graduate center dissertation fellowship

Graduate Fellowships, Grants and Awards

Information about Berkeley and extramural fellowships, grants and awards including deadlines and applications, can be found in the table below.  

Additional options: 

There are many fellowship options national wide to help cover the costs. We have compiled a list of national fellowship databases to aid in your search.

The Graduate Division provides fellowship awards for entering doctoral students to programs to aid in the recruitment of outstanding doctoral and masters students, including those who will enhance the diversity of the graduate student population at Berkeley. These fellowships are awarded at the departmental level as part of the admissions process.

File your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by March 2, 2015 , the deadline for California residency eligibility for 2015-2016 fellowship and grant proposals.

Fellowships, Grants and Awards Coordinated by the Graduate Division (University and Extramural)

Fellowships and awards coordinated by uc berkeley.

UC Berkeley coordinates awards outlined below. To learn more about these awards, contact the program department directly.

Extramural Fellowships

Extramural fellowships are those awarded by governmental agencies, private foundations, and corporations. Applying for extramural fellowships can be a lengthy and time-consuming process. Begin your search early, at least one year before the intended onset of funding. Prospective students applying for extramural fellowships should consult The Grants Register and the Annual Register of Grant Support at their campus or local library for information. A partial list of extramural fellowships and deadlines appears below. Some of the deadlines are approximations based on competitions from the previous year. To learn more, explore our list of fellowships databases .

Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowships

This award opportunity is made available through the Ford Foundation Fellowships administered by the Fellowships Office .

Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowships provide one year of support for individuals working to complete a research-based, dissertation-required Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) degree that will prepare them for the pursuit of a career in academic teaching or research. Practice-oriented degree programs are not eligible for support. The fellowship is intended to support the final year of writing and defense of the dissertation.

Announcements

2023 Predoctoral, Dissertation, and Postdoctoral Fellowship Awardees and Honorable Mentions

Predoctoral, dissertation, and postdoctoral scholars have been awarded fellowships in the 2023 Ford Foundation Fellowships competition administered by the Fellowships Office.

• View the 127 Awardees for 2023
• View the 521 Honorable Mentions for 2023
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Publications

No publications are associated with this project at this time.

No projects are underway at this time.

Description

Scope of the award.

Dissertation Fellowships provide one year of support for individuals working to complete a research-based, dissertation-required Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) degree that will prepare them for the pursuit of a career in academic teaching or research. Practice-oriented degree programs are not eligible for support. The fellowship is intended to support the final year of writing and defense of the dissertation.  

Award Details

Fellowships can be held at any fully accredited not for profit U.S. institution of higher education offering a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree in an eligible discipline. A limited number of dissertation fellowships will be awarded for the 2024-2025 academic year and will include these benefits:

• One-year stipend: $28,000 
• An invitation to attend the 2024 Conference of Ford Fellows, a unique national conference of a select group of high-achieving scholars committed to diversifying the professoriate and using diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students
• Access to Ford Fellow Regional Liaisons  (PDF, 132 KB) , a network of former Ford Fellows who have volunteered to provide mentoring and support to current Fellows
• Access to other networking and mentoring resources   
• Application deadline:  December 12, 2023 at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) 
• Supplementary materials deadline: January 9, 2024 at 5:00 PM EST

Application and supplementary materials deadlines: The online application system will close promptly on the deadlines stated above. All required materials must be successfully submitted online by these deadlines in order for an application to be considered for review. Applicants should take the time zone into account if they or their letter writers will be submitting materials from a different time zone. It is strongly recommended that applicants and letter writers submit their materials well in advance of the deadline. Out of fairness to all applicants, we regret that we cannot consider requests for extensions for any circumstances for anyone (applicants or letter writers) who is unable to successfully submit their materials by the stated deadlines.

• Notification of 2024 awards: March 2024
• Expected fellowship tenure start date: June 1, 2024 (for 12 months) or September 1, 2024 (for 9 or 12 months)  

Eligibility

All applicants must:

• Confirm holding a previous Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship;
• U.S. citizen or U.S. national
• U.S. permanent resident (holder of a Permanent Resident Card)
• Individual granted deferred action status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, 1 Indigenous individual exercising rights associated with the Jay Treaty of 1794, individual granted Temporary Protected Status, asylee, or refugee
• Demonstrate an intent to pursue a career that includes teaching and research at a U.S. institution of higher education; 
• Be enrolled in a research-based Ph.D. or Sc.D. program at a not for profit U.S. institution of higher education.
• Expect to complete the Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree in a period of 9-12 months during the 2024-2025 academic year; 2
• Have completed all departmental and institutional requirements for their degree, except for writing and defense of the dissertation by December 12, 2023;
• Upload a signed Verification of Doctoral Status Form  (PDF, 92 KB) by the January 9, 2023 Supplementary Materials deadline ;
• Provide evidence of superior academic achievement (such as grade point average, class rank, honors, or other designations); and
• Not have already earned a prior doctoral degree at any time, in any field.

Receipt of the fellowship award is conditioned upon each awardee providing satisfactory documentation that they meet all the eligibility requirements.  

Dissertation fellowship awards will not be made for work leading to terminal master’s degrees, the Ed.D. degree, the degrees of Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) or Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), or professional degrees in such areas as medicine, law, and public health, or for study in joint degree programs such as the M.D./Ph.D., J.D./Ph.D., and M.F.A./Ph.D. This program does not support the Ph.D. portion of a joint/concurrent/articulated program.

[1] Eligibility includes individuals with current status under the DACA Program, as well as individuals whose status may have lapsed but who continue to meet all the USCIS guidelines for DACA. 

[2] Dissertation Fellows are expected to spend the majority of their time working on the writing and defense of the dissertation. Applicants enrolled in a program that requires an internship in addition to completion of a dissertation are not eligible for the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship if they plan to participate in a full-time paid or unpaid internship during the fellowship year . Applicants who undertake internships required for degree completion  after  completion of the dissertation are eligible to apply. On the Eligibility page of the online application, applicants should enter the date they expect to complete all requirements for the dissertation, and in the Proposed Plan essay, they should clarify, for the reviewers’ benefit, the timeline for their dissertation work during the fellowship year and the subsequent requirement for an internship.  

Conditions of the Fellowship

Dissertation Fellows are expected to be enrolled in a full-time program leading to a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree in an eligible discipline. Dissertation awards are intended to support Fellows who will be spending the majority of their time writing and defending the dissertation during the fellowship year. Participation in full-time paid or unpaid internships or other paid activities, even if required for degree completion, should not be undertaken during the fellowship year.

Those who accept a dissertation fellowship must agree to the stipulations in the Terms of Appointment for Ford Foundation Fellows that accompany the award notification.  

How to Apply

Application process  .

The deadline for online application submissions is December 12, 2023 at 5 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST).

• To ensure a complete application, applicants should carefully follow the  Application Instructions  (PDF, 202 KB) .
• Applicants can also follow step-by-step instructions for navigating the online application (PDF, 435 KB) .
• Applicants will receive a confirmation e-mail once their application has been successfully submitted.  

