which sponsors our ongoing program in the history of capitalism, the History Department at UNC Charlotte expects to provide up to six awards to support student summer research projects and research-focused internships. All proposed projects must explore some aspect of the history of capitalism, broadly defined. Because the Dowd program seeks to build relationships between history students and business organizations and other community partners (which may be located in the Charlotte region or elsewhere), preference will be given to proposed projects that promise the student such connections. Such projects may include internship-style arrangements, in which the student would spend several weeks on site in the facilities of the community partner, perhaps focused for part of that time on using the partner’s historical records to explore questions of interest to both the partner and the student. Some projects may include oral history interviews. Other projects might involve more traditional academic historical research, but would still include some element of creative engagement with non-academic partners and/or audiences.

Students are not expected to develop these projects fully on their own. Indeed, in some cases, students may be able to craft projects that build on existing relationships between the History Department and various partners. For this reason, any student interested in applying for the award must consult in advance with Dr. Mark Wilson, who is directing the program.

All award holders are expected to devote to the project a minimum of 200 hours, including up to 40 hours of training and preparation. All award holders must complete a substantial final report, presentation, paper, poster, film, web exhibit, physical exhibit, or other final product, in which the research and its results are presented. (Holders of undergraduate awards are expected to participate in the UNC Charlotte undergraduate summer research symposium, in late July 2017, unless this is prevented by special circumstances; similarly, holders of MA-level awards are expected to participate in the spring 2018 graduate research symposium, or the Graduate History Association [GHA] forum.) In many cases, it will be appropriate to devote the final week of the award period to the preparation of a draft of the final product. All draft products will then be revised by the author in consultation with Dr. Wilson, before they are shared with the public or other appropriate audiences.

Eligibility: Any current UNC Charlotte History major or minor, or History MA candidate, who will be enrolled in the fall semester 2017.

Aw ard : The student award amount is $2000. Up to four undergraduate awards and two MA awards will be given in 2017. This award is intended to involve full- time participation by the student for a period of at least five full weeks during summer 2017. During this five-week period, which includes one week of training and preparation, students should not be engaged in outside employment or coursework. The award will be processed by the history department after the completion of the training/preparation period.

How to Apply : As a first step, contact Dr. Wilson at mrw ilso n @ un cc .edu and 704- 687-5160. Dr. Wilson will give you more information about the program and will work with you to develop your ideas for a project.

The Application Form, with instructions for a short Research Proposal, is available in the form of a Word document, which will be distributed to all majors and posted to the History Department web page. To complete the application, download the form and fill it in, by typing directly into the Word document.

The completed Application Form and Research Proposal must be submitted to Dr. Wilson, in the form of a single PDF or Word file, to mrw ils on@un cc .edu , by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, April 15 2017. Please include your name in the file, as in the following model: LastName_FirstName_DowdAward2017Application