stanford dissertation fellowship

Fellowships and Funding

H&S graduate fellowships and awards are listed below. Only H&S students may apply through this portal. Students are also encouraged to find information about other sources of graduate funding, including:

VPGE-Funded Doctoral Fellowships

Other Stanford Fellowships

Dissertation Fellowships in the Humanities

Humanities dissertation fellowships support students in the final stages of their doctoral programs.

The School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Office and the Stanford Humanities Center coordinate applications for two dissertation fellowship opportunities for doctoral students in the humanities: the Stanford Humanities Center Dissertation Prize Fellowships and the Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellowships.

For more information, visit the Stanford Humanities Center .

Dwight D. Eisenhower/Clifford Roberts Fellowship

The Dwight D. Eisenhower/Clifford Roberts Graduate Fellowship Program assists promising students pursuing research in fields such as history, government, economics, business administration, and international affairs. The Eisenhower Institute seeks to develop informed leadership in the conduct of U.S. national life by supporting young scholars interested in the role of government in a free society, citizen public service, public policy, and the role of the United States in world affairs.

Stanford University is one of 11 universities participating in the Eisenhower/Roberts Fellowship Program. Each university may submit up to two candidates, both of whom will be eligible to receive an award of up to $10,0000, which typically supports work on the dissertation.

For more information, contact gus_fellowships [at] lists [dot] stanford [dot] edu (Graduate and Undergraduate Studies) .

Federal Work Study

Advanced doctoral students in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences may be eligible for part-time jobs supported by the Federal Work Study program.

Limited work study funding is available for doctoral candidates in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences who can demonstrate financial need. Eligible applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, making satisfactory academic progress with active doctoral candidacy, in the TGR tuition category, and in residence at Stanford for the duration of the Federal Work Study funding. Other eligibility requirements for receiving federal funds may apply.

Graduate Research Opportunities (GRO) and Graduate Research Opportunities Fund for Research on Modern British History and Culture (GRO-MBHC) Funds

The School of Humanities and Sciences awards grants of up to $6,000 to doctoral students for research expenses directly related to their dissertations.

Recipients may use GRO funding for research-related travel, purchasing data sets and special analytical software, using human subjects or surveys, and similar needs. 

For more information on eligible and ineligible expenses, see the FAQs . If you have additional questions, contact gus_fellowships [at] lists [dot] stanford [dot] edu (Graduate and Undergraduate Studies) . 

Intensive Language Program

The Intensive Language Program providing funding to doctoral students in the humanities and arts to support language acquisition in the summer following the first year of study is no longer managed by Graduate and Undergraduate Studies.   

Doctoral students in the humanities and arts interested in funding to support language acquisition should contact their degree program for information.

The Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust Fellowship

The Lurcy Trust offers a one-year fellowship for advanced graduate study and research in France. U.S. Citizens only.

Applicants’ research should deal specifically with French topics in any discipline or time period and require work that can be pursued uniquely in France. A stipend of $25,300 will cover the cost of educational fees, necessary travel, and living expenses during one academic year in France. Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States enrolled at Stanford University or an educational institution in France during the tenure of the fellowship. Stanford University may submit one candidate.

For more information, gus_fellowships [at] lists [dot] stanford [dot] edu (contact Graduate and Undergraduate Studies) .

© Stanford University.   Stanford, California 94305.

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.

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Chepchirchir Tirop

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Fellowships

The Humanities Center offers residential fellowships to scholars from Stanford and elsewhere at all career stages, giving them the opportunity to pursue their work in a supportive intellectual community.

External fellowships are intended primarily for individuals currently teaching in or affiliated with an academic institution, but independent scholars may apply. Faculty fellowships are awarded across the spectrum of academic ranks (assistant, associate, and full professor) and a goal of the selection process is to create a diverse community of scholars. Applicants who are members of traditionally under-represented groups are encouraged to apply. There are no citizenship requirements for these fellowships; non-U.S. nationals are welcome to apply. Awards are made from an applicant pool of approximately 350.

More Information

Internal Faculty Fellowships are intended primarily for active Stanford Academic Council faculty, but lecturers and senior lecturers with continuing appointments and emeriti faculty may also apply. One goal of the fellowship selection process is to create a diverse community of scholars across the spectrum of academic fields and ranks. Scholars who are members of traditionally under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.

The Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in the Humanities brings to Stanford outstanding early career scholars to be part of a vibrant cross-disciplinary community. Fellows teach two courses per year, and participate in an active program of scholarly exchange with Stanford faculty, Stanford Humanities Center fellows at all stages of career, and established scholars from around the world.

Founded in the 1970s with a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the fellowships were brought together into a coherent program under the leadership of Seth Lerer in 2001, to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. Lerer developed the program into a genuine community of scholars, fostering intense dialogue across disciplines based primarily on regular and close engagement by the fellows with one another’s work.

The Mellon Fellowship is directed by Kären Wigen, Frances and Charles Field Professor in History.

The Stanford Humanities Center awards three highly selective fellowships for Stanford doctoral students in the humanities and the interpretive social sciences: the SHC Dissertation Prize fellowship; the Mellon Dissertation fellowship (in collaboration with the School of Humanities and Sciences); and the Next Generation Scholar fellowship.

The application deadline for all three fellowships occurs in early February. Graduate students may apply to the SHC Dissertation Prize/Mellon Dissertation fellowships or the Next Generation Scholar fellowship but not DP/Mellon and Next Generation Scholar in the same application cycle. 

The SHC Dissertation Prize fellowships and Mellon Foundation Dissertation fellowships are awarded to advanced graduate students who are completing their dissertations. SHC Dissertation Prize fellows are required to spend the academic year (fall/winter/spring quarters) taking part in the daily life of the Humanities Center. Mellon dissertation fellows are required to meet the campus residency expectations set by their dean/department. The application cycle opens in fall quarter each year, with a deadline in early February. 

For more information and to apply, please see the  SHC Dissertation Prize fellowships and Mellon Foundation Dissertation fellowships application page .

The Next Generation Scholar fellowship (formerly Career Launch fellowship) supports Stanford graduate students in year 7 or above whose work demonstrates the highest distinction and the promise of future achievement. These fellowships are intended to serve as a bridge between the end of the university’s formal support and the transition to a postdoctoral fellowship or faculty position. In addition to completing the dissertation, fellows pursue professional development part-time during one quarter (e.g., teach a course connected to the fellow’s research profile, develop skills in the digital humanities, engage closely with a Public Humanities program, or another endeavor of the fellow’s choosing). The application cycle opens in fall quarter each year, with a deadline in early February.

For more information and to apply, please see the Next Generation Scholar Fellowship application page .

Since 2013 the Humanities Center has been awarding Hume Honors Fellowships to eight to ten seniors writing an honor’s thesis in one of Stanford’s humanities departments. Fellows are chosen from candidates nominated by faculty across the humanities at Stanford. 

In the stimulating scholarly environment of the Humanities Center, undergraduate fellows benefit from a year-long association as a cohort, as well as with graduate students and faculty fellows in residence. These intensive intellectual interactions are meant to enable the students to deepen their scholarly focus and expose them to advanced and inspiring research in the humanities.

The Hume Honors Fellowships are made possible by a gift to the endowment by Mr. George and Dr. Leslie P. Hume.

Please contact Svetlana Turetskaya, International and Academic Programs Manager, by email or call (650) 690-0763 if you have questions about this fellowship.

Each year, the Stanford Humanities Center brings high profile international scholars to Stanford for short-term residencies. Stanford departments, programs, and research centers and institutes are each eligible to nominate one candidate for consideration for a residency. During their stay, the international scholars are asked to share their research through a series of presentations, and engage with faculty and students to develop ongoing intellectual collaborations. Often, these experts are working in similar fields or on complementary projects to their campus counterparts. A selection committee made up of faculty and administrators from Stanford’s humanities and social science disciplines appoints approximately six scholars per year to come to Stanford. Visitors are chosen for their ability to expose the campus to new and relevant research agendas or geographic regions, and the likelihood that the residency will result in lasting scholarly contributions. 

Over the years, I was a fellow at several research institutes but this has certainly been one of the most enriching and successful academic experiences I had.

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2020-21 Dissertation Fellowships Announced

IRiSS is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2020-21 Dissertation Fellowships. The 13 members of this year’s cohort of Dissertation Fellows hail from all six social science departments: Anthropology, Communication, Economics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated financial downturn have impacted graduate students in a myriad of ways, including research disruptions and potential cutbacks in financial support. Given this situation, IRiSS leadership was pleased to reaffirm its commitment to graduate students by carrying out the Dissertation Fellows Program at full capacity.