Required Supplementary Materials

The deadline for the online submission of required supplementary materials is January 9, 2024 at 5 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST).

• Applicants will be able to upload transcripts and the  verification form  (PDF, 92 KB)   only after they have submitted the main portion of their online application . Letter writers will be able to upload letters as soon as they have received the notification link sent by the applicant up until the Supplementary Materials deadline.
• To ensure their application will be considered for review, applicants should carefully follow the instructions for required supplementary materials  (PDF, 168 KB) .
• Applicants may share the instructions for the expected content of letters  (PDF, 171 KB)  with their letter writers. These instructions will also be available to letter writers once they gain access to the online application. Applicants must send request notifications to their letter writers through the online application.
• Applicants will not be required to re-submit their application by the Supplementary Materials deadline. After the deadline has passed, applications will be checked for completeness to determine if they can be forwarded to the review panel.

All application materials become the property of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and will not be returned. Applicants should retain copies of all submitted application materials for their personal records.

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Selection process.

Applications will be evaluated by review panels of distinguished scholars selected by the National Academies. The review panels will use all materials included in the application as the basis for determining the extent to which applicants meet the eligibility requirements and the selection criteria.  

Selection Criteria

The following will be considered in choosing successful applicants: 

• Evidence of superior academic achievement
• Degree of promise of continuing achievement as scholars and teachers 
• Capacity to respond in pedagogically productive ways to the learning needs of students from diverse backgrounds 
• 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 
• Likelihood of using the diversity of human experience as an educational resource in teaching and scholarship 
• If applicable, how experience as a member of an underrepresented group through discrimination, inspiration, resilience, etc. may inform participation in the fellowship
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Stanford Humanities Today

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Stanford Dissertation Fellowships

The Stanford Humanities Center and the School of Humanities and Sciences collaborate to administer two Stanford humanities dissertation fellowships: the Stanford Humanities Center Dissertation Prize and Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellowships. Stanford students submit one application to be considered for one or both of these fellowships. Applicants for these fellowships are typically in the 5th or 6th year of their doctoral program.

(You can find more information about the Stanford Humanities Center Next Generation Scholar fellowships, which are open to students in year 7 or above only,  linked here .)

Applications for 2024–2025 fellowships are now closed.

Eligible applicants may apply to the SHC Dissertation Prize/Mellon Dissertation fellowships  or  Next Generation Scholar fellowship, but not  both  NGS and DP/Mellon in the same application cycle. 

Fellowship Opportunities

The SHC Dissertation Prize Fellowships, endowed by Theodore and Frances Geballe, are awarded to doctoral students whose work is of the highest distinction and promise. The fellowship stipend includes three academic quarters of funding (fall/winter/spring). In 2023-24 the funding amount was $38,700; the exact amount for 2024-25 will be announced pending final budget confirmation by January 2024. The recipients of these fellowships have offices at the Humanities Center and take part with other graduate as well as undergraduate and faculty fellows in the Center's programs, promoting humanistic research and education at Stanford. The SHC Dissertation Prize Fellowships also provide an additional $2,000 in research funding.

The Mellon Dissertation Fellowships, which are generously funded by the Mellon Foundation, are awarded to advanced doctoral students whose work is of the highest quality and whose academic record to date indicates a timely progression toward completion of the degree. The fellowship stipend includes three academic quarters of funding (fall/winter/spring). In 2023-24 the funding amount was $38,700; the exact amount for 2024-25 will be announced pending budget confirmation in January 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

The SHC Dissertation Prize and Mellon Dissertation Fellowships are awarded to advanced graduate students, based on accomplished work of the highest distinction, and on the promise of further outstanding achievements in the humanities. Applicants must have:

• advanced to candidacy;
• completed all requirements for the doctoral degree with the exception of the dissertation and the University Oral Examination (when a defense of the dissertation);
• an approved dissertation reading committee;
• a dissertation proposal approved by their committee;
• a strong likelihood of completing the degree within the tenure of the fellowship;
• reached TGR status by the beginning of autumn quarter of the fellowship year;
• completed supervised teaching, if required by their department, before the tenure of the fellowship.
• Outside employment must be aligned with university policy and approved by the home department (including the Humanities Center for SHC fellowships). Please be in close contact with your home department, H&S office, and/or the SHC before confirming any teaching assistantships or accepting other employment or fellowships.
• SHC DP fellows are expected to take part in the daily life of the Center for the duration of their fellowship (i.e. attend lunches and weekly seminars). Next Generation fellows are encouraged but not required to be in regular physical residence at the Center.
• Mellon fellowship: there is no on-campus requirement akin to the expectations for SHC fellows. However, Mellon dissertation fellows are subject to University residency expectations and departmental residency requirements—i.e., having a Mellon does not exempt a student from these residency expectations.
• Applicants who have previously held one of these fellowships are not eligible to reapply for that same fellowship.
• Applicants who have not previously held a Stanford dissertation fellowship will be given the most serious consideration.
• SHC Dissertation Prize Fellowships are open to applicants from the School of Education.
• The fellowships provides tuition support at the TGR rate regardless of whether a student has moved to TGR status. If the student is not yet TGR at the start of the fellowship, the department may provide supplemental funds to cover tuition shortfall.
• Students who are TGR or in a graduation quarter status must enroll in the appropriate zero unit TGR course.
• These fellowships awards are not deferrable to future years or to the summer quarter  

Applications must be submitted via our online application system and must be in English. Access to the system opens in the fall quarter and closes on February 4, 2024, 11:59 PM Pacific time. We discourage the submission of additional materials with the application and cannot circulate these to the committee or return such materials.

Applicants will be notified when their applications have been received, and will be notified of the fellowship competition outcome in late March/early April.

• Contact and biographical information about the applicant
• A curriculum vitae (C.V.)
• Current unofficial transcript (download from AXESS)
• Detailed timetable for the completion of the degree (e.g. dissertation outline detailing status of each chapter)
• Statement of the dissertation’s scholarly significance: Provide a concise explanation of the ways in which the project is a significant contribution to its area of study. Assume the audience to be academics who are not specialists in the field. (250 word maximum)
• A brief description (no more than 1,000 words) of the dissertation
• Two reference letters - one should be from the applicant’s advisor: Please ensure that faculty recommenders have reviewed the proposal and timetable (including status of chapters) in advance and are well prepared to discuss this in their letters. Referees are encouraged to submit letters through our online application system. Referees who wish to submit their letter of reference via email may send them to  [email protected] . Reference letters must be received at the Center by the application deadline - consideration of letters received after that date cannot be guaranteed.

A selection committee representing humanities departments and programs will review and rank the applications on the basis of the following criteria:

• the evidence of intellectual distinction;
• the quality and precision of the dissertation proposal;
• the applicant's timely progress toward the degree;
• the likelihood of completing the degree within the tenure of the fellowship;
• in the case of SHC applicants, the likelihood of the applicant contributing to, as well as benefiting from, the programs of the Humanities Center.

