Research Fellowship Application Packet

The Application Deadline for the 2023 AIIS Fellowship Competition is November 15, 2023

Applicants for fellowships should complete the following steps:

1. Download announcement flier, application instructions, and check list (found below) and read carefully.
2. Create a single pdf file that contains all of the items listed in the checklist  and for junior fellowship applicants, scans of your transcripts (if you cannot scan your transcripts you may mail the transcripts to the AIIS office in Chicago) APPLICATIONS MUST BE TYPED. MATERIALS THAT ARE HANDWRITTEN AND THEN SCANNED WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. We do not need a real signature on anything. Simply type in your name where a signature is requested. AIIS is no longer requiring an application fee. 

3. Register on our online portal and then log in to your portal account using the password you will create.
4. Follow the application steps: choose your fellowship category and submit your  application. Please refer to the application checklist. Make sure your application file name does not include any punctuation marks like commas or apostrophes. For instance–call your file “Sanjay application” and NOT “Sanjay’s application.”  Please note that there is NO final submit button. Once you upload your application onto the portal it has been submitted. You can go into your account and all items that have been successfully submitted will have green check marks. NOTE: AIIS IS NO LONGER ASKING FOR LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION FOR THE FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION

A small number of outstanding scholars will be awarded fellowships funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions). All applicants for senior fellowships who meet the eligibility requirements (who are either US citizens or non-citizens who have resided in the US for at least three years), who request funding for at least four months, and whose projects fall into a range of humanistic disciplines will be considered for an NEH-funded fellowship in a separate review process. Those who are awarded NEH-funded fellowships will receive generous stipends of $5,000 per month. No additional application is required.

AIIS is offering a mentoring service to junior fellowship applicants who do not have faculty advisors with South Asia expertise at their home institutions.

AIIS held a webinar on preparing a strong application on September 19, 2023. Please click here to watch a recording of the video. You can watch the recording of the September 2022 webinar here. Please send any questions to 

The Research Fellowship Application Packet includes the following documents:

  • Research Fellowship Competition Announcement (PDF)
  • Research Fellowship Competition Instructions and Guidelines (PDF)
  • Applications (MS Word)/PDF)
  • Affiliate Sponsor Form (MS Word/ PDF)
  • Reviewer Worksheet (MS Word/PDF)
  • Application Checklist (MS Word/PDF)
  • All or specific sections of the packet can be downloaded as Word documents or pdf files. Pdfs use Acrobat Reader software. A free copy of this software is available at the Abode website.

NOTE: To type on the pdf forms, you must save the documents on your hard drive. They can be opened using Adobe Acrobat (not the same as Acrobat Reader). Use the touch-up-text function to type on the forms.

Application Instructions and Guidelines

Please read all application materials carefully. All forms in the application packet must be completed and submitted electronically. Further below will be some helpful tips for preparing a successful application.

Guidelines

  • Applications that do not meet the requirements listed below will NOT be considered.
  • Applicants for the 2023 fellowship competition will be notified of the selection committee’s decisions by the end of March 2024.
  • Two full years must have elapsed between the completion of a previous AIIS fellowship and the current application deadline. This rule does NOT apply to recipients of AIIS language program fellowships.
  • Those fellows selected in the 2023 fellowship competition will be able to carry out their fellowships at a time of their choosing between July 1, 2024 and September 30, 2026; AIIS fellows may not hold another major grant that provides funds to support research conducted in India concurrently with the AIIS fellowship during this period. An AIIS fellow may not commence another fellowship to support research conducted in India until six months have elapsed from the end of their AIIS fellowship. An AIIS fellow cannot start their AIIS fellowship until six months have elapsed after the completion of any other fellowship that funded research on the same project conducted in India. These restrictions only apply to what is supported by an AIIS fellowship, i.e., travel to India and maintenance and research expenses in India while the fellow is conducting research in India, and do not apply to funds to be used as salary replacement, to support research in other countries, or to purchase equipment. These restrictions do not apply to small grants or other funding provided by the fellow’s own home institution.
  • Non-U.S. citizens are welcome to apply for AIIS fellowships as long as they are either graduate students or full-time faculty at a college or university in the U.S. Citizens of the United States, however, can apply for senior fellowships if they are not affiliated with an institution of higher education in the U.S.
  • Applications from scholars who are part of a collaborative project involving other scholars are welcome, though AIIS fellowships are granted to individuals not to teams. Amounts awarded to successful applicants who are members of group projects will be equivalent to fellowships awarded to scholars who submitted applications for individual projects.

