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Fellowships and Grants
Graduate students are strongly encouraged and supported in their efforts to identify and pursue funding opportunities that will supplement their living support from the Graduate School, advance their research goals and distinguish them professionally.
As outlined in the Graduate School's policy regarding external awards, doctoral students may combine financial support awarded upon admission with funds awarded by agencies outside of the University to increase their overall living support, reduce their teaching duties and, in some circumstances, extend their guaranteed support into a sixth year.
Before applying for a grant or fellowship, students should seek guidance and feedback on draft materials from their faculty and peers. The Graduate School also co-sponsors workshops and tutorials for grant writing and research statements through the Office of Graduate Career Development.
The following are descriptions of funding competitions administered by the Graduate School and in partnership with other academic units at the University and links to further information and application processes.
Jefferson Scholars Foundation Graduate Fellowships
The Jefferson Scholars Foundation awards a two-year sequenced dissertation completion fellowship and postdoctoral appointment with the College Fellows to top doctoral students in all fields of the arts and sciences. Details regarding the application process are announced annually in December.
AHSS Summer Research Grants
In collaboration with the Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs and the University of Virginia’s Society of Fellows, the Graduate School awards grants of up to $5,000 to doctoral students in the arts, humanities and social sciences to support preliminary dissertation research during the summer months. These grants fund research travel to archives, collections and field sites that will enable the student to determine the feasibility of prospective dissertation projects, survey available sources and clarify the research focus, thus better positioning the student to apply for support from external funding agencies to support the advanced stage of research and writing. Applications are accepted from January 15 through March 1, and awards are announced during the first week of April.
Scholars’ Lab Fellowships in the Digital Humanities
The Scholars’ Lab in the University Library supports a number of funding opportunities for emerging scholars and practitioners of the digital humanities. The Praxis Program supports a team of six University of Virginia PhD students from a variety of disciplines to conceive, develop, publish, and promote a digital project over the course of an academic year. The Lab also offers a Digital Humanities Prototyping Fellowship to individual graduate students who wish to develop a particular project and a Digital Humanities Dissertation Fellowship to advanced doctoral students who are completing dissertations with digital content.
Dumas Malone Graduate Research Fellowship
The Dumas Malone Graduate Research Fellowship supports outstanding advanced graduate students with a need to investigate archives or gather other information in a foreign country or countries. Fellowships are normally awarded to graduate students in architecture, history, politics and other related fields. Applications are accepted from January 15 through March 1, and awards are announced during the first week of April.
Albert Gallatin Graduate Research Fellowship
The Albert Gallatin Graduate Research Fellowship supports graduate students who are engaged in the research or writing of a dissertation in the broad area of "international affairs" and whose research requires travel. Applications are accepted from January 15 through March 1, and awards are announced during the first week of April.
Dean’s PhD-Architecture Fellowships in Historic Preservation and Urban Design
These fellowship programs support students whose dissertation research and professional goals will derive specific and significant benefit from completing the graduate certificate in Historic Preservation or Urban Design offered by the School of Architecture. Students enrolled in any Arts & Sciences doctoral program are eligible to apply for the Dean’s PhD-Architecture Fellowship during their second or third years of enrollment in their PhD program.
Students who are awarded the fellowship will one semester of teaching relief during the subsequent academic year in order to facilitate completion of coursework related to the graduate certificate. Students pursuing the Urban Design certificate will also receive an additional $2,000 in living support during the coming summer and full payment of tuition to attend the pre-requisite Summer Design Institute offered by the School of Architecture.
Applications are accepted from January 15 through March 1, and awards will be announced during the first week of April.
A&S Exchange Fellowships: France and Germany
Arts & Sciences offers two exchange fellowship programs that provide an incremental year of financial support to advanced doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences. The exchange fellow will have full library privileges, a faculty advisor and access to all academic services at the host institution, including courses. Each fellowship provides a full year of living support and remission of tuition, fees and the University’s single-student health insurance premium. Recipients are eligible to defer one year of support offered upon admission into their sixth year of study. Although advancement to candidacy is not required at the time of the application deadline, the exchange fellow must have completed all requirements for candidacy prior to the start of the fellowship.
