Fellowships
Why do I need a fellowship if I’m already funded?
Most importantly: because fellowships beget other fellowships, which beget jobs. Also, because your funding is limited. Also, because residential fellowships are an important opportunity to meet other scholars in your field
How do I find out what fellowships are available?
Your advisor
Your peers
How do I format my research proposal?
The Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) Student Fellowship Competition is organized to help graduate students in the humanities and social sciences formulate effective research proposals through exploratory research and exchanges with other scholars within interdisciplinary areas of study. Learn more here: http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships/dpdf-fellowship/
Please see additional information on Graduate Student Funding here.
Field-specific listservs often advertise $1000-range fellowships for research and travel in a particular area of research. These four institutions maintain huge databases of graduate funding opportunities:
The MLA: http://www.mla.org/fellowships_grants
UPenn: http://www.english.upenn.edu/Grad/predocfunding/post.php
Johns Hopkins: http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/humanities/grants.html
NYU Humanities Initiative: http://humanitiesinitiative.org/index.php/funding/grants-for-humanists
Other databases of graduate funding opportunities:
SMU: http://smu.edu/nationalfellowships/
Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship: http://www.amylowell.org/
Medieval Academy of America: http://www.medievalacademy.org/grants/gradstudent_grants_schallek_felinstr.htm
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships: http://www.acls.org/programs/dcf/
OMP: http://www.onlinemastersprograms.org/financial-aid/ and http://www.onlinemastersprograms.org/financial-aid/scholarships/.
Many libraries offer residential fellowships, including short-term fellowships (usually one or two months) and some longer ones. Here is a non-comprehensive list of some of the more important institutions to know about:
|
Name of institution
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Location
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Specific field (if any)
|
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American Antiquarian Society
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Worcester, Mass.
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American culture to 1876
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American Philosophical Society
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Philadelphia, Penn.
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learned knowledge, c. 1600-1850
|
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Beinecke Library
|
New Haven, Conn.
|
|
|
Bodleian Library Centre for the Study of the Book
|
London
|
|
|
David Library of the Amer. Rev.
|
near Philadelphia
|
American 1750-1800
|
|
Folger Shakespeare Librar
|
Washington, D.C.
|
Early Modern
|
|
Gilder Lehrman Institute
|
New York, N.Y.
|
American history
|
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Harry Ransom Center
|
Austin, Tex.
|
|
|
Helen Ann Mins Robbins fellowship
|
Rochester, N.Y.
|
Medieval
|
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Houghton Library
|
Cambridge, Mass.
|
|
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Huntington Library
|
Pasadena, Calif.
|
|
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John Carter Brown Library
|
Providence, R.I.
|
The Americas before 1825
|
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Lewis Walpole Library
|
Farmington, Conn.
|
18th century
|
|
Library Co. of Philadelphia
|
Philadelphia, Penn.
|
American culture to 1900
|
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New York Public Library
|
New York, N.Y.
|
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Newberry Library
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Chicago, Ill.
|
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Princeton Library Research Grants
|
|
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UCLA Center for 17th- and 18th-century Studies
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Los Angeles, Calif.
|
17/18C
|
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UCLA Clark Library
|
Los Angeles, Calif.
|
English 1641–1800; Oscar Wilde
|
|
W. Ormiston Roy Fellowship
|
Columbia, S.C.
|
Scottish studies
|
|
Winterthur
|
Wilmington, Del.
|
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Many state and local historical societies have short-term residential fellowships. A few organizations offer non-residential fellowships for work on particular topics, including the following:
National Foundation for Jewish Studies
National Women’s Studies Association
Holocaust Museum
Bibliographical Society of America
What about full-year dissertation fellowships?
Some of the libraries noted above offer these. Other institutions offer them in both residential and non-residential forms. Some of the most important to know about are:
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Fulbright Scholar Program
McNeil Center for Early American Studies (at the University of Pennsylvania)
Five College Fellowship Program (Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, Smith)
Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship (for work on “religion and ethics”)
Spencer Foundation (for work on “education, broadly conceived”)
William B. and Maryloo Spooner Schallek Memorial Graduate Fellowships (medieval)
Medieval Academy of America Dissertation Grants and Schalleck Fellowship
How do I create an application?
The application will generally ask for a project statement between two and ten pages, a CV, one to three letters of recommendation, and some kind of cover sheet.
Do exactly what they tell you to do for the project statement. If it is a library fellowship, for example, you will be asked to address the suitability of their collection to their project. In other words, they will want to know what you’re going to look at while you’re there.
Be specific. It never hurts to get in touch with the librarians in advance to make sure they still have the things you say you want to look at, and to see what else you might want to reference.
This Chronicle of Higher Education article, “Grant-writing tips for graduate students,” is very helpful:http://chronicle.com/article/Grant-Writing-Tips-for/125301/
Other Resources:
Calls for Papers:
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu