1. Funding Opportunities
  2. Society of Scholars Graduate Fellowship

For Graduate Students

Blocks spelling Funding

 

 

The Simpson Center is not currently accepting proposals. 

Fall Funding Round opens in Fall 2025.

 

 

 

Society of Scholars Graduate Fellowship

3 awards granted each year for the Academic Year program, and up to 6 additional awards granted each year for the Summer Society of Scholars doctoral student fellowship cohort. Applications considered in fall funding round only.

Important Dates

Application Dates
Opens: October 11, 2024
Due: November 15, 2024

Funding Academic Year Term
Starts: July 1, 2025
Ends: June 30, 2026

Funding Summer Term
Six weeks in the summer 2025

Eligibility

UW doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy by submittal date and who will receive no other funding during the term of the award. 

Description

The Society of Scholars supports dissertating doctoral students in pursuing their research and sharing their individual projects-in-progress in the multidisciplinary, bi-weekly forum of the fellowship cohort—which typically is composed of 8 members of the faculty, at all ranks, and 3 dissertating doctoral students—over the course of the academic year.

The program also supports an additional cohort of dissertating doctoral students each summer.  

Criteria

Awards will be based on the scholarly merit of the individual applications. Scholarship likely to contribute to intellectual exchange among a diverse group of colleagues especially encouraged.

Terms of Award

Academic Year Program

  • Graduate research fellows of the Society of Scholars receive three quarters of support, including benefits and tuition waivers. 
  • Residency requirement. In-person participation in the biweekly Society of Scholars means that this fellowship is not appropriate for those whose projects require time away from the university.

Summer Program

  • Graduate research fellows of the Summer Society of Scholars receive an award of $10,000, with no benefits or tuition. The explicit intent of this support is to allow fellows to devote themselves full time to their projects during the six-week fellowship term, and it is an expectation that fellows will have no competing demands of teaching or other paid work during that time. 
  • Residency requirement. In-person participation in the 6 weekly meetings of the fellowship cohort is an expectation of the program. This fellowship is not appropriate for those whose projects require time away from the university during the period of the meetings of the fellows. In Summer 2025, the meetings are anticipated to take place from the beginning of A term through the end of July. 
Application Instructions

All applications received during the fall 2024 funding round will be considered for both the academic year fellowship program and a separate Society of Scholars dissertation fellowship cohort to be convened in the summer of 2025. Those applications not selected for the academic-year fellowship term will then be considered for summer support. The result will be two different cohorts of students, one in the academic year and another in the summer. Applicants do not need to provide any additional materials to be considered for both opportunities. Please direct any questions to Rachel Arteaga, Simpson Center Associate Director.

Complete the Application Form. Upload to the form as a single, bundled .pdf the below materials:

  • Proposal Narrative. Limit: 1,750 words (approximately six double-spaced pages). Proposal narratives should describe the research project in language clear to non-specialists in the field. Narratives should address:
    1. Objectives
    2. Significance (to the scholarship in and outside the field)
    3. Methodology
    4. Timeline (progress to date; what will be accomplished in the fellowship year)
    5. Cohort preference: if, due to scheduling constraints, you would like to be considered for ONLY the academic year fellowship or ONLY the summer fellowship, please state this clearly in your proposal narrative. In the absence of any statement on this point, all applications will be considered automatically for both opportunities.
  • Bibliography. Limit 550 words. Select primary and secondary sources directly related to the project.
  • CV. Please limit to five pages.
  • Letter of Support: Request a letter of support from your dissertation advisor. The letter must address your eligibility for the award and the feasibility of your proposal’s timeline. Please ask that your letter be sent to us directly at schadmin@uw.edu.
  • Budget. NO BUDGET should be entered or attached. Applicants should enter 0 into the "Budget amount" field in the Proposal Information form.