2019 Cornelia Futor Memorial Student Paper Grant

The contest has categories for both Bachelor and Master degree-seeking students who are currently enrolled at a college or university in the Sarasota, Saint Petersburg, or Tampa area in disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, history, art history or geography. Paper should focus on interpreting the past through artifacts, art, historic documents, maps, etc., or on the way we preserve, present and participate in heritage. Prizes include a minimum of $400 first place and a $200 second place prizes, plus monies towards expenses for the student attending FAS 2019 Annual Meeting in Crystal River.. The Awards Committee has the option of increasing the number of awards if warranted.

Key Dates:

• Request application from ssvekis@gmail.com by: February 10, 2019.
• Return application, Paper, and PowerPoint submittal deadline: March 10, 2019.
• Finalists will be announced: March 31, 2019.
• Applicants must be available to present their PowerPoint (if chosen) at the Time Sifters meeting on: April 17, 2019.

Grant Guidelines

All questions, abstracts, applications, papers and PowerPoints must be sent to ssvekis@gmail.com. Include “Time Sifters Student Grant” in the subject line.

Grant contest requires submission of an Application (including abstract, brief bio, and photo), 8-10 page scholarly paper, and accompanying PowerPoint. The paper can be one that the student has previously prepared as coursework or for an academic conference. The Power-Point presentation must be geared for a public audience.

The written paper and its visual presentation will be judged for (1) content, (2) clarity of writing, and (3) how well the PowerPoint has been adapted for presentation to an adult, general audience. The selection committee consists of faculty, archaeologists, and independent scholars with backgrounds in history, archaeology, museum and heritage studies.

Finalists will be expected to present their PowerPoint/paper at the Time Sifters meeting on April 17, 2019.

WATCH THE 2018 RECIPIENTS PRESENTATIONS BELOW

Rachel Ceciro is a fourth-year student, "an aspiring alum”, at New College of Florida. Recently, her work has focused on relief: relief from natural disaster, relief through resiliency, relief by work within a community. Her methods, learned through the practices of performance and archaeology, strive to be immediate and visceral; to make an experience tangibly full and real to help the healing of those who have lived it, and to assist the understanding of those who have not. Rachel’s presentation examines ecological theater as a method of heritage interpretation, using a performance she wrote and directed titled “WAKE: Living With/In Disaster”. Taking recorded memories and oral histories of past hurricanes, the performance aimed to accurately and respectfully represent the past and highlight the social and racial injustices faced in the aftermath of disaster.

Rachel was the winner of the 2018 Time Sifters Cornelia Futor Memorial award for best submitted student papers.

Rebekah Nault is a mom, a junior at USF, and a custom picture framer by trade. Rebekah has always been passionate about Anthropology. When her son became old enough to ask her why she hadn’t finished school, she took that as her cue to start again. Her paper is on the discovery of the “Hobbit, Homo Floresiensis, on the Indonesian island of Flores.” She will discuss the history of the site, the team who found H. floresiensis, and what they recovered. But that’s just the start of the story. Rebekah brings insight and humor into the ensuing conflict, the different origin theories of the Hobbit, and what science has concluded.

Rebekah finished second place in the 2018 Time Sifters Cornelia Futor Memorial competition for submitted student papers.