PhD Applications

In 2012 I submitted around a dozen applications looking for a PhD post: some were for unfunded positions, some for funded posts, and some for funding to support an unfunded position. Over the years I had several people show me their old applications, so - in the vein of paying it forward - here are some of mine. I’ve cut out a lot of the personal details, and mostly left the Project Descriptions. The text was generally pretty similar, so I’ll only make some applications available here. All but two were rejected!

• The University of Iceland: unfunded post/accepted. I didn’t get any offical feedback, but unofficially I was told the reviewers were pleased with my concerete goals/timeplan.
• The Eimskip Fund for University of Iceland Doctoral Students: funding/rejected. I got a small amount of feedback that suggested I’d not been concrete enough when describing how I’d “gather my data”.
• Icelandic Research Fund for Graduate Students: funding/rejected. Feedback was generally very positive, but the application was criticsed for its somewhat vague methodology.
• Aarhus University: funded post/accepted. This was the post I accepted, but I never got any feedback on my application.

Post-Doc Applications

As I’m still a post-doc, I’m not going to put up many of my applications for post-doc positions and funding. (As with PhD funding, I’ve applied several times for variations on the same project.) For reference, between 2016 and the end of 2019 I applied for around 25 major grants, fixed-term jobs, and permanent posts. I've been successful 3 times, and generally had much less feedback than I received at PhD level. The dates below are based on the deadlines for the posts.

• Early 2016, The Medieval Academy of America: defined role/rejected. This was a post looking for a post-doc to work on Speculum a prominent Medieval Studies journal in the US. I didn’t receive any feedback.
• Early 2016, The Bernadotte Programme: undefined research project/accepted. This was a small-project grant for non-Nordic researchers to visit Sweden for a short period to work on their research. I proposed a small project tying up some loose ends from my PhD research.
• Early 2017, Aarhus University, Assistant Professor in European Medieval History 700-1500 AD: defined role/rejected. I got positive feedback on my application and CV, but was simply too junior to make the shortlist - I’d not even been able to include a proper writing sample, as the proofs of my first full article only arrived the day after the deadline!
• Late 2017, RANNÍS, The Icelandic Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship: undefined research project/rejected. Two of my three reviewers were really positive, but the third gave me bellow-average marks for originality. I suspect I'd not made it clear enough how this project would move beyond some work done in the mid-2000s.
• Early 2019, The University of Iceland Post-Doctoral Fund: undefined research project/successful. Following my rejection from the The Icelandic Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship, I decided that I needed a new research project that was clearly differentiated from my PhD work. Drawing on what I'd learned while at the University of Leicester, I pitched this: a comparative project investigating both Nordic and British religions. I didn't receive any feedback, beyond the fact that the field had been highly competitive, beyond even how it had been in previous years. (They award around 10 posts across all disciplines of the university - I was one of two in the Humanities.)