Funding Opportunities

Graduate Assistantshi​​ps​

The English department partners with several centers and units to provide competitive graduate assistantship opportunities to our graduate students. Graduate assistantships are an opportunity to gain professional experience and develop skills outside of teaching. Students receive the same pay and benefits as teaching assistants. Calls for applications are circulated each spring semester. If you would like more information about a particular assistantship, please reach out to the director of graduate studies or program coordinator to be connected with supervising faculty and past assistants. The following organizations offer assistantships each year: ​

• Center for Material Culture Studies
• Assistant Director for Composition Program
• Assistant Director for University Writing Center
• UD Press Scholarly Publishing Assistant
• Winterthur Museum & Library
• Mark Samuels Lasner Collection
• Special Collections

Hourly Positions

UD English also supports hourly paid internships and research assistantships at $20.00 to $30.00 per hour for positions that require less than 5 hours of work per week.​

​Interdisciplinary Graduate Teaching Assistantships (IGTA) ​

The university offers several competitive teaching assistantships each year. Although all of our doctoral students are funded on teaching assistantships as instructors for English courses, the opportunity to assist faculty in a complementary discipline helps students gain valuable interdisciplinary experience. IGTAs assist a faculty member in another department with their undergraduate courses. Participating departments may include but are not limited to: Women & Gender Studies, Political Science, Philosophy and Anthropology. IGTA's receive the same stipend and benefits as​ English teaching assistants. Calls for applications go out each spring semester. ​

​Internal: Department Travel Awards

​The department holds between 2 competitions for travel funding during the academic year, one in Fall and one in Spring. We support graduate student travel to conferences and to research sites such as archives.

Priority is given to national conferences at which the student will be presenting original work. In applying for travel funding, students should speak to the prestige of the conference and the role it will play in their professional development.

Students interested in applying for a travel grant should review the instructions given in the Graduate Handbook and look for the DGS's email announcement in Fall or Spring.

University Awards & Fellowship​s​

Graduate College Awards

Funds for travel

• Graduate Travel Award - up to $1500 to support travel and conference paper presentation
• Summer D​​oc​toral Fellowship - These awards of up to $7,333 provide stipend support for doctoral students who do not have summer appointments or who do not have appointments at the campus minimum stipend rate.​
  
• Collection Based Research​ Grant - up to $300 for short term research travel
  
• Unidel Louise Roselle Collectio​ns-Based Research Travel Award - up to $4500 to support students’ research travel to libraries, archives and museums worldwide
  

Recruitment Scholarships and Fellowships

• Graduate Scholars Award - a 1-2 year 12 month award for new or current students
  
• Doctoral Fellowship for Excellence​ - a year-long writing fellowship for students working on the doctoral project
  

Center for Material Culture Studies (CMCS) Awards:

• Collections Based or Seminar Workshop Grant—Up to $750 per awardee is available through the National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant. MA and PhD students planning to enroll in a seminar or workshop with significant material culture element are eligible to apply. Deadline: March 15.
• Graduate Research Presentation Fund—Up to $1,000 each for up to 8 students to support graduate students presenting original research at a public venue. Application Deadline: October 15 and March 15.
• Graduate Research Publication Subvention Fund —Up to $500 each for up to 4 students to support graduate student publications Application Deadline: October 15 and March 15
• Friends of Rockwood Fund—Up to $1,500 to support a graduate student researching Victorian-era material culture. Application Deadline: March 15.
• Finkel Fund in Support of Cultural Internships—Up to $3,000 to support undergraduate or graduate students accepted for a material culture related internship in Summer 2019. Application Deadline: March 15.
• Graduate Research Travel Fund—Up to $1,500 each for up to 6 graduate students pursuing research or fieldwork in material culture studies. Application Deadline: October 15 and March 15.

External Internships​

Library of Congress Junior Fellows Summer Intern Program - The Library of Congress offers paid summer internships to graduate students to work under the direction of archivists in a variety of areas. Deadline Dec 20.

MSU's Environment Fellows Program - funded summer internship with environmental organization. Deadline Jan 31.

Smithsonian Internships - graduate students can apply to specific internships or to the Smithsonian Internship Pool. Application deadlines are: Fall Semester (September – December): July 15; Spring Semester (January – May): Nov 15; Summer Semester (May – August): March 15.

NEH Summer Internships - Students at all levels can apply by March 4 to work with 20 different offices and divisions, including the Digital Humanities office. Deadline early March.

Note: Students can apply for professional development funds to support unpaid internships or to subsidize travel and accomodation costs.

Ex​ternal Research Awards​​

Mary McEwen Schimke Scholarship - provides up to $1,700 in relief from household and child care expenses to women pursuing a graduate degree. Deadline early January.

Huntington Fellowships for research at the Huntington research institute in California - deadline Nov 15

Bibliographical Society Grants - funds research on book history, book ownership and/or collecting. Also funds grade coursework at the London Rare Books school - deadlines vary.

Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr., Research Grants (Keats-Shelley Association) Pforzheimer Grants are awarded each year to defray travel expenses incurred in pursuing archival and/or special-collections research related to British Romanticism and literary culture, 1789-1832. Deadline Nov. 1.

Children's Literature Association - Hannah Beiter Graduate Student Research Grants - Up to $1,500 in support of research in children's literature criticism. The award may be used to purchase supplies and materials (e.g., books, videos, equipment), as research support (photocopying, etc.) or to underwrite travel to special collections or libraries.

Harry Ransom Center Research Fellowships in the Humanities - Up to $2000 for travel and study at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. Strengths include women's studies, American and British literature, and the history of the book.

Yale LGBT Studies Research Fellowship supports scholars from any field pursuing research in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer studies at Yale University, utilizing the vast faculty resources, manuscript archives, and library collections available at Yale. Graduate students conducting dissertation research, independent scholars, and all faculty are invited to apply. The fellowship provides an award of $4,000, which is intended to pay for travel to and from New Haven and act as a living allowance. The fellowship must take place between September and April.

The Clements Library Research Fellowships help scholars gain access to the Library’s rich array of primary sources on early American history. On almost any aspect of the American experience from 1492 through 1900, the Clements holdings—books, manuscripts, pamphlets, maps, prints and views, newspapers, photographs, ephemera—are among the best in the world. Students who have difficulty traveling due to family (or other) reasons should take note of the Digital Fellowships, which offer a non-residential opportunity to support research by graduate students working remotely on any topic that can be supported by the digitization of library materials.

The Black Metropolis Research Consortium offers short-term residential summer fellowships to scholars and artists whose "proposed research topic will generate new perspectives or contribute to knowledge of the black experience in Chicagoland." Deadline early January.

The Linda Hall Library offers residential fellowships lasting between one and four months to doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, and other researchers whose work would benefit from the Library’s collections in the History of Science and Medicine. Fellowship funding is offered up to $3,000 per month for doctoral students and up to $4,200 per month for postdoctoral researchers. Deadline Jan 17.

The Frederick B. Artz Summer Program provides $1000 to encourage and facilitate the publication of scholarly, humanistic studies based on archival and special collections sources at Oberlin College. Included in the archives are materials on movements with which Oberlin has been associated, such as antislavery, black education, coeducation, missions, and temperance. The Special Collections Department of the College Library houses antislavery books and pamphlets; pamphlets on women; Ohio Congregational Church records; history of printing (from incunables to modern fine press editions); and material related to nineteenth-century travel and exploration.

External Dis​​sertation Fellowships​

American Fellowships - $20,000 for women pursuing full-time study to complete dissertations, conducting postdoctoral research full time, or preparing research for publication for eight consecutive weeks. Deadline Nov 1.

Mellon Dissertation Fellowship for Research on Original Sources - up to $25,000 for dissertation research in the humanities or related social sciences using original sources

The Massachusetts Historical Society offers more than forty research fellowships. The first deadline, for MHS-NEH fellowships, is January 15. The Society's collections also include several hundred thousand books, more than 10,000 broadsides, 30,000 18th- and 19th-century pamphlets, 2,500 maps, 120,000 photographs, and 660 works of art.

Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowships provide one year of support to 30 individuals working to complete a dissertation leading to a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) (subjects include “literature”). The awards will be made to individuals who, in the judgement of the review panels, have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, and show promise. *Positive factors in choosing successful candidates include “Capacity to respond in pedagogically productive ways to the learning needs of students from diverse backgrounds“ and “Sustained personal engagement with communities that are underrepresented in the academy and an ability to bring this asset to learning, teaching, and scholarship at the college and university level.” The fellowship pays a stipend of $21,000. Applicants must be citizens, nationals, or permanent residents (holders of a Permanent Resident Card) of the United States.

