The Alana Bowden Research Grant

The Alana Bowden Research Grant has been developed to support outstanding higher degree by research students and academic affiliates within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. This scholarship provides financial assistance for students completing higher research degrees and academics in the general field of 'ritual studies', including research taking up the question of 'ritual' in the broadest sense: from traditional practices to practices emerging in the age of artificial intelligence, the digital, the post-human, and the parahuman. The scholarship honors Alana's vision of a dilated scholarly project that engages with the arcane, the esoterica, and the difficult, while not losing sight of the value of established disciplinary approaches. It is particularly supportive of research that seeks to extend inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches, including those which take up the potential of practice as research as a method. For full-time postgraduate research students, the grant provides a stipend allowance of $22,500 per annum for up to 1.75 years for Masters by Research recipients or up to 3.5 years for PhD recipients. For staff members, the scholarship is valued at $22,500 paid as a one-off payment. Recipients must conduct research pertaining to the broad area of ritual and apply for project or activity funding to be used for research expenses expected within 12 months of the scholarship application opening date.