Dissertation fellowships available for work in arts, humanities and social sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is offering up to 12 $3,000 stipends for graduate work at the dissertation level in arts, humanities and social sciences. The stipends are available for work in fall 2014. The fellowships aim to facilitate the transition from course work and accelerate the process of writing the dissertation by bringing together students for discussion of one another's work as well as questions of method and purpose raised by humanistic scholarship generally. Discussion will be facilitated by faculty members Kenneth Ledford (history) and Martha Woodmansee (English). As part of the fellowships, students must:

• have completed, by the start of fall semester, a chapter of the dissertation that will be suitable for circulation and discussion among seminar participants
• participate throughout fall semester in an interdisciplinary seminar that meets each Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 p.m. During the seminars, fellows 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.

To be eligible for the fellowship, applicants should be at an early stage of work on the dissertation at CWRU. They must have passed qualifying exams and completed the prospectus so they can give full attention to writing and research. Typically, applicants will work in humanities or social sciences departments, but students in other departments of the college and professional schools are also welcome to apply. Successful applicants must be able to attend several initial organizational meetings to be scheduled in April and May. The deadline to apply is April 8. To apply, email a current CV, a copy of the dissertation prospectus, and a statement of up to 1,000 words describing the dissertation (including its projected 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 adviser is also required and should be emailed directly by the application deadline to both kenneth.ledford@case.edu and martha.woodmansee@case.edu.