Isaac Martin sent around the following announcement advertising two opportunities for graduate students interested in “Fiscal Sociology,” meaning anything to do with government financing, taxes, and the like. The first is an SSRC Dissertation Proposal Workshop. The second is a daylong workshop before the Social Science History Association Meetings in Chicago in November. I attended the daylong workshop a few years ago and highly recommend it! More details below:

Dear Colleagues…

First, there is a dissertation proposal development fellowship competition at the Social Science Research Council in the interdisciplinary field of “Public Finance and Society.” You may have already received an e-mail about this one; it’s for students in any discipline who have not yet advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D., and the application deadline is January 31, 2013. It comes with a summer research stipend. Details are at the SSRC web site here.

Second, we will be holding the fifth annual workshop in fiscal sociology at the Social Science History Meetings in Chicago this fall. The deadline for applying to this one is February 22, 2013. This workshop is open to graduate students at all stages (and, as in the past, we may accept some postdocs, space permitting). The announcement is not yet up at the SSHA web site, but here it is:

Fifth Annual Workshop on Comparative Historical Approaches to Fiscal Sociology

In recent years, scholars from a variety of disciplines have embarked on an innovative wave of multidisciplinary research on the social and historical sources and consequences of taxation. We invite interested graduate students from history, law, and the social sciences to participate in a one-day workshop on this “new fiscal sociology.” In addition to brief lectures introducing students to the basics of taxation and the comparative history of taxation, the workshop will consist of discussion of classic and contemporary texts.

The workshop will be held on Wednesday, November 20th, in Chicago, IL in conjunction with the annual meetings of the Social Science History Association (SSHA). Interested students will also have a chance to present their own work on Thursday, November 21st, as part of the SSHA conference.

Space is limited. Small housing and travel stipends will be provided for a limited number of applicants under a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Applicants should submit a CV and a paragraph explaining their interest in this workshop, and (if applicable) a draft of a research paper that they would be willing to present at the SSHA. Preference will be given to students who also submit conference papers, but we encourage applications from all students interested in the workshop, including those at early stages of their graduate career.

Submit materials via e-mail to:
Monica Prasad, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University ( m-prasad@northwestern.edu); and
Ajay Mehrotra, Maurer School of Law, Indiana University – Bloomington ( amehrotr@indiana.edu); and
Isaac Martin, Department of Sociology, University of California – San Diego ( iwmartin@ucsd.edu), no later than February 22, 2013.

Thanks for your help in spreading the word!

Best regards,

Isaac Martin