[Reader-list] Announcements digest, Vol 1 #87 - 1 msg

Thu Sep 5 09:56:09 IST 2002

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Today's Topics:

   1. Call for Proposals (Monica Narula)

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 12:57:37 +0530
To: announcements at sarai.net
From: Monica Narula <monica at sarai.net>
Subject: [Announcements] Call for Proposals

Applications Invited for Short Term Independent Research Fellowship
The Sarai Programme: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

What is Sarai?

Sarai is a public initiative of media practitioners and scholars 
looking at media cultures and urban life. Sarai's interests are in 
the field of old and new media, information and communication 
Technologies, free software, cinema, and urban space - its politics, 
built form, ecology, culture and history, with a strong commitment to 
making knowledge available in the public domain. It is a programme of 
the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. For more 
information visit www.sarai.net

Who Can Apply

Sarai invites independent researchers, media practitioners, software 
designers and programmers, urbanists, architects, artists and 
writers, as well as students (post graduate level and above) and 
university and college faculty to apply for support to research 
driven projects.

Why Research ? What do we mean by Research? What is a Seed Grant?

Sarai is committed to generating public knowledge and creativity 
through research. Hence the support for research driven projects and 
processes. The fellowships are in the nature of seed grants in order 
to emphasize the initiation and founding of projects that would 
otherwise go unsupported

Here by research we mean both archival and field research, and forays 
into theoretical work as well as any process or activity of an 
experimental or creative nature - for instance in the audiovisual 
media, as well as in journalism or the humanities and social 
sciences, or in computing and
architecture.

The Experience of Last Year

This is the second year in which Sarai has called for proposals for 
such fellowships. We would like to spell out the way in which the 
process worked during the first year, as an indication of what 
applicants should expect. The first year saw the selection of twenty 
proposals, which included work towards projects based on 
investigative reportage of urban issues, essays on everyday life, a 
history of urban Dalit performance traditions, a soundscape of an 
industrial suburb, a graphic novel about Delhi, a documentation of 
the free software movement in India, research on displacement and 
rehabilitation in cities, and an interpretative catalogue of wall 
writings and street signs.
Successful applicants included free lance researchers, academics, 
media practitioners, writers, journalists and activists.

The projects were submitted in English, Hindi or a combination of the 
two languages. We have seen that projects that set important but 
practical and modest goals were usually successful, whereas those 
that may have been conceptually sound but lacked sufficient 
motivation to actually persue a research objective on the field, 
usually did not take off beyond the interim stage.

Sarai interacted closely with the researcher over the period of the 
fellowship and the grantees made interim and final presentations at 
Sarai which us to trace the development of work during the grant 
period and the grantees to obtain structured but informal feedback 
from us at Sarai in stages during the course of their work. 
Submissions by grantees included written reports and essays, 
photographs, tape recordings, pamphlets, maps, drawings and html 
presentations.

What we are Looking For

Like last year, this year too we are looking for proposals that are 
imaginatively articulated, experimental and methodogically 
innovative, but which are pragmatic and backed up by a well argued 
work plan which sets out a time table for the project, as well as 
suggests how the support will help with specific resources (human and 
material) that the project needs.

Suggested Themes

Sarai's interests lie in the city, and in media. Broadly speaking any 
proposal that looks at the urban condition, or at media is eligible. 
More specifically, themes may be as diverse as habitation, sexuality, 
labour, social/digital interfaces, urban violence, street life, 
technologies of urban control, health and the city, the political 
economy of media forms, histories of particular media practices, 
migration, transportation, or anything that the applicants feel will 
resonate with the philosophy and interests that motivate Sarai's work.

Sarai supports innovative and inventive modes of rendering work into 
the Public Domain. Proposals, which pay attention to this, will be 
particularly valued.

Preferred Approaches

Innovative and interdisciplinary methodologies, that combine 
research, practice, and delivery or rendition methods will be 
especially welcome.

Conditions

Applicants should be resident in India, and should have an account in 
any bank operating in India.

The research fellowship would be available for up to six months and 
for a maximum amount of Rs. 60,000.

The fellowships do not require an every day presence at Sarai. These 
are support fellowships and fellowship holders will be free to pursue 
their primary occupations, if any.

What you need to send
There are no application forms. Simply post your
- Proposal (not more than1000 words)
- A brief workplan (not more than one page)
- An updated CVs (not more than two pages)
- Work samples (maximum two)
- Envelopes should be marked - "Attention : Short Term Independent 
Research Fellowship" [Email proposals will not be entertained]. 
Proposals may be sent in English or Hindi.

- Mail these to: Ranita Chatterjee, Coordinator, Programmes, Sarai, 
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 
110054, India.
Enquires: dak at sarai.net
Last date for submission: October 5, 2002.

Note: Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives, faculty are 
welcome, so long as the grant amount is administered by a single 
individual, and the funds are deposited in a single bank account in 
the name of an individual, partnership, registered body or 
institutional entity.

Applicants who apply to other institutions for support for the same 
proposal will not be disqualified, provided they inform Sarai that 
support is being sought (or has been obtained) from another 
institution. The applicants should inform Sarai about the identity of 
the other institution.
-- 
Monica Narula
Sarai:The New Media Initiative
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net

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