In addition to receiving financial support, Dissertation Fellows are inducted into a multidisciplinary community of graduate students that pushes intellectual boundaries. Through discussion and research presentations, fellows receive feedback on their dissertation research from different social science disciplines.

The topics covered by this year's cohort of Dissertation Fellows are diverse and represent the cutting-edge research taking place in Stanford's social science departments. The following research abstracts provide an overview of the projects supported in this year's program.

Grace  Alexandrino Ocana , Anthropology -  Rights to a Heritage City: working-class citizens, urban heritage and conservation in Lima, Peru

My interdisciplinary research asks two deceptively simple questions: How do states decide which heritage sites to protect and which to neglect? How does this affect or benefit nearby communities? I center this study in the metropolis of Lima: one of the oldest cities in the Americas, and an urban landscape entangling hundreds of archaeological monuments with nearly ten million inhabitants. Most of the few conservation academic studies in Peru emphasize material conservation or conservation policies, neglecting the human dimension of these problematics and, even more, neglecting the intersection between these three elements. Focusing in Lima's non-tourist-oriented archaeological monuments and its impacts upon working-class urban communities this research is not only novel, but important to understand the politics of the past in a nation that is currently marketing itself on its past.

Paul  Christians , Anthropology -  Mirages Past and Future: Foreign Expertise and the Political Economy of Cultural Heritage in Qatar

From Qatar's 2022 World Cup to global museum franchising in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia's new tourism push, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states spend billions annually on cultural projects. Qatar itself has deemed culture critical to national survival in its National Vision 2030, investing in museums, archaeology, historical conservation, public art, and cultural tourism for two decades. These heritage projects contribute to Qatar's national identity and international prestige while creating the local. Yet most of the people working in this industry are elite foreign professionals, not Qatari citizens. Christians' research explores this system of expertise's prevalence and consequences by asking: what makes someone an expert in and about the Gulf‚ a  place still stereotyped as without a culture of its own, just made by oil? His Ph.D. dissertation examines the practices of cultural professionals in Doha; how local views of labor, heritage, and expertise influence their work; and how Qatar's historical context shapes this system. While typical studies focus on material culture, identity, or the politics of the past, he instead uses heritage as a strategic entryway to understand how cultural projects become useful to nations such as Qatar. This approach contributes to anthropologies of expertise by rethinking the complex relationship between experts, authority, and culture in a non-democratic state.

Grace  Zhou , Anthropology -  Parasitic Intimacies: Life, Love, and Labor in Post-Socialist Central Asia

Based on ethnographic research in Kyrgyzstan, "Parasitic Intimacies" narrates the exploits and travails of entrepreneurial traders traveling to China and Turkey, rural migrants and undocumented women in the sex trade, and marginalized, hustling drug addicts in search of recognition. It explores transformations in the meanings of work and welfare, especially for those who are situated on the moral margins of society.

Hernan  Barahona ,  Economics -  Food labeling: Effects on demand and supply of nutritional content

Graduate Dissertation Fellowships

The Clayman Institute’s Graduate Dissertation Fellowships (GDF) are awarded to outstanding Stanford doctoral students whose research focuses on gender with an intersectional perspective.

Applications for 2025-26 fellowships are anticipated to open on December 2, 2024 and close on February 3, 2025.

Updated Fellowship information will be available soon.

Meet our current graduate dissertation fellows

Please direct any questions regarding the Clayman Institute Graduate Dissertation Fellowship process to lgottlie [at] stanford.edu (Lea Gottlieb) , Fellowship Manager.

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Announcing the Inaugural Tinker Dissertation Completion Fellows

This fellowship, funded by the Tinker Foundation endowment and administered by the Center for Latin American Studies, supports Stanford doctoral students in year 6 or above whose work in any discipline demonstrates the promise of future achievement in Latin American Studies, and whose commitment and tangible contributions to the advancement of Latin American Studies on campus are sustained and well-documented. For more information, please visit the CLAS page here. Please join us in congratulating our inaugural fellows: Esteban Salmon Perrilliat , Department of Anthropology  Dissertation: “Guilty as Charged: Blame, Punishment and Prosecution in Mexico City”

Christian Robles-Baez , Department of History Disseration: “The Making of an Improbable Global Market: Coffee (1808-1850)” 

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Graduate Dissertation Fellowships

The fellowships will provide financial support for top gender scholars as they complete their dissertations, while encouraging interdisciplinary connections for their research. Clayman GDFs will have offices at the Clayman Institute, where they will participate in the intellectual life of the Clayman Institute as well as take part in professional development workshops during the academic year. GDFs will be contributing to the writing and research efforts of the Clayman Institute. Fellowship funding is for three quarters: two quarters of research assistantship and one quarter teaching assistantship. We welcome applications for the Graduate Dissertation Fellowship from all currently enrolled Stanford Ph.D. candidates , in any discipline, who have reached Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR). One to three fellowships will be awarded for 2020-21.

