Lambda Iota Tau (LIT) Research Grants
Award Cycle: Spring
Aims and Eligibility
LIT Research Grants are designed to support individual members at the undergraduate or graduate level as they complete original research that furthers the goals of Sigma Tau Delta. Grant money of up to $1,000, with up to $500 for runners-up, will support travel to and use of archives or collections important to their research. The winning applicants will demonstrate the relevance of the research to English and English-related fields and may also describe the effect on current coursework, future research, or career pursuits. Each applicant will identify goals, propose outcomes, and estimate specific costs for the research travel. Students may not request grant money for research supported by a previous LIT Research Grant. Any members interested in support for summer or study abroad programs would apply for those scholarships rather than for a LIT Research Grant.
All research travel and the resulting written or presented outcome must be completed before May of the following year.
How to Apply
Applications for the LIT Research Grants are accepted through AwardSpring. The link to access the Sigma Tau Delta AwardSpring platform will be posted on the AwardSpring Application informational page of our website once the Spring Awards Cycle opens.
If you are using AwardSpring for the first time, you must create an account by clicking "Register." If you have used AwardSpring previously, you should use login using your email address and existing password.
Required Materials
1. Letter of Support from the professor directing your research project (including conference papers, coursework, senior projects, theses, portion of a dissertation, etc.), including:
- confirmation that you are working under that professor’s direction;
- an explanation of any necessary permissions you will need to gain;
- a clear description of the final form the resulting scholarship will take; and
- the professor’s criteria for successful completion of this project.
The due date for this letter of support will be one week after the AwardSpring application deadline. Letter of Support authors are encouraged to review our Writing Effective Letters of Recommendation video resource.
2. Written Narrative, not to exceed 500 words, that addresses the following:
- a description of the location where the research will take place, including distance from your location at the time of the travel;
- your specific goals for the use of these archives or collections;
- a timeline for the use of materials or facilities, including a projected outcome date for the project in its final form;
- a clear description of the types of information you will be using—of particular importance might be a list of holdings at this research site, an explanation of the rarity of a collection, or even a bibliography of the sources on which you will focus;
- your rationale for how this research is pertinent to English and English-related fields; and
- details about the ways in which this research will benefit your current coursework, future research, and/or career pursuits.
Deadline
See the Awards Overview page for the LIT Grant application window.
Winners will work with the Central Office to coordinate the timing of funding in advance of travel. Once the project is completed, as per your timeline, the director of your research will be asked to confirm via email that you satisfied the criteria for a successful project.
Final Project Reflection
Following the travel, grant recipients are required to submit an article (400-600 words) for WordybyNature, the official Society blog, that highlights your discoveries, outlines the importance of the archive or collection, or in some other way communicates the ways in which you benefited from the research and the support of the LIT Research Grant.
Questions
Please contact the Central Office staff at sigmatdapply@niu.edu.
