The Kristi Upson-Saia Travel Grant

To support graduate and early career scholars in religion, disability, health, and healing in Late Antiquity

Prof. Kristi Upson-Saia has long been an innovator in early Christian and Late Antique studies, traversing topics as diverse as clothing, ancient medicine, and even dentistry. She is an outstanding teacher, public intellectual, and supporter of early career research. In 2013, Prof. Kristi Upson-Saia co-founded with Prof. Heidi Marx the international working group ReMeDHe: Religion, Medicine, Disability, and Health in Late Antiquity to support innovative and rigorous scholarship in the field. Under their leadership, ReMeDHe has grown to include hundreds of scholars across the globe, and has sponsored numerous workshops, panels, conferences, networking events, and publications.

In recognition of Prof. Upson-Saia’s tireless support of graduate students and early career scholars, ReMeDHe is pleased to award the Kristi Upson-Saia Travel Grant annually to a graduate student or early career scholar to present their research at a major conference.

Nominations and Eligibility

To nominate yourself or a colleague for the Travel Grant, please submit the intended conference paper (as a PDF file, including slides if so desired) as well as 100-200 words in an email about how the nominee and their work fits the terms of the selection criteria below to ReMeDHe’s Co-Directors: Jonathan Zecher (Jonathan.Zecher@acu.edu.au) and Julie Kelto Lillis (jlillis@utsnyc.edu).

The nomination must be for conference travel within twelve months from the date of the award.

Nominations and self-nominations are welcome. Nominees should be current graduate students or early career researchers, within five years of graduation (though career interruptions will be taken into account). We especially encourage (but do not require) nominations of graduate and early career scholars from communities or identities that have been historically underrepresented in the field.

Selection Criteria

Nominations for research travel will be reviewed by the Grant Committee (a subcommittee of the ReMeDHe Board) based on the following criteria:

That the recipient is a member of ReMeDHe.
That the intended paper advances our understanding of religion, medicine, disability, health, and/or healing in Late Antiquity; that it is methodologically or topically innovative; and that it contributes to generating conversations and research across disciplines.
That the recipient is a graduate student or recently graduated early career scholar, for whom conference presentation will help build research networks and advance their career, as well as the work of ReMedHe.

As conference presentations are not published pieces, footnoting and bibliography need not be complete or final, but should be sufficient to show the selection committee that the paper is anchored in current scholarly conversations. The main text of the paper itself should be a full, if not final, draft.

Prize

The winner of the Kristi Upson-Saia Travel Grant will receive $500 (USD) to reimburse conference travel to present their paper, as well as recognition on the ReMeDHe website and publicity via ReMeDHe’s social media.

The grant can cover conference registration, travel to the conference location, accommodation, food and daily costs. For up-front costs, winners will be reimbursed immediately; for costs incurred at the conference, they will be reimbursed as soon as possible afterward.

Winners will be asked to write a short testimonial about their experience and, if possible, to have a picture of their presentation for the ReMeDHe website and social media.

Timeline

We start accepting nominations every October, with a firm deadline for nominations on 15 March. The winner will be announced in early April, for conference travel to take place by or before the following April 1st.