I wish to draw the attention of the list to the following announcement:

The Mercurians, a Special Interest Group of the Society for the 
History of Technology (SHOT), is offering the Pam Laird Research 
Grant (US$1,000) to defray the cost of travel and housing to use a 
research collection to pursue research in the history of 
communication technologies.

The Mercurians began meeting in 1986 for the purpose of generating
networks between people who share work and interests in the history
of communication technologies, defining the field broadly. Our
activities include meeting during annual SHOT conferences, organizing 
paper sessions for SHOT meetings, and pursuing contacts between 
meetings via our Google Groups list. The Google Groups list serves 
both as a clearing house for members and as an informal forum for their ideas.

We have added this new initiative to encourage and reward
high-caliber research in the history of communication technologies, 
broadly defined. One of the Mercurians' missions is to encourage 
scholarship in the history of communication technologies. There is no 
research grant program (either within or outside SHOT) that we are 
aware of dedicated to supporting scholarship on the history of 
communication technologies. While the history of communication 
technology literature is vast and always growing, the quality of the 
research effort or resulting publication too often falls short of scholarly
expectations.

In general, the research grant is awarded in alternating years. We
awarded two such grants during the 2011 SHOT annual meeting in
Cleveland. The winners were Carmen Krol, a PhD candidate in the 
Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University, and 
Michael Lemon, a PhD student in Latin American History at Indiana 
University (Bloomington). Subsequently, The Mercurians announced 
during the 2013 SHOT meeting in Portland, Maine, that Ian Johnson, a 
PhD student in the History Department at Ohio State University, had 
won. This year's winner will be made known during the 2015 SHOT 
meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this October.

Eligibility.

The grant is intended for and limited to junior scholars-meaning
either current graduate students or recent postgraduates (no more
than three years beyond the terminal degree in their field).

Requirements and Application.

Only travel to an appropriate archival collection to carry out
research on an aspect of the history of communication technology,
broadly defined, will be supported. The archive can be open to the
public, private, or even closed, provided that necessary permissions
have been obtained from the archive.

Complete the application form (available at:
http://www.mercurians.org/grant-form.doc) and e-mail it and a
curriculum vitae (no longer than 3 pages) as attachments to the
Mercurians c/o [log in to unmask]
Your curriculum vitae should include pertinent publications,
fellowships, or accomplishments relevant to your proposed research,
and professional societies and affiliations.

The deadline for submitting an application for the grant is June 1, 2015.


For further information or questions, please contact Andrew Butrica
at [log in to unmask] or visit our website:
http://www.mercurians.org/Prize-Grant.htm

Andrew J. Butrica
MERCURIANS
ANTENNA Newsletter
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www.mercurians.org