The Osmundsen Initiative

Applicants applying for a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant ($20,000 maximum) may also choose to be considered for the Osmundsen Initiative supplement that provides up to an additional $5,000 for a maximum grant of $25,000.

• The Dissertation Fieldwork Grant is judged on the degree to which the research demonstrates a clear link to anthropological theory and debates, and promises to make a solid contribution to advancing these ideas.
• The Osmundsen Initiative is evaluated on the potential contribution the project makes to broader social or intellectual issues, in addition to its ability to demonstrate the unique perspective Anthropology brings to understanding these concerns.

The General Criteria for Evaluation for both programs can be found here.

Background to the New Program

The Osmundsen Initiative provides up to an additional $5,000 to support a number of applicants who have been awarded Dissertation Fieldwork Grants and have opted to be considered for the additional Osmundsen Initiative funding.

The Osmundsen Initiative is named in honor of Lita Osmundsen who was president of the Foundation from 1963-1987. She was well known for her interests in anthropological communication, for the Burg Wartenstein International Symposium program and for experimentation and innovation in the discipline. Click here for more information about Lita Osmundsen and the Foundation.

The Osmundsen Initiative provides the opportunity for applicants to demonstrate how their work would scale up from a rich anthropological analysis of a local situation or focused topic to address broader issues of contemporary social or intellectual concern. When answering this question applicants should emphasize how an anthropological approach differs from other disciplines in its unique capacity for addressing such issues. In other words, how does an anthropological approach produce different knowledge (as opposed to the knowledge produced by other disciplines that study the same issues)?
In recent years the Foundation has been concerned that Anthropology as a discipline does not have the public profile that some of the other social sciences have. We have also been concerned that Anthropology has tended to become rather insular. Much of the research speaks primarily to academic anthropological concerns and audiences without emphasizing the broader significance of the research or the particular value that an anthropological approach holds for addressing wider concerns. In many cases anthropological research is also presented in a style and language that is not immediately assessable to non-anthropologists.

The main goal of the Osmundsen Initiative is to support the highest quality anthropological research that at the same time demonstrates the unique qualities of anthropology to make a significant contribution to contemporary concerns and/or interests.

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