A&S Exchange Fellowship: École Normale Supérieure (ENS) – Paris, France
Arts & Sciences offers an exchange fellowship program with the ENS that provides an incremental year of financial support to advanced doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences. Recipients are eligible to defer one year of support offered upon admission into their sixth year of study. A year at ENS is a unique opportunity for an advanced graduate student who could benefit from a serious engagement with French research in the humanities and social sciences to make significant progress toward a dissertation. This could be through enrollment in classes at ENS, but might also include fieldwork, archival research or some combination of these. ENS is an elite school that has since the early nineteenth century trained a large proportion of the French intelligentsia. The roster of distinguished former students is extraordinary. Working conditions are excellent. ENS is located at rue d'Ulm, at the heart of the Latin Quarter, and it has one of the best libraries in Paris. Each graduate student is assigned to a faculty advisor. Although the in-house faculty is small, the school relies on a very large faculty network for its programs and seminars.
The exchange fellow will have full library privileges, a faculty advisor and access to all academic services at the ENS, including courses. The fellowship provides a full year of living support and remission of tuition, fees and the University’s single-student health insurance premium. ENS will provide a private, single-student dormitory-style room (i.e., no en suite bathroom or kitchen facilities), access to ENS recreational facilities, and access to the ENS cafeteria at subsidized student prices. The ENS fellow has two options for funding the overall living expenses.
Option 1: ENS fellows may use one of the GTA years of the six-year GSAS funding package; in this case, the fellow will receive $14,000 from GSAS.
Option 2: ENS fellows who wish to live outside the dorms may use one of the Fellowship years provided within their six-year GSAS funding package to support their living expenses; in this case, the fellow will receive the standard funding from GSAS.
The ENS Fellow must be fluent in French and arrive at ENS on or around September 1 and depart no later than June 30 of the academic year. The ENS fellow will be responsible for obtaining a visa and related travel documents necessary to pursue studies and fulfill responsibilities at the host institution. ENS will assist him/her in meeting visa requirements and other necessary formalities.
Although advancement to candidacy is not required at the time of the application deadline, the exchange fellow must have completed all requirements for candidacy prior to the start of the fellowship.
Applications are due annually on December 1, and awards will be announced by late December.
Application materials:
1. A statement of purpose that describes the candidate’s proposed dissertation research for the exchange year and the academic benefits afforded by affiliation at the host institution (maximum of 2 pages).
2. A brief letter of support from your dissertation advisor affirming the particular value of the proposed exchange with ENS-Paris and your suitability to undertake the exchange. You should notify this individual to expect an email from the application system with instructions for providing the letter of support. You are responsible for ensuring this request is completed in advance: the letter must be received by December 1.
3. Confirmation of candidacy from the candidate’s DGS via the application system. An email will be sent with appropriate instructions. Again, you are responsible for ensuring this request is completed in advance: the confirmation must be received by December 1.
If you have additional questions, please contact the Director of Graduate Studies for French. Contact information can be found here: website.
A&S Exchange Fellowship: Technische Universität Dormund – Dortmund, Germany
Arts & Sciences offers an exchange fellowship program with the Technische Universität Dormund (TU) that provides an incremental year of financial support to advanced doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences.TU Dortmund is a major research university located in Germany's greening industrial Ruhr Valley, existing in a consortium with the nearby University of Duisberg-Essen and the University of Bochum. Together they boast outstanding faculty across all major fields of scholarly and scientific inquiry, with special strengths in American Studies, Cultural Studies, and History, among others.
The Dortmund Fellow will design and teach two two-hour courses per semester at Dortmund’s Institute for American Studies under the guidance of the Institute’s director. The courses may deal with American literary, cultural and historical topics from a transatlantic perspective and/or as comparative (German-American or European-American) phenomena. Courses are taught in English. Knowledge of the German language is helpful, but not required.
The fellow will receive teaching wages from Dortmund in the amount of €13,000 (approximately $14,800 at present exchange rates) and a fellowship stipend of $14,000 from the Graduate School. The fellow will be expected to arrive at Dortmund on or around October 1 and depart no later than July 30 of the following year.
Applications are due annually on February 1st, and awards will be announced in late March.
If you have additional questions, please contact Tyisha Hathorn ([email protected]).