NSF Grants or other grants for Master's degree?

[Archaeologist]

Does an archaeology NSF Grant or any other grants for a master's student exist?

I'm a second year master's student, and I haven't even formed my committee yet. I'm still in the process of writing my thesis proposal, and even this has proved difficult with a difficult advisor. I communicate as less as possible with him because of past conflicts with him; he once sent an unprofessional email to me and his other grad student, and its intent was to insult one of my colleagues. I don't understand my advisor, and so I would've asked him about funding for my research, but there are more complications to this. I've mentioned my thesis topic to him before, and he shot it down. He insisted that I do something else. On the contrary, I think my thesis topic is a brilliant idea that brings new ideas into the discipline.

I plan to write my thesis proposal by the middle of March and apply for grants for my research project, but the grants (NSF) that I've looked at only apply towards PhD students. I know my school won't fund me and neither will my department because I had to pay out of my own pocket to participate in my advisor's field school the past summer.

My advisor is running another field school this summer, and I don't want to participate in that again. The groups are large (10-15), and work is done slowly, not to mention all the conflicting personalities. I just want to take a small group (2-4) of people that I know personally will work hard towards the project. This entails that I will not be participating in my advisor's field school, but I will be running my own separate project in the same archipelago; the field school will be on one island and my project is planned to be on another island.

All of this seems complicated in the big picture, but for now, I just tell myself to read the 42 journal articles I've collected and compose my committee and thesis proposal.

Edited February 2, 2011 by Archaeologist

[Krypton]

The NSF GRFP funds Master's students, but they have to apply in their first or second year.