MESA Graduate Student Opportunities

Graduate Student Listserv
All students are welcome to join the graduate student listserv. The listserv is mostly used to circulate information on funding opportunities, calls for papers, conference announcements, etc. To join the listserv, please visit MESA's sign-up page where you will be asked to enter your name, email address, and check a box indicating that you wish to join the GSO listserv.

Student Travel Fund for the MESA 2008 Meeting
Application deadline: September 15, 2008.

MESA’s Board of Directors has established a modest fund to help subsidize travel expenses for students who are presenting papers at the MESA annual meeting. For the 2008 meeting, MESA will award an as yet undetermined number of $250 grants.

To be eligible for a travel grant, applicants must meet the following
criteria:

1) current student in a degree-seeking program during academic year 2008-09;
2) current MESA student member for 2008;
3) presenting a paper as part of the official MESA 2008 meeting program;
4) must travel a minimum of 250 miles to attend the Washington, DC meeting;
5) must not be receiving funding to attend the meeting from any other source;
6) must present their paper at the MESA meeting as scheduled.

To apply, students should submit a letter of application by email (palmers@email.arizona.edu) or mail outlining their eligibility, and have their academic department chair submit to MESA a letter confirming that they are not receiving departmental support to attend the meeting.

All eligible applicants’ names will be entered into a lottery system for random selection. The awards will be announced shortly after the deadline and will be made by cash payment at the MESA meeting.

Graduate Student Paper Prize 2008
The Middle East Studies Association invites university and college faculty to nominate graduate student research papers on any aspect of post 600 CE Middle East studies for the 2008 Graduate Student Paper Prize. The author of the winning paper will be presented with an award of $250 and hand-calligraphed certificate at the MESA Awards Ceremony held during the MESA Annual Meeting in November.

Papers will be reviewed using a blind process so the author’s name should NOT be included on the title page, footer, or header. Papers will be evalutated according to originality of research and conceptualization (or interpretation), cogency of argument, and clarity of writing.

Submission rules:

1. A written nomination provided by a faculty member. (Since it is a blind review it can be sent via email).
2. Author must be a current graduate student; proof of student status provided (this can be a letter from the department which can be sent via email).
3. The paper must have been produced between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.
4. The paper must not exceed 7500 words (excluding bibliography).
5. The paper must not be or ever been submitted for publication.
6. The paper needs to use the following format:

8 ½ x 11 paper
One-sided
Standard font (such as Arial or Times Roman)
Double-spaced
1.25” margins
Page limit of 30 pages
Black and white (if using color photos, must provide three copies of paper)
IJMES standards for endnotes (http://assets.cambridge.org/MES/MES_ifc.pdf)

Send materials to Sara Palmer, MESA, 1219 N Santa Rita Ave, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85721 (520 626-4753; palmers@email.arizona.edu). Deadline: July 1, 2008.

Graduate Student Representative to MESA’s Board of Directors
MESA members will elect a Graduate Student Representative to MESA's Board of Directors from among a list of candidates determined by MESA's Nominating Committee. The election of the student representative will take place in August at the same time as the 2008 Election of Officers. Candidate bios and a ballot will be included in the August MESA Newsletter and electronic voting will be available via MESA's website. Students who are interested in being considered for this position should contact Sara Palmer at palmers@email.arizona.edu.