Stipend, Tenure, and Conditions of Award

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Stipend

Teachers selected to participate in four-week projects will receive $3,300. You should consider it a great honor to receive this money from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as it is a very competitive application process. Perhaps only ten percent of applicants to this institute will be given an invitation to join it.

Stipends are intended to help cover travel expenses to and from the project location, books and other research expenses, and living expenses for the duration of the period spent in residence. Stipends are taxable. Applicants to all projects, especially those held abroad, should note that supplements will not be given in cases where the stipend is insufficient to cover all expenses.

The value of the dollar and your choices regarding housing and meals may mean that you will need to supplement the costs of participating with your own funds. We do offer suggestions about how to stretch the stipend.  Also note that while NEH neither encourages nor discourages family members traveling with the participant, all costs for family members must be borne personally. (Of course, if you are sharing a room with another participant, you should check with that person before inviting a relative to come room with you, even for a short visit.)

We have recently been given the word that NEH will allow those of us leading institutes abroad to send your first half of your stipend to you prior to your arrival in Mexico. We have been authorized to begin processing your first check or direct-deposit in April or May, and funds should arrive to you in June.

Also, NEH has asked that we not withhold any of your stipend for admissions, transportation tips, or group meals, but to let you pay for those as we go. There will be some admissions that we will also cover for you.  The syllabus calendar will spell these things out in greater detail on a day-by-day basis. But please do be prepared to pay the price of admission to some museums and archaeological sites, provide small tips for bus drivers, and so on, as necessary.  NEH does not allow any budget for parties, so the welcome party will be the Director’s treat to you and your trailing partners (if any).  Occasionally, we can cover snacks for long bus trips.  You might also wish to bring cookies and crackers to share with your peers on these trips.

You will have two installments of the stipend, the first half of the stipend before you leave for Mexico and the second half upon the conclusion of the Institute, with nothing withheld as long as you have not missed days or left early, in which case deductions from the stipend will be pro-rated.  Also, you might like to know that all of our staff and our lecturers will be paid with NEH funds, and rents for our classroom spaces will come from NEH funds, too, not participants’ pockets.

Tenure

Seminar and institute participants are required to attend all meetings and to engage fully in the work of the project over the four weeks.  During the project’s tenure, NEH Summer Scholars may not undertake teaching assignments or any other professional activities unrelated to their participation in the project.  Participants who, for any reason, do not complete the full tenure of the project must refund a pro-rata portion of the stipend.

Conditions of Award

At the end of the project’s residential period, NEH Summer Scholars will be asked to submit both hardcopy and online evaluations in which they review their work during the summer and assess its value to their personal and professional development.  Evaluations collected by NEH will become part of the project’s grant file, possibly influencing the project’s future ability to host another institute.  Quotes from on-site hardcopy evaluations may appear on the project’s website.