Early Career Researcher Resources
Negotiating being an early career researcher (ECR) is harder now than it ever was. To help you find support as you establish yourself as a Latin Americanist, we’ve put together the following list of resources:
Networking
Networking in order to establish yourself in the field is more important than ever. Below you will find links to a selection of networking events and groups that are relevant for Latin Americanists:
UKLAH – UK Latin American Historians Network
WISPS - Women in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Red de Investigadores sobre el Cine Latinoamericano
European Network of Brazilianists Working in Cultural Analysis
LAG-UK - Latin American Geographies - UK
You can find more organisations on the SLAS Organisations page.
Mentoring
Buddy/Mentoring Schemes have become a popular strategy in many organisations over the last years. Usually, a senior researcher mentors an ECR, although some schemes work with peer (or nearly peer) mentoring. See, for example the AHGBI mentoring scheme (Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland).
Funding
SLAS has funding specifically targeted at ECRs including the Post-doctoral Research Award, Post-doctoral SLAS Conference Grants and Post-doctoral Research Support Grant - see our funding page for more details.
Research Professional - Funding - You can set up your own funding area and research news alerts to be sent to your email.
AHGBI-WISPS Dorothy Sherman-Severin Research Fellowship | Association of Hispanists
The following major funders also have fellowships and research grants targeted at ECRs:
AHRC, see for example Research, development and engagement fellowships – early career researchers route
ESRC, Postdoctoral Fellowships and New Investigator Grants
British Academy, Postdoctoral Fellowships
Leverhulme Trust, Early Career Fellowships
Marie Sklodowska-Curie, Postdoctoral Fellowships
Independent Social Research Foundation, Early Career Fellowships
Wellcome Trust, Early Career Awards
It’s worth noting that some opportunities such as working as a Research Assistant on a major research grant come and go very quickly and the trick is to just bang in an application if you can possibly find the time. Tight deadlines can mean less competition.
News (and Potential Jobs)
In order to keep up with what’s going on in the field of Latin American Studies, consider signing up to the following if you haven’t already:
Follow @SLASLatAm on Twitter for all sorts of news and events, as well as funding and job opportunities. You can also tag us in your events and we will retweet, thus raising your profile.
The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) also has a Twitter account that is worth following - @LASACONGRESS - as well as a number of accounts for disciplinary groupings.
LATAM-INFO email list includes regular postings of events, conferences, news, funding and job opportunities.
Photo: David Wood, Walls, Cuzco, Peru