Students receive grant money for research opportunities abroad
$10,000 is available to students
The Center of Latin American Studies will distribute the money.
By Joshua Anderson (Contact)
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
The Center of Latin American Studies has received a Tinker Foundation research grant to support KU graduate student research.
The Tinker Foundation is an organization dedicated to issues in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Tinker grant money provides $10,000 per year through 2010 to fund short-term research for KU graduate students from a variety of disciplines.
Elizabeth Kuznesof, director of the Center of Latin American Studies, said the Tinker grant was unique because it gives priority to graduate students who have never been to the countries in which they want to do research.
The terms of the grant also bar any indirect costs, meaning the University does not get a portion of the graduate students’ funding like it does for most research grants, Kuznesof said.
Research stints for the grant can range from three weeks to a couple of months, and Kuznesof said students can choose when they want to do their research.
I was toying with the idea that I was going to use that for my master’s thesis. The info I got there cemented my interest.
-Lisa Rausch, doctoral student in geography
Lisa Rausch, doctoral student in geography, traveled to Monteverde, Costa Rica, in 2003 when she received a Tinker grant as a graduate student in Latin American Studies.
She went to Monteverde during her winter break to study the effect of coffee cooperatives.
“I was toying with the idea that I was going to use that for my master’s thesis,” Rausch said. “The info I got there cemented my interest.”
Kuznesof said other Tinker grant recipients’ research included cosmetic surgery in Brazil, Afro-Brazilian singing groups and indigenous land control in Mexico and Latin America.
“The research gives students credibility and often they will use that to develop more detailed proposals for major research grants,” she said.
Graduate students in anthropology, economics, architecture and social welfare have been among those to receive grant money in the past, Kuznesof said.
Rausch said she encouraged any graduate student interested in Latin America, Spain or Portugal to apply for the grant.
“It’s a great opportunity to experience what a place is like – especially if you haven’t visited the place before,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of those grants.”
Kuznesov said the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center have already promised to match the Tinker grants awarded to any graduate student from their department or institution.
She said the money would be used to cover airfare, lodging and other costs associated with the research.
The deadline for this year’s grant applications is Feb. 25. Students can submit research proposals and applications to the Center of Latin American Studies in room 320 of Bailey Hall.
—Edited by Nick Mangiaracina
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