The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) invites applications for the 2024 Paul Evan Peters Scholarship https://www.cni.org/about-cni/awards/pep-scholarship
Applications due no later than APRIL 19, 2024
The Paul Evan Peters Scholarship (formerly fellowship) was established to honor and perpetuate the memory of CNI’s founding executive director Paul Evan Peters (1947-1996). The scholarship is awarded every two years to students pursuing graduate studies in the information sciences, librarianship, or closely related field, that advance the frontiers of digital information and technology.
Highest consideration will be given to candidates whose application materials can directly address the following selection criteria, to demonstrate intellectual and personal qualities consistent with those of Paul Evan Peters:
- A commitment to the use of digital information and technology to enhance scholarship, intellectual productivity, and public life
- An interest in the civic responsibilities of information professionals, and a commitment to democratic values
- A positive and creative approach to overcoming personal, technological, and bureaucratic challenges
- Humor, vision, humanity, and imagination
- One to a doctoral student in the amount of $5,000 per year, awarded up to two consecutive years.
- One to a master’s student in the amount of $2,500 per year, awarded up to two consecutive years.
Complete details about the Paul Evan Peters Scholarship, including instructions for how to apply, are at https://www.cni.org/about-cni/awards/pep-scholarship.
Comments and Updates from Some Former Recipients
Hugh Paterson III received the 2022 award for doctoral students. The award gave him autonomy early in the program, allowing him to focus on the social impacts that motivated him to start a PhD journey: making records about minority-language archival collections more accessible. His research during the award period resulted in a high level of productivity, including numerous publications and presentations.
Jamie Flood, the 2022 master’s recipient, earned her MLIS degree much earlier than expected in part due to the scholarship’s support. At the USDA National Agricultural Library she works on heirs’ property, seed saving, food safety, climate change, and environmental justice. She is involved in a variety of projects involving linked data and health equity.
Olivia Dorsey received the master’s level scholarship in 2014. She has developed several projects at the intersection of Black History, genealogy, and technology, including a communal repository of her own family history, and Digital Black History, a searchable directory of digital Black History projects.
Jessica A. Koepfler received the Peters scholarship in 2010 while a doctoral student, and commented that the award “provided a source of funding that allowed me to commit myself to a ‘fringe’ topic like the study of values within the context of homelessness… [It] put a spotlight on me early on in my program, which had the snowball effect of people noticing me… I am truly grateful for the fellowship and credit it with being very instrumental to me particularly in those early years of my PhD program.”
Learn more about previous recipients is at https://www.cni.org/about-cni/awards/pep-scholarship.