Earlier this year, I was super honored to be asked to present at the 2012 conference for the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA). When I’m not blogging for Bennington, I’m also part of another blogging community of academics, journalists, and museum people who talk a lot about the illicit antiquities trade and cultural heritage issues. (you can check my blog out here.) Last month, I did a guest post for the ARCA blog, after which I was asked to present. YAY, RIGHT? Well, now I have to figure out how to pay for it.
Luckily, Bennington is really into supporting its students doing things outside of the college. We have a conference grant where you can get up to $500 to attend or present, but that’s not totally going to cover traveling to Italy in the summertime. So then I emailed Noelle Murphy, whose job is all about finding grants, fellowships, and funding opportunities for Bennington students. She very helpfully did some research for me but unfortunately couldn’t find that many funding opportunities for undergraduates. So I brought up my issue with Carol Pal, my advisor, who told me to email her the call for papers so she can tell Duncan Dobbelman, the dean of students, about my work and how attending this conference would benefit me so he can see what other options are out there. I’m hopeful that with my advisor’s help and with the help of the administration, getting started with my Life Work Term will be a well-funded and supportive transition!
- Meg