Funding Opportunities

/
/
Funding for Graduate Travel to Research Collections

Funding for Graduate Travel to Research Collections

Graduate students who wish to travel to libraries or other archives for their research can apply for funding from the Center for American Literary Studies. Awards will be made for up to $350 per request, and will be made for work in the field of American literary studies, broadly defined. Awards will be granted as funds allow; each student may only apply once per academic year. Applications should be made before travel occurs. Grants may not be used for conference travel.

Graduate students are eligible for CALS grants only if the given project is not already supported by the English department; in turn, projects under current or past funding from the department will not be eligible for CALS grants. There is no restriction, however, on a student holding separate awards from the Center and the department

How to Apply

To apply for a grant to support travel to research collections, graduate students should submit a one-page statement to CALS Director Sean Goudie that includes the following information. Applications are due on October 15 and April 15 of each year and should be signed by the student’s dissertation advisor or by another qualified faculty member.

  • Library or archive to be used
  • Nature and scope of research
  • Projected outcome (i.e., dissertation chapter, article, seminar paper, etc.)
  • Estimated budget


Hem and fish resized

The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia closed its museum's doors at the end of September, 2026. Members of the Hemingway Letters Project commemorated Hemingway's connections to the museum in two publications. Graduate faculty member Verna Kale was quoted in a piece from the Philly Voice on a fish named after Hemingway by the Academy. Graduate student Ryan Bohn published a blog post on Hemingway's relationship to the Academy of Natural Sciences on the Hemingway Society website.

noah-davis-smaller

Noah Davis’s book of poems The Last Beast We Revel In was chosen as one of two Honors Titles in Poetry from the Massachusetts Book Awards. Davis is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at Penn State and his new collection, "All We Can Fit in Our Throats," was recently named a finalist in the 2026 National Poetry Series Open Competition.

Congratulations, Noah, on these achievements! 

Eunice

Eunice Toh, the 2020-21 CALS Graduate Research Assistant, has accepted a tenure-track job offer from the English and Philosophy Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. Eunice’s dissertation, “Black Cosmo-cologies: Rebirth and Renaissance in the Long Nineteenth Century,” was directed by Gabrielle Foreman and Sean Goudie. Congratulations, Eunice, on the job market success!

image-245

Shara McCallum, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Penn State, won this year's Pavouček Shields Faculty Award, which recognizes the accomplishments of a tenured faculty member in advising and mentoring on behalf of women at the university.

kaleheadshot2_0

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Verna Kale, Associate Editor for The Letters of Ernest Hemingway and Associate Research Professor of English at Penn State, has been elected President of The Hemingway Society for the 2026-2028 term.

Congrats to Dr. Kale on this honor!

henryjames

Congratulations to Michael Anesko: Volume 19  of The Complete Letters of Henry James has received the MLA Approved Edition Seal. Well done, Michael!

Carmin Wong

On June 2, 2025, current doctoral student Carmin Wong was announced as the inaugural Poet Laureate of State College. In this position, Wong will serve the community by promoting the consumption and creation of poetry in State College.

Additionally, Wong was featured in the 2025 Shirley Graham Du Bois Creative-in-Residence. Her showcase, "Them Poems Along Won't Save Us' was featured online by the Academy of American Poets and broadcast on WBUR.

Working with Girls Write Now as a 2025 Teaching Artist, Carmin Wong, was interviewed by the organization she has been a part of for over ten years.

Congratulations, Carmin, on all of your accomplishments!