Graduate awards & funding
You’ll find more funding options on the Graduate Studies website.
Teaching & research assistantships
You can often get a teaching assistant job for 100-120 hours in the fall and spring terms. There are a few teaching assistantships available in the summer term. Call for applications will be sent via email to all current grad students.
Research assistants (RAs) are hired by faculty members to help with their research. These roles are sometimes called scientific assistants or laboratory instructors.
RA salaries come from faculty members’ research grants. Because of this, your RA hours, salary and other details are worked out between you and the faculty member.
Conference travel & research participants grants
This departmental grant supports graduate student travel to present at professional conferences or to reimburse research participants for their time. Learn about eligibility, priority, amounts and other details for conference travel and research participant funding.
NOTE: students can apply only once a year (between April 1 and March 31) for either the travel funds or the research participant funds.
Please note you will be considered for department funding only if you apply to the other potential funding sources below (if eligible).
Additional funding:
- Faculty of Graduate Studies travel funding
- CUPE conference fund – travel funding if you are working as a TA
National Conferences in Canada
- Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA): national meeting for sociocultural, linguistic, and medical anthropology. Offers dedicated graduate student travel grants, workshops, and panels.
- Canadian Archaeological Association (CAA): national meeting Canadian archaeology bioarchaeology, and heritage management.
- Canadian Association for Biological Anthropology (CABA / ACAB): (Formerly CAPA) Canadian venue for bioarchaeology, skeletal biology, forensic anthropology, and primatology.
LOCAL Conferences
- Northwest Anthropological Conference (NWAC): annual regional meeting (BC, Washington, Oregon, Idaho)
- Pacific Ecology and Evolution Conference (PEEC)
- BC Archaeology Forum
- BC Historical Federation Conference
US-based Anthropological Conferences
- American Anthropological Association (AAA): The largest overall conference for sociocultural, applied, and linguistic anthropology. Also often has special sessions sponsored by the American Ethnological Society, the Society for Economic Anthropology, and the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists.
- American Association of Biological Anthropologists: AABA
- Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA): applied medical, policy, and community-engaged research, Indigenous rights, heritage management.
- Society for American Archaeology (SAA): The largest annual archaeology conference in North America.
International Conferences
External funding
- External scholarships
- Fulbright Awards - for Canadian graduate students
Field school funding
- Strategic Framework Experiential Learning Fund (SF-ELF) - Travel awards for internships and field schools outside Victoria.
- BC Association of Professional Archaeologists (BCAPCA) - bursaries for students pursuing a degree in archaeology and Indigenous students in any field.
- Faculty of Social Sciences field course student support fund - Our field schools are subsidized by this fund. No application necessary.
UVic Libraries
University of Victoria Libraries offer awards to undergraduate and graduate students who show their use of library resources.
Other UVic funding
- International funding opportunities - grants, awards and programs available to UVic students participating in international activities.
- Term sessional lecturer fund - professional development funding
- Centre for Global Studies - graduate student fellowship opportunities
- UVic’s emergency loan fund - short-term help for students