Josephine DeKarman Fellowships are open to students in any discipline, including international students, who are currently enrolled in a university or college located within the United States. A minimum of ten (10) fellowships, $22,000 for doctoral students and $14,000 for undergraduate students, will be awarded for the regular academic year. Only doctoral students and undergraduate students about to enter their final year of study/dissertation are eligible. The fellowship is for one academic year and may not be renewed or postponed. Special consideration will be given to applicants in the Humanities. To be competitive, graduate applicants should have outstanding letters of recommendation, significant publications, and have completed several chapters of the dissertation at the time of application. Deadline late January.

Marilyn Yarbrough Dissertation/Teaching Fellowship - Dissertation completion award open to members of underrepresented groups (e.g., ethnic minorities; first-generation college attendees) who are interested in teaching as well as research careers. $36,000 / salary.

The Emory Visiting Fellowships for Pre-Doctoral Scholars welcomes applications from scholars in the humanities who are pursuing research projects that examine the origins, evolution, impact and legacy of race, difference, and the modern quest for civil and human rights. We also support research projects that examine race and ethnicity and its points of intersection with other identities and movements addressing differences along gender, class, religious, or sexual lines. Visiting Fellows will be in residence at Emory for the academic year. Deadline late January.

CJH Graduate Research Fellows -The Center for Jewish History in New York City offers 10-month fellowships to PhD candidates supporting original research using the collections at the Center. Preference is given to those candidates who draw on the library and archival resources of more than one partner. It is required that each fellow spend a minimum of 3 days per week in residence in the Lillian Goldman Reading Room using the archival and library resources. Full fellowships carry a stipend of up to $17,500 for one academic year. It is expected that applicants will have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except for the dissertation.

History of Science Fellowships - The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, an independent research library in Philadelphia, accepts applications for short- and long-term fellowships in the history of science, technology, medicine, and industry. The center provides dissertation fellowships of $26,000 for work that is in some way tied to the history of materials and materiality, chemistry, and related sciences. Applications come from a wide range of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. Deadline in early January.

Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine Fellowships - The Consortium offers Research Fellowships, nine-month Dissertation Fellowships, NEH Postdoctoral Fellowships, and Fellowships-in-Residence for scholars in the history of science, technology or medicine who would like to use collections at two or more institutions in the Consortium. Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellows use offices in the Consortium’s facility in Center City Philadelphia and have ready access to events and activities throughout Philadelphia’s vibrant academic and cultural communities. Dissertation fellowship deadline: Dec 15.

Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources are for dissertation research in the humanities or related social sciences in original sources. Applicants may be of any nationality but must be enrolled in a U.S. doctoral program and be studying in the U.S. Proposed research may be conducted at a single or multiple sites abroad, in the U.S., or both. Fellowships are for 9-12 months and provide an annual stipend of up to $25,000. (Applications Currently Suspended)

The Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships in Women’s Studies support the final year of dissertation writing for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences whose work addresses topics of women and gender in interdisciplinary and original ways. In each round, ten Fellows will receive $5,000 to be used for expenses connected with completing their dissertations, such as research-related travel, data work/collection, and supplies. Deadline Oct 15.

International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) offers 9-12 months of support to graduate students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are enrolled in PhD programs in the United States (regardless of citizenship) and conducting dissertation research on non-US topics. Deadline Nov. 5.

Rome Prize Fellowship, American Academy in Rome invites prize recipients to Rome for six months or eleven months to immerse themselves in the Academy community where they will enjoy a once in a lifetime opportunity to expand their own professional, artistic, or scholarly pursuits, drawing on their colleagues' erudition and experience and on the inestimable resources that Italy, Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Academy have to offer. Graduate students in the humanities may apply only for pre-doctoral fellowships. Deadline Nov 1.

Getty Predoctoral Fellowships provide support for emerging scholars to complete work on projects related to the Getty Research Institute’s annual theme. Recipients are in residence at the Getty Research Institute, where they pursue research to complete their dissertations or to expand them for publication. Deadline Oct. 1.

ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships support a year of research and writing to help advanced graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences in the last year of PhD dissertation writing. Students can be no more than six years into the degree program at the time of application. This includes time spent earning an MA within that program. Deadline late Oct.

Getty Predoctoral Fellowships are intended for emerging scholars to complete work on projects related to the Getty Research Institute's annual research theme. Recipients are in residence at the Getty Research Institute or Getty Villa, where they pursue research projects, complete their dissertations, or expand dissertation for publication. Deadline Oct. 1

Smithsonian Fellowships - $36,000 per year with $4000 research allowance for doctoral candidates using Smithsonian resources; also $7,500 for *predoctoral* grad students conducting research during the summer. Deadline Nov 1.