For more information contact  Kelda Jamison , the Humanities Center fellowship program manager.

The application deadline for 2024-25 will be 11:59 pm Pacific time, February 4, 2024.

For more frequently asked questions, click  here .

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Dissertation Fellowships

The CHA offers two campuswide dissertation fellowships open to any CU Boulder Ph.D. candidate working in the  humanities  and arts.

• The fellowship covers tuition for up to 5 dissertation hours per semester
• Mandatory student fees, student health insurance, and a stipend equal to that of a 50% Graduate Part-Time Instructor.

Deadline: January 21, 2024

Eligibility.

Doctoral students from any department at CU Boulder who have advanced to candidacy (D status) and are working in the arts and  humanities  may apply in the Spring prior to their final year, which means applicants should be defending their dissertation in the Spring semester in which they receive the fellowship. Doctoral applicants who come from units outside of traditional arts and humanities fields should amply demonstrate how their project engages with multi- and inter-disciplinary arts and humanities methods and archives . Any eligible student may submit an application with the exception of students who have already received yearlong fellowships and/or funding, whether from CU Boulder or external sources. Recipients may not hold another appointment such as a teaching or research assistantship during the fellowship period but may hold a 0% appointment such as a grader or reader. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.

Selection Criteria

The selection committee will base their decisions on the following criteria:

• The quality of the applicant's research project
• The connection of the applicant’s research to arts and/or humanities methods and archives.
• The quality of the applicant’s CV (presentations, publications, awards, creative work, etc.)
• Probability of completing the dissertation within the award period (the higher, the better)
• Other teaching-free fellowships the applicant has already received (the fewer, the better)​

Application Procedures

Complete the Application Form . Upload the Application Packet in a single pdf file (12pt font, single or double spaced):

• Cover Letter : Please indicate which degree program you are currently in, note where you are in your program requirements, and why this fellowship would be timely.
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Synopsis:  A synopsis of the dissertation (750 words maximum)
• Timeline:  A timeline of the dissertation completion (one page)
• Sources of Funding:  Information concerning other research grants (internal or external) to which the applicant has applied and all other forms of financial support you have received since you have become ABD—specifically any internal and external fellowships you received or will be expected to receive to aid you in your dissertation writing and research
• Letter of Support:  Letter of support including an evaluation statement of the dissertation and the likelihood it will be completed within the fellowship period. This should be written by a dissertation advisor or another member of the dissertation committee.  Letter of support can be included with the application OR  sent directly to  [email protected]  

Expectations

• Recipients will be asked to submit a letter notifying the CHA upon completion of their thesis, capstone project, or dissertation. In addition, by May 1, please email chagrants @colorado.edu  a 300-600 word summary of how the fellowship year aided in furthering your dissertation or thesis research. We’d like to know the impact of the award on your research and possibly include quotations on our website or other CHA materials. If you do not want this information shared with anyone outside of the CHA, please indicate that this information is for CHA eyes only.
• Acknowledgment of the Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA) is required on all promotional/published materials for projects funded by the CHA. Use this language for credit: “This project is supported, in part, by a grant from the Center for Humanities & the Arts”
• Download the Center for Humanities & the Arts logo  here

Questions? Email  [email protected]

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CCSRE Graduate Dissertation Fellowship

21-22 Dissertation Fellows cohort from left to right, Kiara Sanchez, Jasmine Reid, and Beka Guluma / Photo by Heidi M. López

Funded by the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, the CCSRE Graduate Dissertation Fellowship provides financial and intellectual support to outstanding advanced Stanford doctoral students whose dissertations address issues of race and ethnicity. The fellowship program provides an intellectual community for students working to complete their dissertations and encourages comparative scholarship that traverses and challenges disciplinary boundaries.

Applications for the CCSRE Graduate Dissertation Fellowship for AY 2024-25 are now closed. Please check back again next year.

Meet the people.

Neida Ahmad

Candice Jeehae Kim

Chepchirchir Tirop

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National Institute of Social Sciences Dissertation Grant

Open to doctoral students in the fields of Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology, with interdisciplinary projects containing one or more of these fields as a major component also considered.

Eligibility:  Any accredited U.S. university that grants doctoral degrees in the appropriate social science field is eligible to nominate a graduate student to receive an NISS Dissertation Grant. Each university may nominate up to two (2) candidates per grant period. If a university nominates more than one candidate, they may come from one or more of the disciplines listed above.

Grant Period:  Grants are given as unrestricted funds which may be used to cover any necessary expenses related to completing a dissertation, including but not limited to travel to a library or archive, photography or photocopying, field research, and conference support.

Award Amount:  $2,500 - $5,000, with larger amounts on a case-by-case basis.

NYU Internal Process:  Students must be nominated by NYU to be eligible for this grant. All materials are sent to NYU to forward to NISS.

Application Open: TBA

Application deadline: monday, may 6, 2024, at 5:00 pm eastern time. winner(s) are expected to be announced in june 2024., program overview.

The National Institute of Social Sciences (NISS) invites nominations for its 2024 Dissertation Grants Program. NISS Dissertation Grants are designed to support outstanding Ph.D. students who need resources to complete doctoral work that promises to significantly advance their fields of study. Any accredited U.S. university that awards doctoral degrees in the social sciences is eligible to nominate a graduate student for an NISS Dissertation Grant.

Application Components:

Each nomination must include the following information, emailed as instructed below:

Completion of the NISS 2024 Dissertation Grant Application Cover Sheet (click to open fillable pdf for downloading and printing)

The nominee’s CV

The nominee’s personal statement of no more than 750 words describing the project and the planned uses for money requested

A one-page project budget

A letter of support from the nominee’s academic sponsor that addresses the nominee’s academic qualifications and the merits of the nominee’s research

Note: All documents must be submitted in pdf format, with numbered pages that include the nominee’s name and university name in the footer.

External Website Link: 

Https://www.socialsciencesinstitute.org/grants, contact info, emily hollenbach.

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Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Dissertation Fellowship 2024

Apply now to three incredible opportunities offered by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center! Each fellowship carries a stipend of $7,000, with payment of full resident-level fees and health insurance for one quarter of the academic year. The IHC Dissertation Fellowship open until April 15, 2024.

OVERVIEW IHC Dissertation Fellowship The Interdisciplinary Humanities Center offers dissertation fellowships to support UCSB doctoral candidates whose research facilitates dialogue across the traditional disciplinary boundaries within the arts and humanities and/or between the arts and humanities, sciences, and social sciences. In addition to making a significant contribution to current scholarship and research practices, proposed projects should seek to frame their questions, methods, and modes of inquiry with reference to two or more established disciplines/fields of study and/or foster the development of new objects, areas of study, and ways of producing, presenting, and disseminating knowledge. Each fellowship carries a stipend of $7,000, with payment of full resident-level fees and health insurance for one quarter of the academic year.

