The Lewis N. Cotlow Fund
Since 1990, the Lewis N. Cotlow Field Research Fund has supported anthropological research by GW students around the world. It was created by a $150,000 bequest from the estate of Lewis Cotlow (1898-1987), an explorer, author, and filmmaker who attended GW.
Projects (clockwise at right) include archaeological work on different continents, laboratory work on monkey dentition, ethnographic research in Ghana and Colombia, and study of a skeletal collection at the Smithsonian.
Currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students at the George Washington University are eligible to apply. Preference is given to continuing students (that is, students not in the final year of their degree program), to students in anthropology majors or concentrations, and to those who have done well in anthropology.
Funds are used for travel, research assistance, and other expenses related to field research; they cannot be used for tuition or fees. Most awards are between $250 and $1500. Grant recipients are required to submit a report on their research and to account for how they spent the money. They also are required to make a presentation at the annual conference on student research.
Any topic relevant to anthropology's four fields is appropriate. Among the work the Cotlow Fund has supported are studies of children's folklore in San Francisco; ceramic production in South Africa; a neo-pagan movement in California; HIV/AIDS education in Thailand; Maasai cultural change; and tracking seasonal variability in the ancient Near East.
Click here for a complete list of projects funded.
Proposals for summer work are due the first Friday in March, March 6 in 2009. Proposals are submitted electronically to cotlowapplication@gmail.com. Awardees are announced at the end of March.
To prepare a strong proposal, it is important to work with a faculty mentor or mentors in the Anthropology Department. Grant-writing workshops are held in the fall and winter. Click here for a copy of the PowerPoint slide presentation from a recent workshop.
The annual Cotlow Conference, at which recent recipients present their findings, is traditionally held in the fall semester.
Download a Cotlow Award Application Form (requires MS-Word).
Read Sample Cotlow Proposals.
For more details, contact the chair of the Cotlow Award Committee, Professor Barbara Miller at (202) 994-7257 or e-mail barbar@gwu.edu. Her office location is 2112 G St., room 101.
About Lewis Cotlow
Lewis N. Cotlow was an explorer, author and filmmaker, whose popular documentaries the historian Amy Staples has described as an example of "the popular ethnographic imaginary of mid-century America." Cotlow was an executive of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in New York City and a member of the New York-based Explorers Club, whose flag he carried on expeditions to the Amazon, Africa, Australia, and New Guinea, between 1940 and 1969. In 1977, the Circumnavigators Club presented him with its highest honor, the Order of Magellan, reserved for "outstanding individuals who are dedicated to advancing peace and understanding in all parts of the world."
Cotlow's Books:
- Zanzabuku-Dangerous Safari
- Amazon Head-Hunters
- Travel in South America
- Twilight of the Primitive
- In Search of the Primitive: An Independent Explorer's Life with the Last of the Exotic Peoples of Africa, the Arctic, New Guinea
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