EASA PhD Excellence Grant

This grant is awarded biennially to one Europe-based researcher who has defended their PhD thesis in the discipline of Australian Studies in the last two calendar years, starting with 2025. This means that 2027 constitutes the first grant year.

The Awarding Body
The Grant is awarded by the EASA Grant Committee which consists of five standing members of the EASA. The EASA Grant Committee members are subject to change.

The Grant
The successful applicant will receive €300 and will be expected to attend and prepare a presentation based on their PhD for the next EASA conference, typically held in September or October. Conference attendance will be free of charge. In addition, the successful applicant will also be able to attend another EASA conference free of charge. In other words, the successful applicant will be able to attend two successive EASA conferences free of charge (conference fee waiver).

The Purpose of the Grant
We aim to assist and promote the work of young Australian studies researchers by connecting them with senior researches in the field of Australian studies. Apart from the monetary aspect of the Grant, the awardee will have a chance to present their work at two EASA conferences, receive additional feedback on their work and publish it in the EASA journal.

Eligible applicants
Any Europe-based researcher who has successfully defended their thesis in the past two calendar years, i.e., from Jan 2 of one year to Dec 30 of the next year. (e.g., any candidate who defends their PhD thesis during 2025 or 2026 is eligible to apply for the EASA PhD Excellence Grant in 2027).
The applicants do not have to be members of the EASA.

Procedure
The applicants must provide the following three documents in .PDF format:

  • PhD thesis;
  • Summary (max. 1500 words) stating aims, methodology and results; and
  • Supervisor’s report (c. 250 words) stating in brief the relevance of the applicant’s PhD thesis.

Please rename documents to contain your name followed by the tags: _PhD_EASAGrant; _Summary_EASAGrant; _Report_EASAGrant. (e.g., John Doe_PhD_EASAGrant.pdf)

Documents must be emailed to the Committee at easa.grant@gmail.com by March 15.

Deadlines

  • Grant documents must be submitted via email by March 15 of the grant year at the latest;
  • The EASA Grant Committee will reach its decision by the end of July of the grant year to enable the awardee to prepare for the upcoming EASA conference typically held in September or October.
  • All applicants are informed about the outcome of the PhD Excellence Grant application process via email.

Awarding Ceremony
The successful applicant will receive their Certificate of Excellence at the closing ceremony of the next in-person EASA conference. The monetary grand will be transferred to the applicant’s account in the grant year.

For further enquiries, please email the Committee at easa.grant@gmail.com.

Postgrad community / Reading club

The EASA postgrad community is here to bring more support to students and their research projects, and to foster exchanges and mutual aid in the community.

The EASA postgrad community decided in 2023 to hold regular online meetings. We wanted a safe space to exchange ideas on our research topics and offer support to one another. We realized a reading club can give our meetings both structure, i.e. we read and analyze the titles we decide on, and also plenty of flexibility, of room for creativity, and last but not least, it will be devoid of the pressure the formal academic programs inevitably bring.

More experienced academics appreciated our endeavor and, in 2023 we had 3 guest editions out of a total number of 10. The ordinary meetings are student-only, the guest sessions are open to all EASA members and proved to be opportunities of learning and further exploration guided by the knowledge and generosity of our guests: Dr Geoff Rodoreda (University of Stuttgart), Dr. Iva Polak (University of Zagreb), and Prof. Lyn McCredden (Deakin University).

The students attending the reading club receive a certificate of attendance signed by the EASA chair (a minimum of 60% of the total no of meetings within a year). The respective certificates get credits in certain European universities.

The reading list for 2024 includes the titles below, the order is alphabetical, in the actual process we try to alternate fiction with non-fiction and drama. The dates are established depending on the students’ availability, we try to meet every 4-6 weeks. The announcements on the book to be read and the meeting date and hour are advertised via the EASA mailing list.

  • Carey, Peter – True History of the Kelly Gang
  • Flanagan, Richard – Gould’s Book of Fish
  • Macintyre, Stuart – A Concise History of Australia
  • Morgan, Sally – My Place
  • Stanner, W.H.E – The Boyer Lectures
  • Scott, Kim – That Deadman Dance
  • Sewell, Stephen – It Just Stopped
  • David Finnigan – Kill Climate Deniers

If you are a postgrad student, join us, see how you like it.

If you are a more experienced academic and would like to share with us some of your research, but also guide us to further reading starting from the above list, we’ll be honored to organize a guest session.

Contact person: Irma Krčan, EASA PhD representative, PhD student at University of Zagreb and University of Toulon, irmakrcan@gmail.com

Scholarships and research opportunities

Forthcoming