DEADLINE IHC Dissertation Fellowship: April 15, 2024

AWARD IHC Dissertation Fellowship: Stipend of $7,000, with payment of full resident-level fees and health insurance for one quarter of the academic year

ELIGIBILITY For eligibility requirements check out the IHC website

MORE DETAILS Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Awards

Anglo-American Fellowship Recipients

R. kirk underhill graduate fellowships in anglo-american studies.

The Anglo-American Studies Program supports the R. Kirk Underhill Graduate Fellowship for Berkeley graduate students whose research focuses on Anglo-American affairs, including but not limited to issues involving international relations, politics, history, law, economics, art, language, literature, and culture. Priority is given to students whose work is centrally concerned with US-UK relations, the Commonwealth of Nations and British colonial history. Students from a broad range of disciplines are urged to apply .

"One Struggle: A Global History of the Irish Republican Movement, 1956-1994" 

Past Recipients

Makoto Fukumoto (Political Science)

My dissertation studies how economic geography, place-based policies, and workers’ geographical movements impact geographically-based polities such as those of the United States and the United Kingdom. In both countries, I found that geographically mobile voters are often moderate and have a high level of social engagement but far less likely to participate in political activities, suggesting the link between the geographical “stickiness” and amplified political polarization. Moreover, I found in the UK that banning fracking sites or closing down coal- powered plants did not aggravate or ameliorate the local attitude vis-à-vis the environmentalism and regulations in the affected areas. This confirms the “stickiness” of political attitude but also casts doubt on the potential backlash that many policymakers are fearing. In another paper, I found that pork-barrel spending in the area can lower the support for the federal government who paid the bill, as opposed to the local representative who got the funding. While I used British data, these findings have resonance with the “love my congressperson but hate the congress” attitude observed in the US and how net-beneficiary states of federal spending such as Alaska are often hostile to the federal governments. Fundamentally, the tenet of my dissertation is that geography-based policy may strengthen those who do not want to change their location or those who do not want their location to change. The opinion of those people tends to be sticky as well, even if the local situations change or the governments try to compensate for the disturbance. This “stickiness bias” could pose a significant challenge in the fast-changing society today. While I relied heavily on the findings from the UK, I believe this research can speak to US politics as well.

Sarah Stoller (History)

Sarah Stoller is a PhD student in History. Her dissertation is entitled Inventing the Working Parent: Work, Gender, and Feminism in Neoliberal Britain. Since the 1970s, it has become commonplace to suggest that families across the developed West have lived through a revolution on a scale unprecedented since industrialization. The rapid rise in maternal employment and the emerging middleclass norm of the dual-income household coincided with declarations of a new era of the ‘working parent.’ This project charts the politics that shaped the invention of the working parent as it arose out of a new institutional culture of work. It takes as its starting points the shifting political-economic terrain of the 1970s and feminist campaigns for childcare, flexible work, and a more equitable division of affective labor. It tells the story of efforts to embed new forms of support for workers with caring responsibilities in institutions across the charitable, public, and private sectors, and explores the advent of the ‘family friendly’ workplace. It also highlights the ways in which individuals sought to make sense of their day-to-day lives as ‘working parents,’ and to reckon with the associated imperative of ‘work-life balance.’ In the process, the project engages the classed and racialized notion of a new working parent and touches on the experiences of single parents, childcare workers, and men and women of a variety of backgrounds. It argues that working parenthood has consolidated the gains of second wave feminism at the same time as it has masked the realities of ongoing social inequality in the distribution of caring work, and facilitated an intensification of contemporary work culture.

Allison Neal (English)

Allison Neal’s research focuses on Anglo-American speech-based poetry composed between 1900 and 1975 alongside various methods of controlling and disseminating the “American voice” in the lead up to and height of the American era. By examining how various British and American cultural and governmental institutions sought to consolidate and spread a representative English-speaking voice both domestically and abroad, this project suggests a new approach to the story of twentieth-century English language poetry.

Samuel Garrett Zeitlin (Political Science)

My dissertation examines the ideological and theoretical frameworks with which the scientist, lawyer, politician, and literary author Francis Bacon contested Spanish imperial claims and asserted British claims to Atlantic empire, while advocating “just” conquest, colonies, and overseas plantations. In the writings of Bacon and his contemporaries the arguments over just war and the religious and prudential justifications of empire were at the core of the early modern articulation of the relation between the Britain and the American colonies as well as the relation between Britain and the uncolonized Americas. 2015 Sam Wetherell (History) The working title of my dissertation is ‘Freedom Planned: Neoliberalism and the Late Twentieth Century British City.’ My project will chart the end of Britain’s social democratic welfare state in the late 1970s and Britain’s transition to a more globalized, flexible and service orientated economy through Britain’s changing built environment. I am interested particularly in how the changing fabric of British cities reflected, normalized and helped generate new understandings of economic and social life. By taking the built environment as an object of historical study I want to establish a new vantage point from which to view the history of late twentieth century political and economic change, one that avoids giving causal autonomy to either high politics or structural economic change. My research revolves around four key case studies: the emergence and proliferation of the ‘enterprise zone’ and other similar utopian deregulatory planning strategies, the planning of ‘National Garden Festivals’, a highly visible government sponsored strategy for reclaiming former industrial land, the growth of private enclosed shopping environments (and the privatization of state built shopping precincts) and the privatization of Britain’s public housing stock following new criminological ideas about the relationship between space and crime. Finally I want to investigate the new social and political formations that emerged in British cities to contest these processes. Was it the case that these urban changes produced their own brand of discontents?

Tehila Sasson (History)

Tehila Sasson’s dissertation examines the emergence of humanitarian ethics for famine relief in Anglo-American history from 1880 to 1985. She argues that while this ethics was a product of global technologies for famine relief, these technologies were rooted in colonial knowledge.

2024 Application for Graduate Fellows

Graduate Fellowships

2024 call for applications, the kavli center for ethics, science, and the public invites applications for its graduate fellowship program..

Discoveries in science and technology are moving quickly from basic research to real-world applications, sometimes with societal-scale impact, and scientists are increasingly encountering challenges that fall outside their expertise. We need a new kind of training that prepares scientists to confront the current and future ethical challenges of their fields, and that creates social scientists, philosophers, journalists, and policymakers who are able to work with scientists and diverse communities to ensure that the applications of scientific discoveries protect and advance fundamental human interests. The Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public aims to build a transdisciplinary community of research and learning that breaks down barriers between disciplines and across academia and society, to work together to envision the futures we want our scientific advances to create. 

The center is launching applications for its next cohort of fellows. We’re looking for graduate students in the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and professional schools who are interested in exploring ethical challenges, advancing solutions, and identifying ways of involving impacted communities and the public in science and technology. Successful applicants will be offered a fellowship of 16 months (3 semesters) with modest funding available to work and study in the center and be a part of a new kind of community.  

