Undergraduate Student research Award

The student research award is a research award of up to $1000 for an undergraduate-level student. Award funds are for reimbursement of research expenses in order to publish an honor’s thesis or peer-reviewed academic paper as part of a student’s academic program. This award supports:

• travel to a rock art site;
• field work with a qualified mentor or program;
• laboratory work to further research study;
• and/or literature research.

As rock art research covers a broad spectrum of academic studies, students could be enrolled in varied programs such as anthropology, archaeology, art history, fine arts, chemistry/physics, geology, linguistics, or geography. For example, this award is open to students in chemistry working on rock art dating, in linguistics working on interpretation, in fine arts looking for aesthetic/production oriented similarities, etc. 

The types of reimbursable expenses include:

• reasonable out-of-pocket travel costs (airfare, mileage, meals, accommodation);
• field or laboratory equipment;
• materials for documentation and/or analysis.

This research award will not reimburse salary for research time, travel to meetings to present research, or university indirect overhead costs.

Applicants must submit their research award application to ARARA by January 31^st.  The ARARA link above is a general contact page. Indicate that you are applying for the Undergraduate Student Research Award and we will forward your email to the Committee Chair for that award who will  contact you directly for the application. The application should include:

• Research proposal no more than 3 pages in length (excluding references) that describes objectives, research project, and type of expected product (honor’s thesis or peer-reviewed paper)
• Budget and budget justification
• Two letters of support, including one from the academic mentor that certifies that the student is conducting the proposed research along with their expected date of degree completion.

Students must be enrolled in an undergraduate-level degree program at a college/university or non-traditional equivalent (NTE).  Proposals are reviewed by the Education Committee and approved by the ARARA Board.  A Final Report should be turned into the ARARA Education Committee at the completion of the project (no more than four years after the award was received). This Final Report is required to include the product of the research (honor’s thesis or peer-reviewed paper) and receipts of reimbursable expenses.  The award recipient is encouraged to present their research at a future ARARA conference. Award recipients are eligible for a Student Travel Advance Award ($500) if they present a paper at an ARARA Annual Conference.

All students should also be aware of ARARA’s Castleton Award which can be awarded for unpublished rock art research. This award is available to undergraduate, graduate, or non-students. Recipients of this Student Research Award will not be eligible for the Castleton Award for the same research.

Past recipients include (award not given in years not listed):

2021: Robert McBride