Evaluation Criteria

The Selection Committee will assess each application on the following basis:

  • Excellence and merit of the project
  • Project Design and methodology
  • The candidate’s academic and/or professional record

Members of the Selection Committee represent a number of different academic disciplines within the field of Indian Studies, so the applicant must explain the nature and significance of the project in terms intelligible to a non-specialist audience. Please avoid jargon and be as concise as possible. Applicants who are not affiliated with an AIIS member institution are WELCOME to apply.

Reviewer Worksheet

The Reviewer Worksheet provides basic identifying information about the proposed project. It is used in the review process to summarize the three primary areas of competitive review:

  • Merit of project
  • Project design/methodology
  • Academic and/or professional record

The Reviewer Worksheet also enables the AIIS to summarize general information about the applicant pool and the range of subject matter submitted to it for consideration. Summary statements with this kind of information enable the Institute to solicit funds for its fellowship program. Applicants should select the discipline of their PROJECT and NOT necessarily their departmental affiliation.

Affiliation with an institution in India

The Indian Government requires all foreign scholars be associated with an Indian institution.

  • The Institute will arrange institutional affiliation for fellows.
  • Non-Indian citizens will need a research visa to do research in India. A certificate of affiliation from an Indian institution is required to obtain the research visa.
  • No fellowship funds will be released until AIIS has obtained a certificate of affiliation.

Please provide the names of three institutions with which you wish to be affiliated on the affiliate sponsor form. Please CAREFULLY read the information regarding affiliation on the affiliate sponsor form. The Institute will pursue affiliation on your behalf to expedite the project approval process.

Instructions

  • Be sure to answer each question on the form. If all questions are not answered, the application may be rejected.
  • The application must be typed and all questions answered on the form itself. It is not acceptable to refer to appended material.
  • The application deadline for the 2023 AIIS Fellowship Competition is November 15.
  • Applications must be uploaded to the web platform following the instructions
  • It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that their application materials are received prior to the deadline. Late materials will not be considered.
  • Please save your completed application for your files  as you may need it for reference over the next two years.
  • For the question regarding current status or title, if you are a faculty member, please indicate whether you are tenured or untenured.
  • The Project Summary must be typed on both the Application for Fellowship and the Reviewer Worksheet.
  • Please consult the application checklist and create ONE pdf file to include all of the components of your application.

When naming your discipline choose the PROJECT discipline and not your departmental discipline, please choose one primary discipline from the following categories; if you want to add a secondary discipline you may indicate that by using the number 2: Anthropology Archaeology Architecture Art Behavioral Sciences Communications Cultural Studies Economics Education Environmental Studies Ethnomusicology Film/Photography Gender/Sexuality Studies Geography History History of Art/Architecture History of Science Linguistics Literature Medicine Natural Sciences Performance Studies Performing Arts Philosophy Political Science Public Health Religious Studies Sociology Technology Studies Urban Planning Please also include five short key phrases that would describe your project. For example for a project on agrarian social movements in the early twentieth century north India you could say: early twentieth-century history; agrarian movements in north India; agricultural workers’ rights movements; twentieth century social movements.

Supplemental Materials

Please refer to the Application Checklist when assembling your application and submit the checklist with your application materials to AIIS.