About the Center

The UC Berkeley Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public comprises three elements: a “hub,” representing the core activities of the center, where all affiliates come together to address fundamental ethical questions across disciplinary boundaries; “spokes” linking these activities to specific scientific disciplines; and an “axle” connecting the center with the larger society it sits within. Current spoke sciences focus on genome editing, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience. These areas have enormous potential to benefit humanity but also raise questions of practical and existential ethical significance and may affect distinct communities differently. Bringing these three scientific fields together under one center enables the identification of shared challenges and the translation of solutions and lessons learned from one to another. Read more about the Kavli Center here .

The Kavli Center collaborates with many departments and institutes on campus to provide fellows with access to leading researchers and scholars in their fields. Read more about our structure and core faculty here .

Eligibility

Applicants are eligible for the fellowship if they are graduate students (master’s or PhD) who meet the following conditions:

Enrollment in a UC Berkeley graduate degree program in either 

A. a science or technical degree program 1 relevant to one of the three scientific spokes 2 : Artificial Intelligence, Genome Editing, or Neuroscience.

B. a humanities or social science discipline, or a professional school, in fields including (but not limited to) Philosophy, Social Science, Economics, Sociology, Ethics, Public Health, Public Policy, Journalism, Business, or Law.

Completion of the following degree requirements:

A. Completion of the first-year course requirements in the candidate’s home department (for those in the sciences and professional schools) and selection of a primary adviser/PI (for those in the sciences).

B. Advancement to candidacy (for those in the humanities and social sciences).

1 Examples of qualifying programs include (but are not limited to) Molecular and Cell Biology Graduate Program, Bioengineering Graduate Program, Neuroscience Graduate Program, or Data Sciences Graduate Program.

2 Candidates need not be conducting dissertation research directly in AI, Genome Editing, or Neuroscience, though applicants who are doing so may be preferred.  

Overarching Goals of the Program

With the Fellowship Program, the Kavli Center aims to:

Remove disciplinary silos.

Advance our understanding of ethical challenges in innovative science, and advance how they can be addressed across different disciplines and diverse publics.

Strengthen the ability of scientists to recognize and respond to ethical challenges.

Strengthen the ability of scholars to communicate and collaborate with scientists and other experts.

Strengthen the ability of scholars and scientists to recognize the value of engaging publics, stakeholders, and communities in the questions our scientific advances raise.

Support reflection on the role and responsibilities of scientists and experts.

Program Structure

The program is designed to supplement student’s graduate programs and existing training in their primary field.  We hope to see fellows cross the boundaries of typically siloed disciplines and explore public, stakeholder, or community perspectives in defining ethical applications of science and technology. To this end, the program is structured in three-parts.

Learning & Exploration : Fellows will expand their training outside their primary discipline through weekly colloquia, workshops, and special access to courses and other learning opportunities. The emphasis during this initial stage is to explore new concepts and skills, and gain a common foundational understanding of different dimensions of ethical challenges and opportunities presented by advancements in science, with an emphasis on our three spoke sciences. Fellows will bring their distinct areas of expertise to teach each other and foster collective growth.

Ideation : During this second phase, fellows will continue their exploration of different fields and discussion of ethical dilemmas born from scientific advancements, but will begin to define a small project that will be executed during the third phase. This project will build on what they’ve explored in the first semester. We ask that fellows stretch their boundaries during this project beyond their primary thesis work. Fellows will pitch their project ideas to their colleagues and to some of our core faculty and researchers for feedback. The center aims to support fellows in a variety of different project paths. Such a project may look like a small community or public engagement that engages around hopes, fears, or ethical questions about a scientific advancement. It may look like a chapter in a thesis, a public-facing piece about the ethical, legal, or social implications of science, or organizing a convening around a particular issue. Where center-wide projects align with the fellow’s interests, a fellowship project may look like participation in a larger research or engagement effort. Lastly, projects could be individual or collaborative with other fellows. 

Execution : Following project approval from the Executive Director, fellows will shift to working on their projects. Weekly meetings will still provide ongoing training, but will also include space for sharing works in progress and getting feedback. The center will help connect fellows with experts or resources that can provide additional insights. 

We aspire to create a strong cohort of scientists and scholars who will continue to interact during their professional careers.  This cohort model has been successful in building other novel fields, through forming strong support and collaboration among current students, postdocs, and program alumni who have moved on to other positions in academia, industry, NGOs, foundations and government. By regularly convening program alumni and fostering connections, we will create a community that goes beyond UC Berkeley to effect positive change in the real world.

Program Elements

A weekly Colloquium (Mondays 2pm–4pm) represents the core programming for the Kavli Center Fellows. Weeks alternate between formats to bring training, discussion, and work-in-progress support to the fellows. 

Working groups or journal clubs formed around the interests of the fellows.

Independent time within the center. The center acts as a hub to connect fellows to other experts and to provide support in project development.

Community building and support for each person’s individual development.

Availability of special opportunities (see below). 

Examples of Special Opportunities

The Kavli Center develops pilot projects, new courses, workshops, events, or research and engagement opportunities that are open to the fellows. Below are upcoming opportunities and previous examples.

Special access to a new spring 2025 course taught by the Kavli Center’s Co-Director, Jodi Halpern: “Skillful Ethical Reasoning for Innovation and Health Leadership." This course is case-based yet takes an unusually systematic approach. Each week introduces one of four major ethical theories, showing how the theories relate to each other using real cases in public health, germline gene editing, experimental invasive neuro-technologies, and a range of uses of AI in health.

An op-ed workshop led by historian and journalist, Elena Conis, and collaboration with a journalism graduate class to write about ethical issues in science for a public audience. Past fellows have had their work submitted to outlets such as Undark, Wired, and Scientific American.

Participation in projects from the Berkeley Ethics and Regulation Group for Innovative Technologies . One or two fellows may be selected to join the planning group and work regularly with ethics and regulation experts.

Participation in a collaborative project with the Berkeley Public Library to bring discussions about ethical questions in our three spoke areas to the Berkeley public ( past example ). 

Participation in new courses organized by the Kavli Center or its affiliates: for example, the center created two new courses that were offered in 2023 and 2024 .

The center often hosts diplomats or policy experts or has access to invitation-only events with high-level experts and officials. When fellows’ expertise aligns, we regularly nominate or include them in such events.

Expectations

Regularly attend and contribute to program activities which include presenting journal articles for discussion, contributing to or leading group discussions, helping to organize seminars, and exchanging feedback on work in progress. 

Attend project or skill development workshops and other center events.

Contribute to growing the Kavli Center community. 

Produce a fellowship project output. As described above, this may be through any number of activities and can include working independently or collaboratively on a toolkit, a white paper, a public/stakeholder/community engagement on a specific topic, a policy or regulatory proposal, a thesis chapter on an ethical dilemma in a science spoke, an op-ed, or any number of meaningful efforts that align with the goals of the center.

Present your work to the broader Kavli Center community.

Participate in alumni activities, returning periodically for cohort retreats and networking.

Fellows will have access to rotating desk space and meeting rooms in 621 Sutardja Dai Hall.

