The Annual Proseminar on Scholarships, Fellowships, and Grants takes an expansive and collaborative approach to professionalization. The initiative, in fact, has three cohorts: funding applicants; job candidates; and graduate school applicants.
Funding Applicants
The main activity of the Annual Proseminar on Scholarships, Fellowships, and Grants revolves around collaborative workshopping of funding applications for undergraduate and graduate students, and select junior faculty. The workshop is predicated upon instruction on the best practices for major research project design in large group sessions, interspersed with intense collaborative scrutiny and constructive feedback on project design in small affinity groups for undergraduate participants, as well as graduate and faculty participants, which are formed around disciplinary, methodological, thematic cohorts. Simultaneous with this instruction, workshop participants receive instruction on tactical approaches to the nuts and bolts of major awards applications vis-a-vis models from past successive applications. Similar to the methods of creative writing workshops, this activity revolves around revision, revision, and more revision. All students seeking feedback on their job applications must enroll in the Proseminar; no exceptions.
Academic Job Applicants
The Annual Proseminar on Scholarships, Fellowships, and Grants also provides instruction on tactical approaches to the genres of the academic job application for doctoral candidates on the academic job market. This activity intersects with genres of funding applications, with additional instruction on the best practices for the academic job cover letter, with tips on how to enhance and maximize the overall application. All students seeking feedback on their job applications must enroll in the Proseminar; no exceptions.
Graduate School Applicants
The Annual Proseminar on Scholarships, Fellowships, and Grants also provides instruction on tactical approaches to the genres of graduate school applications. This activity intersects with the genres of funding applications, with additional instruction on the best practices for graduate school applications, particularly personal statements and research plan. All students seeking feedback on their graduate school applications must enroll in the Proseminar; no exceptions.