Project Statement

All applications must include a project statement fully describing proposed research. Be sure to clearly include:

  • Reasons for pursuing this research
  • The significance of your project and its relevance to other scholarship
  • Research methodology
  • Anticipated results of your study
  • Time-table for completing the project

If the completion of this project requires research outside India, or if you plan a departure from India during the time of award, please note in the timetable for completion. The project statement must conform to the following requirements:

  1. It must be no longer than six (6) pages, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, and printed in a type size no smaller than 12 points.
  2. The project statement must be clearly legible. Applications that do not conform to these specifications will not be read by the Committee or returned by the Institute.
  • Applicants who recently submitted an unsuccessful application for the same project should include an additional, seventh, page to their project statement with a one or two paragraph description of how the new application differs from the previous one, and how the applicant incorporated the reviewer comments into the new application.
  • Attach a one to three-page bibliography related to your project. Please remember that your proposal will be read and evaluated by a committee representing India specialists with diverse disciplinary expertise.
  • A curriculum vitae of no more than two (2) pages must also be submitted. It should include major publications with the names of publishers and dates of publication. Citations for articles and monographs must be complete. Please identify clearly all publications resulting from prior AIIS-supported research with an asterisk.
  • The application should also include a one-page (double-spaced) personal statement that provides information not included in other parts of the application that the applicant believes will help the selection committee evaluate the application. This might include biographical information, reasons why the applicant has decided to pursue this project, challenges faced by the applicant, sources of inspiration, or other experiences the applicant believes are relevant.
  • Applicants for the Junior Research Fellowship must include transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate institutions attended in the U.S. with their application.
  • Applicants for the Senior Performing and Creative Arts Fellowship must provide a web-based link to some significant sample of their work, e.g. high quality videotape for filmmakers, dancers and perhaps musicians; high quality audio tape (if not video) for musicians; and photographs or slides for visual artists. Video and audio recordings should be continuous, not excerpted, and at least 15 minutes, but preferably a half hour in length.  At the end of their project statement they should provide a full description of their work sample(s)—including date of the performance or recording, if there is an ensemble which person is the applicant and who the other participants are.

Project information sheet

In order to obtain the certificate of affiliation, applicants must submit a two-page (maximum) project information sheet. This document should also be used for non-Indian citizens when it is time to obtain a research visa for India. The project information sheet should provide the following information:

  • where the applicant wishes to go
  • what the applicant wishes to do
  • materials to be reviewed
  • types of information to be collected.

The project information sheet should not be written in jargon. Applicants should avoid discussing theoretical frameworks, methodological issues, literature reviews, etc. Please remember that the document is to be reviewed by non-academics for the purposes of issuing a certificate of affiliation and, eventually, the research visa. The AIIS selection committee will not review the two-page information sheets. AIIS staff will review the project sheets and will advise applicants to make changes where needed.

Summary of Helpful Tips for Applicants to Prepare Successful Proposals

Your project statement is only six pages, double-spaced. You need to use that space to accomplish two main things and you must attend to both. In the past many projects have been unsuccessful because they have shortchanged the one or the other:

1)  You need to demonstrate to the committee why your project is important and interesting; you need to clearly explain how your project is situated in and contributes to existing scholarship; you need to clearly articulate your theoretical framework and the hypotheses and research questions that guide your project

2) You need to very clearly explain why you need to go to India to carry out your project and exactly what you will be doing while you are carrying out your project in India; you need to lay out and justify your methodology; you need to demonstrate to the committee that your methodology is appropriate to address your research goals; you need to demonstrate that your methodology is feasible and that you can accomplish your goals in the period of time you are requesting.

If you are, for instance planning on visiting archives to examine materials, you should explain what you hope to find and why you believe the materials you seek can be accessed at the particular archives you wish to visit. If you are planning on conducting interviews or participant observation, you need to clearly explain the basis for selecting your sample: for instance by gender, occupation, education level, etc. The basis for selecting the sample must be justified in terms of how you anticipate achieving your specific research goals.

You should discuss your language proficiency. If you lack sufficient language proficiency, you should discuss measures you will be taking, such as procuring the services of an interpreter.

Your application will be read by a committee composed of scholars in a variety of disciplines. You should therefore avoid discipline-specific jargon and undefined terms.

Your bibliography should not be an afterthought. The committee will be paying very close attention to your bibliography to ascertain that you are familiar with the existing scholarship in your field.

AIIS held a webinar on preparing a strong application on September 19, 2023. Please click here to watch a recording of the video. You can watch the recording of the September 2022 webinar here. Please send any questions to