Start Date and Fellowship Duration

Graduate Fellowships begin at the start of the fall 2024 semester. The first meeting and orientation will be scheduled for the second week of September. Participation is year-round, and will run until the end of Fall 2025 semester (16 months).

The Kavli Center provides an award of up to $10,000 to support fellows' participation in the program. This award may be put toward stipend (including summer stipend), tuition, or fees. The mechanisms for administering the award may vary depending on the student’s department (past disbursements have been to PIs or via departmentally distributed awards). 

How to Apply

Complete the online application: https://form.jotform.com/241337710113141

As part of the application, you will be asked to include:

An Interest Statement : Up to 750 words submitted as a form attachment (see the instructions below). 

A Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement : up to 250 words via a form field describing your personal background and contributions to diversity, equity, and valuing inclusion of a variety of perspectives and lived experiences. Applicants who address these as part of their interest statement may simply state so in the form field.

A copy of your curriculum vitae or resume submitted as a form attachment.

A s tatement of support from your thesis supervisor or mentor submitted via a separate form (see the instructions below).

Instructions for the Interest Statement

Interest Statements should include the following:

Describe the relevance of the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public Fellowship to your academic or professional development . Why are you interested in this program? How will the program help you achieve your career goals or fill a gap missing in your current training and why? 

Describe your interest areas. What is the topic of your current thesis work and what interest areas and key learning questions do you envision pursuing in the Kavli Center if awarded the fellowship? While ideas for fellowship projects and outputs will be developed during the fellowship program, what projects or work products might you imagine emerging from your time in the center? Is there a question you wish to pursue or a particular area of interest that stretches beyond your immediate disciplinary training? Not all successful applicants will have a pre-defined project and may instead hope to use the fellowship to explore how they might integrate some of the concepts and values of the center into their own research or practice. In either case, interest statements should indicate how you hope to use your time in the fellowship program, if selected.

Statements should be no more than 750 words, single-spaced, in Times New Roman 12 point font and include your full name at the top.

Instructions for the Statement of Support

If you have a PI or academic advisor who supervises your thesis work, we ask that they fill out a form to indicate their approval of your participation in the fellowship program and to provide a 1-paragraph statement of support. This paragraph should help support why you would make a good Ethics, Science, and the Public Graduate Fellow. For those without a thesis supervisor, please have a mentor or faculty member who can speak to your qualifications fill out the statement of support.

Tip: It may help to provide your recommender with some bullet points highlighting why you want to be involved in this program and what makes you an excellent candidate .

Statements of support should be submitted through the following form and are also due Monday, July 1, 2024 by 11:59pm PT : https://airtable.com/app98b01wuELiQ4yr/pagO4AyZBYEcfyRNu/form

Application Deadline

The Graduate Fellowship application is due Monday, July 1, 2024 by 11:59pm PT . This includes the statement of support submitted by your supervisor or mentor.

Anticipated Timeline

We anticipate notifying applicants of our decision by early August, 2024 .

Start of the fellowship: Second week of September, 2024 . Exact date and time of the first meeting will be scheduled around the incoming cohort’s schedule.

Please direct any questions to [email protected]

NOTE :  We do not expect to fund a new cohort of Postdoctoral Fellows this year. We will, however, post a page for potential postdocs who may be self-funded (via grants) to contact us about potential positions, as well as a page for potential visiting students, postdocs, or faculty scholars.  Please check back at the Fellowships page soon.

Quick Info.

Application Deadline : Monday, July 1, 2024 by 11:59pm PT.

Eligibility : Current UC Berkeley graduate students (master’s or PhD) who meet the described conditions.

Duration & Award : Sept. 2024 – Dec. 2025 (16 months) & up to $10,000

Application Instructions

Grad School Grants and Fellowships

You may be eligible for funding through grants and fellowships offered by the Graduate School to support the research and scholarly activities of our graduate students.

Graduate School Fellowships

Inclusion & diversity fellowships.

The Graduate School offers two fellowships to support the recruitment, retention, and success of outstanding graduate students from historically underrepresented groups: the Spaulding-Smith Fellowship for STEM students, and the Research Enhancement and Leadership (REAL) Fellowship for doctoral students. Students are nominated by their degree programs and notified if they are selected.

Graduate School Research Grants

Predissertation research grants.

Predissertation Grants of up to $1,500 offer early career doctoral students the opportunity to evaluate the feasibility of planned dissertation research, generate pilot data, or establish the necessary networks to carry out future dissertation research, among other activities. The aim is to help students gather information, answer questions, or solve problems related to their dissertation research design. These grants are NOT designed to fund dissertation research itself but rather to help you complete activities that will leave you well positioned to begin your dissertation research after you complete your prospectus.

Dissertation Fieldwork Grants

These grants of up to $5,000 provide support for fieldwork expenses. For the purpose of this grant, fieldwork is defined as data collection that takes place for an extended period of time (e.g. weeks or months) outside the Western Massachusetts geographical area. These grants are not designed to fund data analysis, only expenses related to data collection. In rare instances, applicants may request up to $8,000 to help support work that will take place over an extended period of time and therefore incur significant expense. Applicants will need to submit a statement as part of the application to explain why additional funds are being requested. 

Rapid Research Grants

The Graduate School Rapid Research Grant aims to provide funding for doctoral students to conduct unanticipated, time-sensitive research as part of their dissertation research. This opportunity is open to research activities that were not anticipated and will only be possible for a short, specific period of time.

Supplement for Travel with Children

These competitive grants are awarded as a supplement to the three Graduate School Grants (Predissertation, Fieldwork, and Rapid Research Grants). Students must submit the Supplement for Travel with Children application in the same cycle as the Predissertation, Fieldwork, or Rapid Research Grant application; the deadline for the supplement is the same as the primary application.

Supplement for Public Engagement

To support outreach and engagement efforts by graduate student researchers, the Graduate School offers Public Engagement Supplements. These competitive grants are awarded as a supplement to the three Graduate School Grants (Predissertation, Fieldwork, and Rapid Research Grants); most awards will be between $500 and $1,000. Public Engagement Supplements stem from the university's interest in advancing and applying knowledge and innovation to the betterment of society.

Travel Grants

Travel Grants support graduate students in their efforts to establish themselves and acquire valuable experiences in their field. These awards are administered by the Graduate Program Director (GPD) in each department and funded by a block grant from the Graduate School. Graduate students should contact their GPD for more information. 

Other University Funding

Center for research on families .

The  Center for Research on Families  (CRF) offers Conference Registration Awards, Dissertation Awards, and Summer Methodology Scholarships. Students must be conducting research that may impact and benefit families, broadly defined.

Natural History Collections Summer Graduate Research Scholarship

This scholarship provides up to $5,000 to support collections-based summer research in botany, entomology, paleontology, and vertebrate biology. The call for applications generally opens in early February.   

The Center for Justice, Law, and Societies Graduate Fellow Positions 

CJLS is an interdisciplinary group of scholars who focus on the creation, implementation, and real-world applications of law. They welcome applications from graduate students in all departments and colleges throughout UMass.

