Oxford Centre for Life-Writing (OCLW)
and
The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)
Post-Graduate Conference Grant: Life-Writing and the Humanities
The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing (OCLW) and The Oxford Research Centre in the
Humanities (TORCH) are offering one grant of £1500 available to post-graduate students in
the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford, to organise a conference on any aspect
of life-writing.
The grant is available to students on taught-course and research-based masters courses and
DPhils, in any of the following Faculties: Classics; English Language and Literature;
History; Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, or Phonetics Laboratory; Medieval and
Modern Languages; Music; Oriental Studies; Philosophy; Rothermere American Institute;
Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art; Theology and Religion; and the Voltaire
Foundation.
'Life-Writing' may be interpreted in the broadest terms. Conferences may be proposed on
related themes including (but not limited to) biography and autobiography, memoir,
interviews, journals, letters and correspondence, auto/biographical form, methodology,
criticism and history, and on thematic relationships between life-writing and the humanities,
such as 'life-writing and war'. For more information about life-writing, and about the Oxford
Centre for Life-Writing, please see OCLW's website: www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/lifewriting. For more information about The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, please
see TORCH's website: www.torch.ox.ac.uk.
Applicants should propose a one-day conference, to be held at TORCH's premises in the
Radcliffe Humanities Building, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. The conference should take
place on Saturdays during full term, or any day outside full term (except Sundays), between
the start of Trinity Term 2014 and the end of Michaelmas Term 2014. Applicants will be
responsible for all administrative aspects of the conference, including formulating the theme
and intellectual rationale, devising the format (invited speakers or open call for papers),
inviting speakers and/or issuing a Call for Papers, organising the schedule, and managing
the budget, promotion and advertising. OCLW will provide limited support, such as setting
up a webpage, online registration and payment, and some assistance with publicity.
Applications should be submitted by 5pm on Friday of 8th week of Michaelmas Term 2013
(Fri 6 December 2013). Applicants should email a completed application form, together
with the specified supporting materials and a covering letter, to Dr Rachel Hewitt (OCLW's
Research Fellow) at rachel.hewitt@wolfson.ox.ac.uk. Applicants will be notified of the
outcome by Friday 17 January 2014.
OCLW and TORCH Post-Graduate Conference Grant:
Life-Writing and the Humanities
Application form
Name(s) of principal organiser(s), with Faculty
affiliation(s) and email address(es)
Title of course(s) on which principal organiser(s) is/are
enrolled. If you are a DPhil candidate, please enter
your thesis title.
Start and end date of organisers' course(s)/ DPhil(s)
Proposed title of conference
Proposed date of conference
Will the conference consist of invited speakers only, or
will you issue a Call for Papers?
Please provide the names, titles and affiliations of any
proposed plenary or invited speakers
Have any of the above speakers already expressed their
willingness to participate?
Will you apply for further funding elsewhere? If so,
please describe your proposed sources of funding.
Please provide the names and faculty affiliations of any
prospective members of the Conference Committee,
along with their designated responsibility (eg.
publicity, finance).
Please email the completed application form, together with the supporting documents listed on the next page,
to Dr Rachel Hewitt at rachel.hewitt@wolfson.ox.ac.uk, by Friday 6 December 2013 (Friday of 8th week of
Michaelmas Term). Applicants will be notified of the outcome by Friday 17 January 2013.
For
more
information
about
the
Oxford
Centre
for
Life-Writing,
please
see
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing. For more information about TORCH, please see
www.torch.ox.ac.uk.
Supporting documents:
In no more than 750 words, please describe the intellectual rationale for the conference theme; the
conference's proposed format (for example, will the sessions run in parallel? how many speakers do you
propose to include? Will you organise any 'extra-curricular activities', such as a museum visit or Bodleian
exhibition to accompany the conference theme?); and, in bullet-points, please list its principal aims and
objectives. In this section, please also describe any outputs that might result from the conference (ie.
podcasts of lectures/papers; publication of conference proceedings online or in special issue of journal).
Please provide short CV(s) (no more than 2 pages each) for the principal organiser(s) of the conference,
including their past experience of conference organisation.
Please attach an outline budget for the conference, describing whether you will charge registration fees (and
if so, how much); estimated number of delegates; projected income (from the OCLW/TORCH grant,
registration fees (if any) and/or alternative sources of funding (if any)) and outgoings (eg. plenary speakers'
expenses; conference dinner).