LSE Anthropology Outreach 2010: Proposal Guidelines
The following guidelines are meant as suggestions and certainly should not be interpreted as a
strict blueprint. As mentioned before, summer projects can be in any anthropological field,
they can be mini research projects in their own right, or be designed as pilot studies that are
intended to lead to larger (i.e. Ph.D.) projects. The written proposals are max. 2,000 words
and the deadline is 25 March 2010.
Your proposal should tell the selection committee about what, why, and how. In essence,
you should be clear in describing 1) what the topic of your project is; 2) why you want to do
this, and this may indicate your personal interest, the social and anthropological relevance; 3)
how you will go about carrying out your project. Make sure that these questions are
adequately addressed, because they will convince the selection committee of its quality,
relevance, and feasibility.
You are free to structure your proposal in any way you see fit, but the following format often
works:
A. Introduction (appr. 300 words)
State clearly what the topic of your project is. This means that you need to specify both the
location (or locations) of your research, and the topic and possibly sub-topics of your project.
For example, you may be interested in the attitudes and relationships between Texans and
undocumented Mexican migrants, and specifically how existing tensions and mutual
interdependencies are reflected in the position and activities of the NGO Humane Borders.
You should here also briefly indicate what you expect to gain from this project (academically
or personally, and don’t brush the personal aside)
B. Relevance (appr. 1,000 words)
In PhD. proposals this is often called literature review, in which the candidates show how
their research is tied to, builds upon, and preferably goes beyond existing anthropological
debates. Since these are smaller summer projects, you won’t need (and probably shouldn’t
try) to do original research, but this is where you indicate how your envisioned project links
to topics that have been discussed in previous courses (academic relevance), or how it may
contribute to an understanding of existing societal concerns or problems (social relevance), or
how it will help you to understand anthropological discussions better or allow you to see if
research is something that suits you (personal interest). While describing the relevance you
will have to say more about the topic at hand, and you will thus show that you have
familiarized yourself with the regional and thematic literature.
C. Approach (appr. 500 words)
In full-blown research proposals this section often stipulated a research strategy that outlines
how research questions will be operationalized, which tools will be used to gather data, and
which analytical strategies will be employed. For your proposal you won’t need to do all that,
but rather provide a descriptive narrative of how you imagine to carry out your project.
This means that you should reflect on: 1. how you will gain access (did you establish
contacts, where will you stay, etc.); 2. what will you do (just participate and observe, conduct
interviews with …, etc.); 3. what the ethical considerations are (sensitive topics, links to
organizations, etc.); 4. pragmatic considerations such as language and safety; 5. what kinds of
data and findings you anticipate to collect, and how these may help you to better understand
your topic of interest.
Note: There is no need to avoid sensitive issues or ones with ethical complications, just like
not knowing the language is not necessarily a problem as long as you have thought about
ways how to deal with it.
D. Budget (appr. 200 words)
This will necessarily include travel insurance, and usually includes travel and accommodation
costs as well as research costs (paper, pens, films, cassettes, and gifts). In addition you may
think of living costs, but remember that you will have to prove what you have spent by
showing receipts, which are not always available for foodstuffs. It is more problematic to pay
organizations or individuals to assist you in your research, partly because not even PhD
students can pay for research assistants, and partly because this raises complications with
labour contracts etc. So if you need assistance (with language, for example), it may be
worthwhile to establish contact with students in the country you are going to, who perhaps
may be interested in helping you out so that they can practice their English.
Note: It is important to come up with a realistic budget; in some instances proposals may be
provisionally selected pending budget adjustments.