Student Research Proposals: Deadline Extended to April 15

As we all adapt to the changes demanded by Covid-19, the Religion, Race & Democracy Lab is committed to moving forward with our summer 2020 documentary research program. We believe that these grants will offer students the support to report on and research religion, race, and the democratic process—issues which remain vital in the present circumstance.

We also want to ensure the safety of students and their families. There will therefore be two major changes to the grant going forward. 

• First, the three-day documentary arts training workshop, held May 18–20, 2020 will take place online. The seminar will be retooled to address not only storytelling, editing, and the ethics of documentary production, but the specific technical and creative challenges of doing this work remotely. 
• Second, we will not be fulfilling any proposals which require student travel. Your subjects must be reachable remotely.

If you have already submitted a proposal looking for travel funding, you may resubmit an updated proposal with plans for how to tell your story remotely. We are confident there are creative ways to tell your stories—through remote interviews, freely available footage, historical archives, animation, etc—even if on-the-ground reporting is off the table.

Apply Here

The Religion, Race & Democracy Lab invites undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Virginia to join with faculty, staff, and fellow students to investigate the complex interrelationships between religion, race and democracy.

Select students will receive a stipend—$3,000 for undergraduate students and $5,000 for graduate students—to produce media-rich non-fiction narratives on any topic that explores religion, race, and democracy. We seek topics from around the globe and throughout history that will result in a short audio or video documentary. Final projects should engage the broadest possible audience. Please note: the stipend does not support the writing of a dissertation chapter or an academic article

The Lab requires all student collaborators to participate in a three-day online training workshop in the documentary arts, held May 18–20, 2020.

Throughout the research period, student collaborators receive one-on-one support from the Lab’s editor and senior producer, with additional help from instructors at Light House Studio, a Charlottesville nonprofit that trains young filmmakers. Student collaborators must identify a faculty mentor with whom to consult about their research efforts. Students are expected to follow a production schedule and submit a final documentary by September 21, 2020. To ensure that projects follow the production timeline, stipends will be awarded as three separate payments, and issued only when key project milestones are reached.

The ultimate goal is to present final projects on the Lab’s website, however, the Lab retains the right to publish or not publish any student-produced content. To see samples of student documentaries, visit: https://religionlab.virginia.edu/projects/

ELIGIBILITY
Applicants must:

• be enrolled at UVA throughout the fall 2020 semester
• be able to participate in an online training workshop, May 18–20

Students who have received Lab funding in the past are welcome to apply again.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
All application materials must be submitted no later than 5 pm, on Wednesday, April 15, 2020.

• completed online form, which includes:
  • project pitch (no more than 2 pages double-spaced, .pdf or .doc only); see sample pitches from This American Life
  • resume (no more than 1 page single-spaced, .pdf or .doc only)
• brief statement of commitment from a faculty mentor emailed to thereligionlab@virginia.edu
• brief statement of commitment from a research contributor (i.e. interviewee, archivist, scholar) emailed to thereligionlab@virginia.edu

Have questions? Contact us at thereligionlab.virginia.edu or 434.924.6617.

Funding to support undergraduate research is generously provided by