CJLS fellows will serve a one-year term (this fellowship does not not take the place of a full-time teaching assistantship or research assistantship).  Benefits of the fellowship include:

• Support from a community of interdisciplinary faculty and graduate students to develop an academic project (article, comp, or dissertation chapter) related to justice, law, and societies (broadly construed). This includes their assignment to two faculty mentors.
• Funding to attend an interdisciplinary law-related conference (Law & Society Association; Law, Culture and Humanities, or another law-related conference subject to the approval of the fellowship director). This funding will include coverage of each fellow’s flight, hotel room, conference registration fee (including membership fees, if required for registration), up to $1000.
• Funding and support to invite a faculty member to participate in the Five College Law, Justice, and Societies speaker series.

Visit the CJLS website for more details on the fellowship.

WSIP Mellon Decolonial Studies Dissertation Writing Fellowship

The World Studies Interdisciplinary Project’s (WSIP) Decolonial Global Studies Certificate, with financial support from the Mellon Foundation, invites applicants for a dissertation writing fellowship for the summer of 2024. The Fellowship supports doctoral candidates currently working towards the completion (by Fall 2025) of dissertations that undertake a decolonial, intersectional analysis. Successful applicants will receive an $8000 fellowship stipend for their summer writing and research. Information on the fellowship can be found here . The deadline for applications is April 22, 2024.

Read more here about  WSIP/  and the  Decolonial Global Studies Grad Certificate  that sponsor this award.

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Global Affairs

Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute

Dissertation research fellowship.

The Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute will fund one $5,000 dissertation research fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year to support primary research activities. Applicants must have successfully completed their qualifying exams and dissertation prospectus by time of application.

2023 Dissertation Research Fellowship Recipient

Emily Loveland Ph.D. Candidate, School of Social Work

"Reframing The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Applying a Human Rights Framework to Federal Food Assistance in the United States"

Emily Loveland, MSW is a doctoral candidate at the UConn School of Social Work. She has worked at and with the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) for over 11 years. She began her career at DSS directly administering SNAP, cash and Medicaid programs and was perplexed by the rigid eligibility requirements and bureaucratic environment that accompanied social services. As she progressed to a SNAP policy consultant, she began to further understand the landscape of the social safety net at the federal and state level and how it clashed with many social work values and human rights principles. This led Emily to pursue her doctoral studies, focusing on social services, food insecurity, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from a human rights lens.

Former Recipients

• Madri Hall-Fau Ph.D. Candidate, School of Social Work "The Role of Devolution in Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment: The Case of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in Connecticut"

Eligibility Criteria

• Open to University of Connecticut doctoral students (ABD) in all disciplines from any UConn campus.
• Applicants must have successfully defended a dissertation prospectus by time of application.
• Students may receive this award once during their tenure in the Ph.D. program.
• In any given year, a student may receive either the Dissertation Research Fellowship or the Dissertation Writing Fellowship, but not both.

How to Apply

The proposal process encourages doctoral students to model and meet the requirements for succeeding in competition for funds by defining a problem, a research project, and a timeline for completing the dissertation research.

Access the application via Microsoft Forms . The application requires the following materials:

• Project Rationale: Please describe your reasoning for undertaking this research project and the impact you believe your project will have on understandings of, or policies affecting, human rights.
• Impact: Identify the expected contribution your research will make to the field of human rights.
• Methodology: Explain how you will conduct your research. Be explicit in describing the types of methods employed and the advantage of using these particular methods.
• Anticipated budget and budget justification (Download the Anticipated Budget and Budget Narrative Template )
• Detailed timeline for the completion of your dissertation (no more than one page), describing precisely where you are in your research, what remains to be done, and when you will do it.
• Unofficial transcript
• Short statement from your advisor/dissertation supervisor that addresses the status of your dissertation research and your eligibility for the award. This should not be an evaluative statement about your actual dissertation research. The statement should be submitted electronically via https://forms.office.com/r/uNhcjRgDsi .

 Application Deadline for 2024: April 1st

Evaluation of Applications

The dissertation project should demonstrate overall excellence with a focus on human rights issues, understood broadly. The dissertation research is expected to make a significant contribution to the scholarly, policy or practice literature in human rights. Priority will be given to applications that evidence human rights coursework and/or prior substantive human rights engagement.

Students are encouraged to use the award as support for activities related to dissertation research, including data collection and travel.

All proposals will be reviewed and ranked by a multidisciplinary review committee chaired by the associate director of the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute and comprised of members of the Gladstein Human Rights Committee. The number of grants will depend on the number of applications ranked ‘excellent’ by the review panel.

Dissertation Formatting Guidance

The following resource shares some best practice guidance for dissertation formatting. 

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The following resource shares some best practice guidance for dissertation formatting. Please note that some of the elements outlined below are required and will be reviewed by the FAS Registrar's Office as part of Harvard Griffin GSAS policies on formatting . 

Language of the Dissertation

The language of the dissertation is ordinarily English, although some departments whose subject matter involves foreign languages may accept a dissertation written in a language other than English.

Most dissertations are 100 to 300 pages in length. All dissertations should be divided into appropriate sections, and long dissertations may need chapters, main divisions, and subdivisions.

Page and Text Requirements

• 8½ x 11 inches, unless a musical score is included
• At least 1 inch for all margins
• Body of text: double spacing
• Block quotations, footnotes, and bibliographies: single spacing within each entry but double spacing between each entry
• Table of contents, list of tables, list of figures or illustrations, and lengthy tables: single spacing may be used

Fonts and Point Size

Use 10-12 point size. Fonts must be embedded in the PDF file to ensure all characters display correctly. 

Recommended Fonts

If you are unsure whether your chosen font will display correctly, use one of the following fonts: 

If fonts are not embedded, non-English characters may not appear as intended. Fonts embedded improperly will be published to DASH as is. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that fonts are embedded properly prior to submission. 

Instructions for Embedding Fonts

To embed your fonts in recent versions of Word, follow these instructions from Microsoft:

• Click the File tab and then click Options .
• In the left column, select the Save tab.
• Clear the Do not embed common system fonts check box.

For reference, below are some instructions from ProQuest UMI for embedding fonts in older file formats:

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2010:

• In the File pull-down menu, click on Options .
• Choose Save on the left sidebar.
• Check the box next to Embed fonts in the file.
• Click the OK button.
• Save the document.

Note that when saving as a PDF, make sure to go to “more options” and save as “PDF/A compliant”

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2007:

• Click the circular Office button in the upper left corner of Microsoft Word.
• A new window will display. In the bottom right corner select Word Options . 
• Choose Save from the left sidebar.

Using Microsoft Word on a Mac:

Microsoft Word 2008 on a Mac OS X computer will automatically embed your fonts while converting your document to a PDF file.

