Grants | 8 February 2019

CFA: New THI Graduate Fellowships “Beyond the End of the World”

Share

We’re now accepting applications for a new THI Graduate Fellowship: “Beyond the End of the World” — Applications due March 8, 2019

Click here for more information on Beyond the End of the World, a year-long Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Culture.

The Humanities Institute is a hub for academic research. We directly support the work of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates through our fellowship opportunities. These grants provide much needed time and resources for fellows to pursue their Humanities work. Since 1999, we have supported over 450 scholars. For more information on all THI Fellowship opportunities, visit our Research Fellows page.

 


THI GRAD FELLOWSHIP: “BEYOND THE END OF THE WORLD”
2019-20 ANDREW W. MELLON GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS

Deadline:  Friday, March 8, 2019

Number of awards:  2 

Call: The Center for Creative Ecologies and The Humanities Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) invite applications for a one-year Dissertation Fellowship as a part of Beyond the End of the World, a year-long Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Culture under the direction of T.J. Demos, Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture and Director of the Center for Creative Ecologies, in collaboration with Professors Hunter Bivens (Literature), Mayanthi Fernando (Anthropology), Deborah Gould (Sociology), and Matthew O’Hara (History).  This project is administered by The Humanities Institute at UCSC.

We welcome applications from PhD candidates in any discipline or field in the arts, humanities, or humanistic social sciences at UCSC whose research relates to the analysis of cultural expressions of futurity grounded in justice-based frameworks.

The “Beyond the End of the World” Sawyer Seminar is a year-long series of events investigating world-ending narratives and what comes next, considering culture as a field where futurity might be glimpsed, and asking how it can be cultivated within a social and multispecies justice framework. The seminar’s goal will be to foster interdisciplinary dialogue about speculative imagination and its role in future world-making in the realm of the arts as broadly conceived.

The successful candidate will be expected to carry out original research, independently or in collaboration with faculty, students, or visiting scholars affiliated with the Center and units with which we collaborate. Awardees will also be expected to assist and participate in seminar activities with faculty, students, and visiting scholars, such as workshops, exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, and colloquia.

This year-long Dissertation Fellowship provides PhD candidates in the arts, humanities, and humanistic social sciences with much needed time and resources to pursue their research and exercise leadership both within the University and in the public sphere. The Humanities Institute serves as an incubator for new ideas and provides crucial support to students at every stage of the research process. One of our key functions is to identify promising graduate students and to help them become productive researchers through mentorship programs, fellowships, and internship opportunities.

Award Includes: $25,000 stipend ($7,500 per quarter, plus $2,500 for a summer semester) and in-state tuition, fees, and health insurance. We will award two advanced PhD students at UCSC over AY 2019-2020.

Fellowship recipients are expected to devote themselves to writing during the time of the award (AY 2019-20), and not to hold teaching assistantships or other employment. Partial-year awards are not permitted. The applications will be evaluated for academic excellence, as well as their ability to contribute to and enhance the overall seminar project. Fellows are required to present their work during the Sawyer Seminar, hosted by The Center for Creative Ecologies and The Humanities Institute during the 2019-20 academic year. Fellows are also required to present their work during the annual Graduate Research Symposium, hosted by the UCSC Graduate Division during Spring 2020.

Eligibility:

a) Be an advanced PhD candidate enrolled in a graduate program in the Humanities, Social Sciences, or Arts Divisions at UCSC; applicants will have taken their Qualifying Exams and advanced to candidacy before the beginning of the fellowship (Fall Quarter 2019);

b) Be within normative time and in good academic standing;

c) Be enrolled for at least five credits of graduate-level coursework. Students are ineligible to apply while on leave.

Application consists of:

1) Letter of application describing the current status of dissertation research, with a detailed timetable for research and writing plans during 2019-20;
2) Brief statement of previous and current awards and grants (award and grant titles, dates, and amounts);
3) Summary of the dissertation project (no more than 3 pages), contextualizing the significance of the project for people who are not in their field of study;
4) Annotated Bibliography, 8-10 works related to dissertation;
5) One-page curriculum vitae;
6) Signed form from the department Graduate Director stating that you will be within normative time and in good academic standing during the 2019-2020 Academic Year (Download Form here)
7) Letter of support from the faculty advisor evaluating the student’s academic work to date, addressing the student’s timetable for research and writing, verifying that they are within normative time and in good academic standing. Advisors should send the letters directly to thi@ucsc.edu

APPLY

Questions? Please contact T.J. Demos at tdemos@ucsc.edu