Last updated June 1, 2024
Dissertation research fellowships provide financial support to doctoral students who are in the stages of conducting research and writing their dissertations. Funding can be used to support travel, fieldwork, supplies, language training, and even living expenses. Often these dissertation fellowships have “no strings attached” – their intention is simply to support scholars completing original research in a particular field of study. Discover these 30 unique dissertation fellowships for domestic and international doctoral students enrolled in U.S. universities.
List of Dissertation Fellowships
If any of these dissertation research fellowships interest you, be sure to bookmark them to your ProFellow account.
Kress History of Art Institutional Fellowships
The Kress History of Art Institutional Fellowships are intended to provide promising emerging art historians with the opportunity to experience just this kind of immersion. Six pre-doctoral Kress Institutional Fellowships in the History of European Art will be awarded each year. Each fellowship provides a two-year research appointment hosted by European art history research centers. The fellowship award is $30,000 per annum. Restricted to pre-doctoral candidates in the history of art and related disciplines. Nominees must be U.S. citizens or individuals matriculated at an American university. Dissertation research must focus on European art from antiquity to the early 19th century and applicants must be ABD by the time their fellowship begins.
Harry Frank Guggenheim Emerging Scholar Awards
The Harry Frank Guggenheim Emerging Scholar Awards recognize promising researchers in their final year of writing a doctoral dissertation examining a salient aspect of violence. The Foundation welcomes proposals from any of the natural and social sciences or allied disciplines that promise to increase understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence and aggression. The highest priority is given to research that addresses urgent, present-day problems of violence—what produces it, how it operates, and what prevents or reduces it. The award is $25,000 for one year.
Gettysburg College Dissertation Fellowship
The Consortium for Faculty Diversity invites applications for dissertation fellowships from candidates who will contribute to increasing the diversity of member colleges by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximizing the educational benefits of diversity, and/or increasing the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of students. Applicants must be able to provide evidence of U.S. citizenship or unconditional permanent residency status at the time of hire. Scholars will receive a salary. Dissertation Scholars will teach one course per academic year at the sponsoring college or university and contribute to other campus activities. Mentoring on teaching, scholarship, and professional life at liberal arts colleges will be provided.
AHRQ Grants for Health Services Research Dissertation Program
The AHRQ Grants for Health Services Research Dissertation Program (R36) provides dissertation grants for doctoral candidates. This program supports dissertation research that addresses AHRQ’s mission and priorities and welcomes any areas of health services research as dissertation project topics. Candidates must be U.S. citizens and full-time academic students in good standing, who are enrolled in an accredited research doctoral program in such fields as behavioral sciences, health services research, nursing, social sciences, epidemiology, biostatistics, health policy, health informatics, engineering, and mathematics. The award project period minimum of 9 months up to 17 months and the award budget is up to $15,000 in direct costs and a stipend.
World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship
The World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship program is an annual grant competition to support Ph.D. dissertation research on American foreign policy, international relations, international security, strategic studies, area studies, and diplomatic and military history. The fellowship’s objective is to support the research and writing of policy-relevant dissertations through funding of fieldwork, archival research, and language training. In evaluating applications, the Foundation will accord preference to those projects that could directly inform U.S. policy debates and thinking. The Foundation will award up to twenty grants of $10,000 each.
AAUW American Dissertation Fellowships
Dissertation Fellowships provide $25,0000 to offset a woman scholar’s living expenses while she completes her dissertation. The fellowship must be used for the final year of writing the dissertation. Candidates must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Open to applicants in all fields of study.
USIP Peace Scholar Fellowship Program
Each year, the United States Institute of Peace awards approximately 18 Peace Scholar Fellowships to students enrolled in U.S. universities who are researching and writing doctoral dissertations on topics related to international conflict management and peacebuilding. Proposals from all disciplines are welcome. Fellowships last for 10 months, starting in September. Peace Scholar Awards are currently set at $20,000 for 10 months and are paid directly to the individual.
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Dissertation Grant
The program seeks to stimulate research on U.S. education issues using data from large-scale, national, and international data sets supported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), NSF, and other federal agencies. Grants of up to $27,500 are available for advanced doctoral students in education, sociology, economics, psychology, demography, statistics, and psychometrics. Applicants may be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents enrolled in a doctoral program. Non-U.S. citizens enrolled in a doctoral program at a U.S. institution are also eligible to apply.
Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships
The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships support the final year of dissertation writing on ethical and religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences. Awards are based on a rigorous national competition, winners receive a stipend of $31,000. These fellowships are supported by the Newcombe Foundation and are administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
The Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships in Women’s Studies
The Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships in Women’s Studies support the final year of dissertation writing for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences whose work addresses topics of women and gender in interdisciplinary and original ways. In each round, ten Fellows will receive $5,000 to be used for expenses connected with completing their dissertations, such as research-related travel, data work/collection, and supplies.
ASA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (ASA DDRIG)
The ASA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (ASA DDRIG) program supports theoretically grounded empirical investigations to advance understanding of fundamental social processes. Up to 25 awards of a maximum of $16,000 will be given each year. Any doctoral student at an institution accredited and having a campus in the U.S. who is working on a scientifically rigorous project that is grounded in sociology and will help advance sociology is eligible to apply. Proposals must be submitted by a research scholar with support from a research sponsor. Grant funds can be used for costs directly associated with conducting research including living expenses and dependent care.
Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences Program – Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Awards (HEGS-DDRI)
The Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences (HEGS) Program supports basic scientific research about the nature, causes, and/or consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity and/or environmental processes across a range of scales. Projects about a broad range of topics may be appropriate for support if they enhance fundamental geographical knowledge, concepts, theories, methods, and their application to societal problems and concerns. HEGS expects to recommend a total of 20 to 30 doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) awards. DDRI awards supported by HEGS may not exceed $20,000.
Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellowship Program
The annual C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellowship Program invites applications from doctoral students, mainly at U.S. universities, who are writing theses in fields that address the Institute’s primary interest areas in valuation and taxation, planning, and related topics. Fellowships of $10,000 each support the development of a thesis proposal and/or completion of thesis research.
National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program
The Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education. These $27,500 fellowships support individuals whose dissertations show potential for bringing fresh and constructive perspectives to the history, theory, or practice of formal or informal education anywhere in the world. Applicants need not be citizens of the United States; however, they must be candidates for the doctoral degree at a graduate school within the United States.
Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art
These fellowships are designated for graduate students in any stage of Ph.D. dissertation research or writing in a department of art history in the United States. Fellowships are for one year and provide a $38,000 stipend and $4,000 travel allowance. The fellowships may be carried out in residence at the Fellow’s home institution, abroad, or another appropriate site for the research. The fellowships, however, may not be used to defray tuition costs or be held concurrently with any other major fellowship or grant.
Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi annually awards ten Dissertation Fellowships of $10,000 each to active members who are doctoral candidates and are completing dissertations. The fellowship supports students in the dissertation writing stage of doctoral study. Awards are for 12 months of dissertation writing. All pre-dissertation requirements should be met by the application deadline, including approval of the dissertation proposal. The Dissertation Fellowship is open to all active (dues current) Phi Kappa Phi members who attend a U.S. regionally accredited, doctoral-granting institution of higher education.
Kerstin Leitner Berlin Fellowships
The Berlin Program offers up to one year of dissertation or postdoctoral research support at the Freie Universität Berlin. It is open to scholars in all social science and humanities disciplines, including historians working on German and European history since the mid-18th century. The fellowship offers a stipend of EUR 1550-1800 per month and a travel reimbursement. Applicants must be enrolled as full-time graduate students in a Ph.D. program in a humanities or social science discipline at a university in Africa or China.
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship
ACLS invites applications for Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship, which provides a year of support for doctoral students preparing to embark on innovative dissertation research projects. Fellowships support graduate students in the humanities and social sciences who show promise of leading their fields in important new directions. The fellowships are designed to intervene at the formative stage of dissertation development before research and writing are advanced. ACLS will award up to 45 fellowships in this competition. Award $40,000 stipend for the fellowship year, plus up to $8,000 for project-related costs. Applicants must be PhD students in the humanities or social science department in the United States.
Dissertation Completion Fellowship Program
The FINRA Foundation Dissertation Completion Fellowship program seeks to expand the pipeline of researchers from racial and ethnic backgrounds whose underrepresentation in the U.S. professoriate has been severe and longstanding. To achieve that goal, the fellowship will provide an award of up to $40,000 to advanced doctoral candidates within their last year of Ph.D. dissertation writing to support the completion of their dissertation research and writing. The program will support doctoral candidates who are pursuing dissertation research centrally concerning financial services and the capital markets. Graduate study may be in any academic discipline.
John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship
The John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship is designed to support an outstanding doctoral student at an American university or an exceptional American doctoral student abroad who is completing the dissertation. Fellows must be admitted to candidacy, have completed all other coursework, and be prepared to devote full time for 12 months – with no teaching obligations – to dissertation research and writing. The award is for $28,000 and above.
