The Scholarship
One scholarship, at most, on any journey.
There are people who have spent their working lives reading these places, teaching them, cataloging them, and have never stood in one. The Earth Years Scholarship is for them.
The scholar travels with the company, not apart from it. What they bring is the one thing that cannot be arranged: a life already spent in the study of where we are going.
WHO IT IS FOR
Teachers and professors, at any level. Graduate students and early-career researchers in history, archaeology, classics, art history, conservation and anthropology. Museum and heritage professionals: curators, conservators, librarians, archivists. Independent scholars and writers of history.
A degree is not required. Sustained, serious study is.
TWO WAYS IN
Apply yourself, with a short letter: why this journey, and what being in these places would change about your work.
Or be nominated by someone who knows your work: a colleague, a student, a department head. Nominations carry the same weight as applications.
WHAT IS PROVIDED
Two thousand dollars toward travel.
A small research allowance.
WHAT IS NOT
The journey itself is not included. The scholar books their own place and arranges their own travel, as every guest does.
Passport and visa. Vaccinations and travel protection. Transport between home and the airport. Meals and nights outside the journey itself. Gratuities, personal purchases, and anything bought along the way.
Time away from work, including the cost of covering a classroom or a post, is the scholar's own.
WHAT IS ASKED IN RETURN
Academic work and a video compilation for Itinerarium, the Earth Years review, delivered within ninety days of returning.
Work that appears is published under the scholar's own name. As with any publication, Earth Years decides what appears and when. Earth Years may use the video and images across its publications and channels, as set out in the scholar's agreement. Fellow guests appear only with their consent.
The work is the only condition of the scholarship.
A scholar who cannot deliver says so, and we make other arrangements. A scholar who simply does not is not considered again.
AFTERWARD
Earth Years Scholars stay with us. They are invited, never required, to read for the panel in later years, to speak to a future journey's company, and to put forward someone else.
HOW IT IS DECIDED
One recommendation. No fee.
Applications and nominations open when a journey is announced and close ninety days before departure. Decisions follow within three weeks, so there is time to arrange leave.
Read by a small selection panel.
A scholarship is awarded when a journey reaches departure and the panel finds the right candidate. Some journeys will carry no scholar.