Dissertation fellowships available for arts, humanities, social sciences students

The College of Arts and Sciences is offering up to 12 $3,000 stipends for graduate work at the dissertation level in the arts, humanities and social sciences for fall semester 2018. The fellowships are intended to facilitate the transition from course work and accelerate the process of writing dissertations. They bring together students to discuss each other’s work as well as questions of method and purpose raised by humanistic scholarship generally. Martha Woodmansee, professor of English, and Daniel Goldmark, professor of music, head of popular music and director of the Center for Popular Music Studies, will facilitate the discussions.

Fellowship requirements

By the beginning of fall semester, fellows are expected to have completed a chapter of the dissertation that will be suitable for circulation and discussion among seminar participants. During the fall semester, they will participate in an interdisciplinary seminar, which will meet for two hours each Wednesday evening. They will present their work in progress once during the semester and will read and discuss the work of fellow participants as well as a moderate number of ancillary readings that raise larger questions about the aims and methods common to scholars doing humanistic research.

Eligibility details

Ideally applicants will be at an early stage of work on the dissertation but those completing more advanced dissertations are also welcome to apply. They must have passed qualifying exams and completed the prospectus so that they can give full attention to writing and research. Most typically, they will be working in humanities or social science departments, but students in other departments of the College of Arts and Sciences are also welcome to apply. Successful applicants must be able to attend two initial organizational meetings to be scheduled in April and May.

Application details

The application deadline is Sunday, April 1. Interested students must email a single PDF document that includes a current CV, a copy of the dissertation prospectus and a statement of up to 1,000 words describing the dissertation (including its projected scholarly contribution and progress made on it to date) and explaining how the applicant hopes to profit from and contribute to the seminar. A letter of endorsement from the department chair or graduate/dissertation advisor is also required and should be emailed directly by the application deadline to both daniel.goldmark@case.edu and martha.woodmansee@case.edu.