We are a multidisciplinary collaborative of UC Berkeley social sciences and humanities graduate students, and we are interested in reserving the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve Field Station as a gathering space for a grant writing and dissertation-related works-in-progress workshop. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary and inter-cohort collaboration: workshop attendees will include students at various stages of their respective graduate programs, and from multiple social sciences and humanities disciplines including archeology, art history, ethnic studies, geography, medical anthropology, rhetoric, and sociocultural anthropology. An overnight writing workshop at the Blue Oak Field Station will uniquely support us in pooling our diverse knowledge and experience to collectively support workshop members in drafting successful manuscripts as well as grant and fellowship applications. Further, a number of the workshop attendees specialize in climate change and other environmental concerns, making the field station an ideal setting for our collaborative gathering. While at the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve, we plan to host sessions focused on the most commonly sought after fieldwork grants for our disciplines including the Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant and National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants. Workshop attendees will include both awardees of these competitive grants and first-time applicants. Beyond these focused grant writing sessions in the Cedar Barn’s communal spaces, we plan to hike on and near the Ranch Reserve’s grounds providing opportunities to collaboratively brainstorm and reflect on our writing progress. The opportunity to gather at the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve is especially invaluable for us as graduate students as it would otherwise be difficult for us to resource space for generative and mutually supportive transdisciplinary mentorship and collaboration.

Approved