David Center for the American Revolution Predoctoral Fellowship
The 12-month fellowship is intended for advanced Ph.D. students working toward the completion of the dissertation. The caliber of the project, the need to use the collections of the David Center for the American Revolution at the APS Library & Museum and other research institutions in the Philadelphia area, and evidence that the project will be completed on time, are the three most important criteria for selection. Applicants may be U.S. citizens or foreign nationals. Applicants will receive a stipend of $25,000 to support twelve months of work on projects about the American Revolution and the Founding Era.
Horowitz Foundation Grants for Social Policy
The Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy supports emerging scholars as they work on projects that address contemporary issues in the social sciences. The foundation supports projects with a social policy application on either a global or local level. Grants are worth a total of $10,000; $7,500 is awarded initially and $2,500 upon completion of the project. Applicants must be current Ph.D. candidates who are working on a department-approved dissertation. Applicants can be from any country and any university in the world. US citizenship or residency is not required.
Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship
The Dissertation Fellowship program is designed to support the final year Ph.D. or Th.D. dissertation writing for students engaged in research about North American Christianity, especially projects with the potential to strengthen the religious life of North American Christians and their institutions, including seminaries, while simultaneously advancing American religious and theological scholarship. Applicants must be candidates for the Ph.D. or Th.D. degree in an accredited graduate school in the U.S. or Canada. Dissertation Fellowships will provide a stipend of $35,000 for 12 months.
Center for Engaged Scholarship Dissertation Fellowships
Our dissertation fellowships are for Ph.D. students in the social sciences whose work is of high quality and that has the potential to contribute to making U.S. society less unequal, more democratic, and more environmentally sustainable. Each fellowship winner will receive $25,000 over a nine-month period. Students enrolled in a U.S. PhD program in the following areas of study may apply anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, social psychology, and sociology. This includes foreign nationals and undocumented individuals.
AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research
The Council of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) established the fellowship program to provide support for doctoral dissertation research, to advance education research by outstanding minority graduate students, and to improve the quality and diversity of university faculties. This fellowship targets members of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in higher education (e.g., African Americans, Alaskan Natives, American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders). Eligible graduate students for the AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research will be at the writing stage of their dissertation by the beginning of the fellowship. Include a $25,000 stipend to study education, teaching, learning, or other education research topic.
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship
The purpose of the Kirschstein-NRSA predoctoral fellowship (F31) award is to enable promising predoctoral students to obtain individualized, mentored research training from outstanding faculty sponsors while conducting dissertation research in scientific health-related fields relevant to the missions of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers. Applicants for the F31 must be candidates for the PhD degree and have identified a dissertation research project and sponsor(s). The fellowship may provide up to five years (typically 2-3 years) of support for research training which leads to the PhD or equivalent research degree, the combined MD/PhD degree, or another formally combined professional degree and research doctoral degree in the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical sciences.
ASF Fellowships for Americans in the Nordic Countries
The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) offers year-long fellowships of up to $23,000 and short-term (1-3 months) fellowships of up to $5,000 to graduate students (preferably conducting dissertation research) and academic professionals interested in pursuing research or creative-arts projects in the Nordic region (Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sámpi, and Sweden). ASF’s award program for study and research abroad has been the Foundation’s most long-standing commitment to educational exchange. Awards are made in all fields.
Josephine De Karman Fellowships
DeKarman fellowships are open to PhD students in any discipline, including international students, who are currently enrolled in a California-based partner university (see website for list). Approximately six dissertation fellowships of $25,000 for doctoral students will be awarded for the regular academic year. Special consideration will be given to applicants in the Humanities.
American Academy in Rome Prize
For over a century, the American Academy in Rome has awarded the Rome Prize to support innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities. Prize recipients are invited to Rome, Italy for five months or eleven months to immerse themselves in the Academy community. Each Rome Prize winner is provided with a stipend, meals, a bedroom with a private bath, and a study or studio. Those with children under 18 live in partially subsidized apartments nearby. Winners of half-term and full-term fellowships receive stipends of $16,000 and $30,000, respectively.
Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Research Fellowship
The Stephen F. Cohen–Robert C. Tucker Dissertation Research Fellowship (CTDRF) Program for Russian Historical Studies supports the next generation of US scholars to conduct their doctoral dissertation research in Russia. The program will provide up to six annual fellowships, with a maximum stipend of $25,000, for doctoral students at US universities, who are citizens or permanent residents of the US, to conduct dissertation research in Russia. The Program is open to students in any discipline whose dissertation topics are within 19th – early 21st-century Russian historical studies.
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© Victoria Johnson 2016, all rights reserved.