Eligibility

The Graduate Dissertation Fellowships (GDFs) are awarded to outstanding Stanford doctoral students who are engaged in research on women and/or gender. Applicants must be PhD candidates who have completed all requirements for the PhD other than the dissertation. The dissertation research must focus on issues of women and/or gender. Applicants are expected to be graduate affiliates of the Clayman Institute. Fellows are requird to submit a brief report of no more than one page by the end of the fellowship.

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Sangyop Lee Wins the Stanford Humanities Center Dissertation Fellowship Prize

Sangyop Lee has just accepted the Stanford Humanities Center (SHC) Dissertation Fellowship Prize and will be a fellow at the SHC for the 2020-21 academic year. Congratulations!

2024-2027 RAISE Fellows

Vpge fellowships and funding and pfp.

Marlon Ariyasinghe

Jasmyn Burdsall

Sarah Coduto

Sophie D'Souza

Stephanie Fischer

Nya Hardaway

Ka'ikuliumaikalani Kaholoa'a

Emma Keller

Catherine Lee Hing

Sarina McCabe

Ervin McWilson

Bilal Nadeem

Gabriel Panuco-Mercado

Bernardita Ried Guachalla

Estefania Rodriguez Sanchez

Milenia Rojas Mendoza

Celina Scott-Buechler

Ireland Sherrill

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.

Jenny Evang

Jorge E. Garcia

Clinical Biochemical Genetics Fellowship

Program overview.

The Clinical Biochemical Genetics Fellowship Program is an ABMGG Clinical Laboratory Fellowship that is  ACGME  accredited.

The fellowship program seeks to attract individuals of diverse backgrounds and experience interested in pursuing careers in medical genetics. The fellowship is open to holders of PhD, MD or MD/PhD degrees. 

Mission Statement

To develop individuals with the technical and medical knowledge and leadership skills necessary to provide laboratory services that meet the constantly evolving needs of children and adults in the 21st century, and to train the next generation of laboratory scientists in Biochemical Genetics.

Program Aims

• Educate fellows in the delivery of high-quality laboratory services in clinical biochemical genetics.
• Provide an excellent broad-based training in a scholarly environment in order to develop future laboratory scientists with a focus on scholarly pursuit in biochemical genetics.
• Develop clinical biochemical geneticists who are able to systematically interpret scholarly work for integration into patient care.
• Foster development of leadership skills that will enable fellows to continue to advance the field of Clinical Biochemical Genetics.

Clinical Curriculum

In addition to training in the  Clinical Biochemical Genetics Laboratory , fellows will spend time in  Biochemical Genetics Clinic ,  Clinical Genomics Program ,  Cytogenetics Laboratory , and  Molecular & Genomics Pathology  at Stanford University Medical Center.

Fellows are expected to undertake a mentored research project during their training. Trainees at Stanford have co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and have regularly presented their work at regional and national meetings.

Christy Tise presenting a poster at ACMG 2022

How to Apply

Clinical Biochemical Genetics is now accepting applications through September 30th.  To be considered, all requisite materials must be submitted to the  program coordinator  by the deadline. 

Required Materials 1. CV 2. Personal Statement 3. Three Letters of Recommendation

Applicants whose training took place outside the US must have their credentials reviewed by  ABMGG . 

Program leadership will review applications in October-November and competitive candidates will be contacted about next steps. 

Program Contacts

Tina Cowan, PhD Program Director

Kristina Cusmano-Ozog, MD Associate Program Director

Mary Riordan Fellowship Coordinator

Mailing address: Stanford Clinical Biochemical Genetics Fellowship Program Center for Academic Medicine Department of Pediatrics, MC 5660 453 Quarry Road Palo Alto, CA 94304

Recent Graduates

Christy Tise, MD

Medical School: Univeristy of Maryland School of Medicine

Prior Residency: Stanford University, Medical Genetics & Genomics

Current Practice: Assistant Professor, Stanford University, Department of Pediatrics - Division of Medical Genetics