Graduate Student Summer 2024 Research Fellowship (General)
Applications are now closed and will re-open in Spring 2025.
The University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center is pleased to invite applications for Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowships of $10,000 each. The goal of this fellowship is to support multidisciplinary humanities research by graduate students at Pitt and to connect them with the multidisciplinary networks of the Humanities Center. Recipients of the fellowship will participate in the intellectual life of the Center throughout the academic year following their summer fellowship, and they will share their work with the Humanities Center community. The Center is committed to creating a multidisciplinary humanities environment incorporating a diversity of experiences, identities, and disciplines, and we welcome applications from across Pitt's graduate student community.
This year, we are calling for applications that connect to the annual theme of “Method?” Please see our announcement of this theme here for further details.
Eligibility. Successful applicants for the fellowship must be admitted to candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (i.e., be ABD having passed the prospectus review) before May 15, 2024, in a humanities or humanities-adjacent doctoral program at the University of Pittsburgh. Fellowship recipients may teach during the summer. Additionally, fellows should be in residence in Pittsburgh during the 2024-25 academic year of the fellowship, and they commit to participating in the intellectual life of the Center.
Application Requirements. Applications for a Humanities Center Graduate Fellowship must include the following:
- A description of the research project to be completed over Summer 2024. Examples of the research project to be described can include, but are not limited to, researching and/or drafting one or more dissertation chapters. The description should articulate the sources and methods to be used and sketch a timetable for the completion of the project. Do not include a bibliography, but use in-text citation where helpful if you wish (no more than 600 words);
- An account of how the research project contributes to the your dissertation, laying out for the general reader both the dissertation’s research problem and its potential impact on relevant scholarly literatures (no more than 300 words);
- A discussion of how this project would contribute to the 2024-25 Humanities Center theme of “Method?” (no more than 300 words);
- Nomination of a potential Visiting Fellow (see here for further details on this fellowship program), giving their institutional affiliation and explaining why you believe they would make a valuable contribution to the theme of “Method?” (no more than 300 words);
- A statement of how you and your project would contribute to the Humanities Center's goal of fostering a multidisciplinary humanities environment incorporating a diversity of experiences, identities, and disciplines (no more than 300 words); and
- A curriculum vitae, clearly indicating any funding support received for the research project.
We will request a letter of support from a referee you nominate, asking them to assess the project’s strengths, significance, and potential to contribute to and benefit from a multidisciplinary humanities environment. Your referee should almost certainly be someone from your dissertation committee (as they’ll need to assess your progress and project), but it need not be your advisor if you feel that someone else is better positioned to recommend you for this fellowship. Please let your letter writer know that this letter will be due one week after the deadline for fellowship applications.
Selection Criteria. Applications will be assessed by the Steering Committee of the Humanities Center. In that review of applications, the following criteria will be used to rank proposals, while also being mindful of the goal of creating a diverse and representative class of fellows:
- The clarity with which the application lays out a research project with appropriate methods, sources, and timeline;
- The potential impact of the dissertation overall as well as the potential impact of the research project on the dissertation;
- The likelihood that the project and the applicant would make a significant contribution to the theme of “Method?”; and
- The likelihood that the fellow and the project would contribute to a multidisciplinary humanities environment incorporating a diversity of experiences, identities, and disciplines.
East Asian Studies Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship
This year, with the support of the Asian Studies Center, the Humanities Center will provide a $10,000 summer research fellowship to support research on East Asia by a graduate student at Pitt. The ASC defines East Asian studies as research focused on China, Japan, Korea, and/or Taiwan.
As the field of Asian Studies changes to reflect a global perspective on the humanities, interdisciplinary research increasingly draws creatively on East Asian literature, music, art, language, history, and culture, broadly defined, to inspire new and dynamic academic insights and perspectives. In line with the Global Asia Initiative of the Asian Studies Center this fellowship opportunity is designed to encourage graduate students to integrate East Asian Studies with their interdisciplinary research objective to expand and enhance scholarship in the humanities. Applications should also connect to the 2023-24 Humanities Center theme of Method. Please see our announcement of this theme for further details.
If you wish to be considered for both the general fellowship and the East Asian Studies fellowship, then please indicate that when you apply.
Applicants wishing to be considered for this East Asian Studies fellowship should include a no more than 600-word description of the following:
(a) how your proposed project would contribute to East Asian Studies and/or how your research can be enhanced through the inclusion of an East Asian Studies component;
(b) how your dissertation and/or career plans intersect with East Asian Studies
(c) what you would plan to gain from and contribute to the Asian Studies Center
(d) what previous work in (or relevant to) East Asian Studies specifically you have done
Selection Criteria for the East Asian Studies Fellowship. In addition to assessing the general application relative to the general criteria, the Humanities Center Steering Committee will assess this additional 600-word description and the general application in reference to the following criteria:
- Potential impact on area studies scholarship and related literatures
- Potential for the project to contribute to the applicant’s dissertation or career trajectory
- Potential for the applicant to contribute to the intellectual life of the Asian Studies Center and its affiliated faculty
- Previous work in Asian Studies that supports the potential for fulfilling these desiderata
Health Humanities and Ethics Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship
This year, with the generous support of the Center for Bioethics & Health Law, the Humanities Center will award a summer research fellowship worth $10,000 to support health humanities and/or bioethics research by a graduate student at Pitt. The interdisciplinary field of the health humanities, which includes the field of bioethics, employs methods and content drawn from the humanities and arts to explore questions concerning health and well-being, healthcare, and human flourishing. In addition to the opportunities and responsibilities attending the Humanities Center Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowships, recipients of this Health Humanities and Ethics Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship will participate in the intellectual life of the Center for Bioethics & Health Law during the academic year following their summer fellowship.
If you wish to be considered for both the general fellowship and the Health Humanities and Ethics fellowship, then please indicate that when you apply.
In addition to the general fellowship application materials, applicants wishing to be considered for this Health Humanities and Ethics fellowship should include a no more than two-page description of the following:
(a) how your proposed project would contribute to the health humanities (and/or bioethics), related scholarly literatures, and/or health-related fields;
(b) how your dissertation and/or career plans intersect with the health humanities and/or bioethics;
(c) what you would plan to gain from and contribute to the Center for Bioethics & Health Law; and
(d) what previous work in (or relevant to) the health humanities/bioethics you have done.
Selection Criteria for the Health Humanities and Ethics fellowship. In addition to assessing the general application relative to the general criteria, the Humanities Center Steering Committee will assess this additional two-page description and the general application in reference to the following criteria:
- Potential impact on the health humanities, bioethics, or health-related fields, and/or related scholarly literatures;
- Potential for the project to contribute to the applicant’s dissertation or career trajectory;
- Potential for the applicant to contribute to the intellectual life of the Center for Bioethics & Health Law;
- Previous work in the health humanities that supports the potential for fulfilling these desiderata.
Deadline for all Fellowships. Applications must be submitted by Friday, March 1, 2024.
Questions. For any questions, please contact the Co-Directors of the Humanities Center, Carla Nappi (nappi@pitt.edu) and David Marshall (dlm91@pitt.edu).