Grants | 30 October 2025

CFA: THI Undergraduate Research Fellowships 2025-2026

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Call for Applications Due: November 24th, 2025
Please note that we do not accept any late application materials (including letters of recommendation). 

These fellowships support undergraduate research projects at UC Santa Cruz in the humanities. Up to 10 awards in the amount of $1000 each are given each year. There are no constraints on the expenditure of the stipend. The top proposal receives the Bertha N. Melkonian prize, an additional $1000.

Click here to learn more about how THI supports undergraduate students.

Eligibility:
Any project involving research within or including any of the humanities disciplines is eligible for consideration. All majors are welcome to apply. Students from Arts and Social Sciences are eligible as well, as long as they are working in the humanities fields. Proposals must be for research to be performed during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Note: All awardees will be expected to make research posters and present in Spring 2026.

Proposals will be judged on the basis of:

  1. Intellectual substance
  2. Promise of results
  3. Preparation of applicant
  4. Feasibility


Application consists of:

a) 1-3 page research proposal, describing the research problem to be addressed, what will be done in the project, and what end product (e.g. research paper, senior thesis, project report) is expected. A timetable should be included.

b) A letter of support from a faculty sponsor addressing items 1 through 4 above. The letter of support should also affirm that the faculty sponsor will mentor the student as they conduct their research. The faculty sponsor is expected to review and provide feedback on the fellow’s final poster presentation before the poster is printed and shared at the end of the year celebration. Faculty sponsors should submit their letters via InfoReady. When you click “Send Reference Letter Request” on a saved InfoReady draft application, your sponsor will receive an email containing a unique link to a web page to upload their letter.

Make sure you use the “Login for University of California, Santa Cruz Users.” We encourage you to start your application as soon as possible to familiarize yourself with the InfoReady platform.

Questions? Please contact Saskia Nauenberg Dunkell, THI Research Programs and Communications Director, saskia@ucsc.edu.

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