The George Washington University Cold War (GWCW) Group
Second Annual Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research
June 14-17, 2004

Ph.D. students from any discipline working on dissertations involving archival research on Cold War topics are invited to apply to participate in a four-day Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Summer Institute will focus on training graduate students to get the most out of their time conducting research in archives. There will be sessions on how to prepare to go to an archive, how to structure your time in the archives, understanding how archival documents come to be written and deposited in archives, the challenges of interpreting archival documents, issues of culture and language in working in non-American archives, and how to search for information not in the archives, such as consulting private papers, making Freedom of Information Act requests for still classified documents, and conducting oral history interviews. Summer Institute participants will be actively involved in reading archival documents (in English translation) provided to them during the sessions and discussing their interpretation.

The Summer Institute will be directed by the faculty of the GW Cold War Group (including Hope M. Harrison, James G. Hershberg, James Goldgeier, and Gregg Brazinsky) and researchers at both the National Security Archive (including Thomas Blanton, Malcolm Byrne, William Burr, and Svetlana Savranskaya) and the Cold War International History Project (including the director, Christian Ostermann). Members of the staff of the National Archives and State Department Historian's Office are also expected to participate in the Summer Institute.

The Summer Institute will be limited to 25 participants. Applicants must submit the application form (to be downloaded from http://ieres.org ), a two-page proposal indicating how they would benefit from participation in the Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research, a curriculum vitae, and one letter of recommendation from a faculty member in their department. DEADLINE EXTENDED TO February 25, 2004, and decisions will be announced by March 1, 2004.

Applicants are expected to obtain travel costs from their home department, and GW will cover their housing and meals during the Institute.

To see program from 2003 Summer Institute please visit ieres.org. Note that the program is being expanded from two days to four in 2004.