About the Fellowship
To provide enthusiasts, students and scholars an opportunity to engage with cultural heritage and pursue their interests in the knowledge systems of India, Sahapedia is pleased to announce the second edition of its Fellowship programme.
UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003 (referred to as UNESCO 2003 Convention hereafter), refers to “the importance of the intangible cultural heritage as a mainspring of cultural diversity and a guarantee of sustainable development.” The Sahapedia–UNESCO Fellowships are a part of the efforts to raise awareness – at local, national and international levels – of the importance of intangible heritage, and increase access to communities, groups and individuals Annexure 1. The Sahapedia–UNESCO Fellowships 2018 are supported by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
Through this initiative, Fellows will be encouraged to conduct documentation and critical research in diverse areas of cultural knowledge, while interacting with and enhancing networks that contribute to their creation. This research and documentation carried out by the Fellows will be published on the Sahapedia web portal, contributing to the online resource.
Languages
Fellowship are available in the following languages this year – English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Malayalam. We will endeavor to encourage research and documentation in regional languages.
Eligibility
Fellowships are available to post-graduates and above qualified in the disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences in the broadest sense, or those with equivalent experience. Candidates with prior professional or academic familiarity with the subject under application may be given preference. The Fellowships are available to only those candidates that hold an Indian bank account. For further details, refer to the FAQs in Annexure 5.
Duration
Fellowships have to be completed in the time-frame of twenty-four (24) weeks between 15 August 2018 and 15 February 2019. Failure to complete the any Fellowship within the stipulated time-frame will result in the cancelation of that Fellowship. Candidates are advised to refer to the timeline outlined in Annexure 3.
Categories
Fellowships are divided into Research, Documentation, or Combination of the two categories. Depending on their selection of category, candidates may select their deliverables from the list given below. Candidates may also refer to the guidelines for content creation for Sahapedia in Annexure 4.
Deliverables
Each Fellowship consists of one mandatory deliverable and three elective ones. The candidate may identify, during the time of application, three types of deliverables. In addition, every selected candidate will be required to submit a fourth deliverable, which will be a list of references and resources/guide to further reading and research on the subject. The options for the other three deliverables are as following.
- Deliverable I:
- Illustrated Overview/Introductory article (3000–4000 words with 5–10 images), or
- Short Documentary film (15–20 minutes with English subtitles, along with a synopsis of 500–800 words)
- Deliverable II:
- Allied article (1500–2000 words with 3–5 images), or
- Image Gallery (30–50 images with captions), or
- Photo Essay (20 images with 1000–1500 words to complement the visual narrative)
- Deliverable III:
- Text Interview with an expert/scholar/practitioner (1500 words, with minimum 10 Q&As), or
- Video Interview with an expert/scholar/practitioner (20–30 minutes).
In addition, selected candidates working in regional languages will be required to provide content translated in English .
Funding
Selected candidates will be granted an award of ₹40,000, which will be released in three installments, based on the completion of specific deliverables. Fellows working in regional languages will receive an additional sum of ₹10,000 for translation.
Application Guidelines
The following materials are to be submitted as a part of the application:
1. Resume or curriculum vitae
2. A proposal of 1000–1500 words, inclusive of an abstract of 200-300 words
The proposal should indicate scope of work, including selection of deliverables, methodology, timeframe, and familiarity with existing literature/work on the subject.
3. A writing sample (previously written essay) of at least 1500 words (for Research), or
a 5–10 minute long video clip indicating the candidates’ skills in filmmaking/videography (for Documentation), or both, depending on the selection of deliverables
4. Statement of Purpose of 500 words
The Statement of Purpose must explicate the relevance of the candidate’s work to Sahapedia and adaptation of their work to Sahapedia’s format of content dissemination. A brief trajectory of the candidates’ professional history may be included as well.
5. Bibliography/List of existing literature or work on the topic with no more than 15 items/titles.
Candidates are advised to refer to the Terms and Conditions Annexure 2, the timeline for the Fellowships Annexure 3 and the guidelines for content creation on Sahapedia Annexure 4.
To know more about Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellowship 2017, click here.
