AISLS Dissertation Planning Grants are designed to enable graduate students intending to do doctoral research in Sri Lanka to make a pre-dissertation visit to Sri Lanka to investigate the feasibility of their topic, to sharpen their research design, or to make other practical arrangements for future research. Applicants must be enrolled at an American university, or they may be US citizens enrolled at a foreign university. Applicants who are enrolled at a US university need not be American citizens. Applicants should have completed most of their graduate coursework by the time they take up their grant. The grant is especially intended for students who are in the process of completing their dissertation proposals and preparing applications for funds to support their dissertation research, but other purposes may be proposed. Projects in all fields in the social sciences and humanities are eligible. Proposals will be judged on their quality and on the potential of the dissertation research to strengthen scholarship on Sri Lanka. A project narrative is required as part of an application. This is the most important part of the application. It should cover the following topics: a summary of the proposed dissertation project, or, if the purpose of the planning grant is to define a dissertation project, a summary of the more general questions the applicant hopes to address in his or her dissertation; a description of what the applicant intends to do during the grant period; and the applicant's competence to carry out his or her proposed project, including language training. A confidential letter of recommendation from the applicant's dissertation supervisor must also be submitted. This letter should cover the applicant's academic record and be specific about the applicant's progress to date within the graduate program concerned. Please visit the fellowship's website for more information.