CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire en philosophie politique de Montréal (GRIPP) invites applications for a limited number of 2023-24 graduate student fellowships. Fellowships are available to graduate students in political philosophy or political theory at Concordia, McGill University, l’Université de Montréal, l’Université du Québec à Montréal, and the École nationale d’administration publique whose application is sponsored by a GRIPP faculty member. McGill and Université de Montréal students must be enrolled in the Ph.D. program; Concordia, UQAM, and ÉNAP students may be enrolled in the MA or the Ph.D.

Fellowships:

Stipends will vary by degree program, by the Fellows’ existing funding, and by the number of successful applicants, but will be up to $7,000 for PhD students who do not have other competitive fellowships, and up to $2,500 for MA students. Those who hold external or endowed fellowships may receive reduced stipends rather than a full amount.

Fellows are also eligible for travel funding to present papers at appropriate academic conferences up to $750 per year. Conferences should be competitive (accepting papers by submission, not by invitation) and should not be graduate student-only events; the intent is to support travel to present at conferences such as ACFAS, APA, APSA, APT, CPA, CPSA, SPQ, etc.

Responsibilities:

Successful applicants are expected to attend and participate in all GRIPP activities, including the Fellows Research Workshop and the visiting speakers’ Research Colloquium (around 2 seminars per month, held on Fridays at 2-4pm), 1-2 conferences per year, the Charles Taylor Lecture Series in Political Thought, two book manuscript workshops, and one workshop per semester on methods and approaches in political theory and philosophy.  In most cases, papers will be circulated and should always be read in advance.

Fellows will be expected to either

a) present a manuscript in progress at a seminar, which must be circulated at least one week in advance, with an abstract available in both French and English.  These papers, normally dissertation chapters or manuscripts in preparation for submission to conferences and journals, should be 6000-10,000 words in length, i.e. about the length of a journal article;

or

b) lead discussion of a manuscript in progress (which may be written by a Fellow, or a GRIPP-affiliated postdoc or faculty member, or a visiting speaker).  This will involve speaking for 10-15 minutes at the beginning of the session.  A straightforward summary of the paper isn’t called for, since all attendees should have read the paper, but rather an explanation and elaboration of its key arguments and contributions, followed by constructively critical engagement, suggestions for future directions, challenges, and questions.  The aim is to help the author, and to provide a good starting point for useful discussion.

Fellows in their first year with GRIPP will act as discussants; so will those who presented papers last year.  Returning fellows who acted as discussants last year will present papers this year.

If you will be a discussant, you should indicate any broad preferences about the kind of work you are most interested in discussing (these may not be honoured).

If you will be presenting a paper, you should offer a tentative title and abstract of the paper, along with preferences about when in the year you would like to present (these may not be honoured, and you will be expected to present whenever your session is scheduled).

GRIPP is a bilingual research group. Workshops will operate according to the principle of passive bilingualism.

Applications:

All applications should be sent by email to Jean-Félix Caron <jean-felix.caron@mcgill.ca> with the subject “CFA GRIPP.” Applications must include:

1.     The filled out application form “Application for GRIPP Fellowship”

2.     A recent digital photo of the candidate

In your application form, you are required to name a faculty member who is a member of GRIPP who supports your application. This is your “nominal sponsor.” Your nominal sponsor will normally be your thesis advisor, but if your thesis advisor is not a member of GRIPP you are still eligible to apply by asking a member of GRIPP to sponsor your application. You are also asked to name a “financial sponsor.” Filling this slot is optional. It is primarily meant for applicants who are aware of faculty members willing to support their application financially by providing matchings funds for their fellowship should they get one, especially when the potential financial sponsor is not a member of GRIPP and is different from their thesis advisor and nominal sponsor.

Deadline: August 31, 2023, 5 pm

https://grippmontreal.org/