If you are converting to PDF using Acrobat Professional (instructions courtesy of the Graduate Thesis Office at Iowa State University):  

• Open your document in Microsoft Word. 
• Click on the Adobe PDF tab at the top. Select "Change Conversion Settings." 
• Click on Advanced Settings. 
• Click on the Fonts folder on the left side of the new window. In the lower box on the right, delete any fonts that appear in the "Never Embed" box. Then click "OK." 
• If prompted to save these new settings, save them as "Embed all fonts." 
• Now the Change Conversion Settings window should show "embed all fonts" in the Conversion Settings drop-down list and it should be selected. Click "OK" again. 
• Click on the Adobe PDF link at the top again. This time select Convert to Adobe PDF. Depending on the size of your document and the speed of your computer, this process can take 1-15 minutes. 
• After your document is converted, select the "File" tab at the top of the page. Then select "Document Properties." 
• Click on the "Fonts" tab. Carefully check all of your fonts. They should all show "(Embedded Subset)" after the font name. 
•  If you see "(Embedded Subset)" after all fonts, you have succeeded.

Body of Text, Tables, Figures, and Captions

The font used in the body of the text must also be used in headers, page numbers, and footnotes. Exceptions are made only for tables and figures created with different software and inserted into the document.

Tables and figures must be placed as close as possible to their first mention in the text. They may be placed on a page with no text above or below, or they may be placed directly into the text. If a table or a figure is alone on a page (with no narrative), it should be centered within the margins on the page. Tables may take up more than one page as long as they obey all rules about margins. Tables and figures referred to in the text may not be placed at the end of the chapter or at the end of the dissertation.

• Given the standards of the discipline, dissertations in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning often place illustrations at the end of the dissertation.

Figure and table numbering must be continuous throughout the dissertation or by chapter (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, etc.). Two figures or tables cannot be designated with the same number. If you have repeating images that you need to cite more than once, label them with their number and A, B, etc. 

Headings should be placed at the top of tables. While no specific rules for the format of table headings and figure captions are required, a consistent format must be used throughout the dissertation (contact your department for style manuals appropriate to the field).

Captions should appear at the bottom of any figures. If the figure takes up the entire page, the caption should be placed alone on the preceding page, centered vertically and horizontally within the margins.

Each page receives a separate page number. When a figure or table title is on a preceding page, the second and subsequent pages of the figure or table should say, for example, “Figure 5 (Continued).” In such an instance, the list of figures or tables will list the page number containing the title. The word “figure” should be written in full (not abbreviated), and the “F” should be capitalized (e.g., Figure 5). In instances where the caption continues on a second page, the “(Continued)” notation should appear on the second and any subsequent page. The figure/table and the caption are viewed as one entity and the numbering should show correlation between all pages. Each page must include a header.

Landscape orientation figures and tables must be positioned correctly and bound at the top so that the top of the figure or table will be at the left margin. Figure and table headings/captions are placed with the same orientation as the figure or table when on the same page. When on a separate page, headings/captions are always placed in portrait orientation, regardless of the orientation of the figure or table. Page numbers are always placed as if the figure were vertical on the page.

If a graphic artist does the figures, Harvard Griffin GSAS will accept lettering done by the artist only within the figure. Figures done with software are acceptable if the figures are clear and legible. Legends and titles done by the same process as the figures will be accepted if they too are clear, legible, and run at least 10 or 12 characters per inch. Otherwise, legends and captions should be printed with the same font used in the text.

Original illustrations, photographs, and fine arts prints may be scanned and included, centered between the margins on a page with no text above or below.

Pages should be assigned a number except for the Thesis Acceptance Certificate. Preliminary pages (abstract, table of contents, list of tables, graphs, illustrations, and preface) should use small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages must contain text or images.  

Count the title page as page i and the copyright page as page ii, but do not print page numbers on either page .

For the body of text, use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) starting with page 1 on the first page of text. Page numbers must be centered throughout the manuscript at the top or bottom. Every numbered page must be consecutively ordered, including tables, graphs, illustrations, and bibliography/index (if included); letter suffixes (such as 10a, 10b, etc.) are not allowed. It is customary not to have a page number on the page containing a chapter heading.

Check pagination carefully. Account for all pages.

Thesis Acceptance Certificate

A copy of the Thesis Acceptance Certificate should appear as the first page. This page should not be counted or numbered. The DAC will appear in the online version of the published dissertation. The author name and date on the DAC and title page should be the same. 

The dissertation begins with the title page; the title should be as concise as possible and should provide an accurate description of the dissertation. The author name and date on the DAC and title page should be the same. 

Do not print a page number on the title page. It is understood to be page  i  for counting purposes only.

Copyright Statement

A copyright notice should appear on a separate page immediately following the title page and include the copyright symbol ©, the year of first publication of the work, and the name of the author:

© [ year ] [ Author’s Name ] All rights reserved.

Alternatively, students may choose to license their work openly under a  Creative Commons  license. The author remains the copyright holder while at the same time granting up-front permission to others to read, share, and (depending on the license) adapt the work, so long as proper attribution is given. (By default, under copyright law, the author reserves all rights; under a Creative Commons license, the author reserves some rights.)

Do  not  print a page number on the copyright page. It is understood to be page  ii  for counting purposes only.

An abstract, numbered as page  iii , should immediately follow the copyright page and should state the problem, describe the methods and procedures used, and give the main results or conclusions of the research. The abstract will appear in the online and bound versions of the dissertation and will be published by ProQuest. There is no maximum word count for the abstract. 

• double-spaced
• left-justified
• indented on the first line of each paragraph
• The author’s name, right justified
• The words “Dissertation Advisor:” followed by the advisor’s name, left-justified (a maximum of two advisors is allowed)
• Title of the dissertation, centered, several lines below author and advisor
• Table of Contents

Dissertations divided into sections must contain a table of contents that lists, at minimum, the major headings in the following order:

• Front Matter
• Body of Text
• Back Matter

Front and Back Matter

Front matter includes (if applicable):

• acknowledgements of help or encouragement from individuals or institutions
• a dedication
• a list of illustrations or tables
• a glossary of terms
• one or more epigraphs.

Back matter includes (if applicable):

• bibliography
• supplemental materials, including figures and tables
• an index (in rare instances).

Supplemental Material

Supplemental figures and tables must be placed at the end of the dissertation in an appendix, not within or at the end of a chapter. If additional digital information (including audio, video, image, or datasets) will accompany the main body of the dissertation, it should be uploaded as a supplemental file through ProQuest ETD . Supplemental material will be available in DASH and ProQuest and preserved digitally in the Harvard University Archives.

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PhD Candidate Salma Shash Awarded Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship

Salma Shash has been awarded a prestigious Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship for the 2024-25 academic year. The fellowship, in its second year, is awarded to a cohort of graduate scholars for their “bold and innovative approaches” to dissertation research in the humanities and social sciences. The award will support Shash’s project, “Villagers, Criminals, and Policemen: Policing and Justice in Rural Egypt, 1854-1914,” which received accolades in The Current . Read more about Shash’s award-winning work here .

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