Enhancing my CV?

[May_Flower]

Hello All, 

 

I truly feel that more graduate history programs should offer classes or workshops that inform students on outside opportunities to enhance their CV's. Thus, I need some input when it comes to Fellowships, TA positions, presenting at conferences, grant funding...

 

I am working on my second masters degree (first one was in American Studies, second one is in American Urban History with a concentration in Civil Rights) and I would like to know about how fellowships may be relevant to me? Since I am not a PHD student, would I be qualified for external fellowships? If I am and say I qualify for a Smithsonian Fellowship, what would be my obligation to the Smithsonian?

 

Secondly, what is the process of finding out about conferences that may be relevant to my interests and possibly presenting my paper there? What is the format of these conferences - how much time is usually allotted to the presenters? Just curious if these conferences allow us to go into detail about our work or cover the general research only.

 

Thirdly, how is grant funding relevant to my situation and how is it different from fellowships? I have been struggling to pay for tuition out of pocket so what options would I have to help me out with tuition...

[TMP]

To be blunt, there is almost no external research support for master's students.  I was a MA student as well but in an interdisciplinary one (with a history focus).  Most MA students can only get support from their universities.  External fellowships want doctoral students who will be writing their dissertations (with hopes of turning those into books).  Even so, those doctoral students usually have to pass their candidacy exams in order to qualify for research fellowships.

 

As for conferences, I found them through H-Net daily digests and went to the annual meetings in my particular fields.  I know some graduate students have asked their advisers where they could present their work.  There are a lot of graduate conferences.  If you are in a PhD program as a terminal MA student, you should be asking the DGS or graduate program coordinator for those e-mails announcing conferences.

 

I would not be so concerned about "enhancing" your CV for doctoral programs if that's the reason.  You just do the best you can and write the finest writing sample possible.  Professors aren't stupid- they know what's available out there for research monies and that many do not support students pursuing master's degrees and will be forgiving about it.

[thedig13]

Based on what you've written in your post, I'd recommend the Urban History Association's biennial conference. The last conference was a few weeks ago in Philly, and it was great.

 

As for learning more about conferences and presenting/paneling, I'd recommend simply showing up to one -- not to present, but merely to observe and learn. I did this with the aforementioned UHA conference in Philadelphia, and even though I didn't present, it was an incredibly enlightening experience which taught me a lot about what people do at conferences, the different kinds of work that are presented, what is expected of presenters, and the general format of a professional conference for historians.