Funding

PhD students who matriculate in Summer 2020 and after will be guaranteed to have funding support from the University of Chicago, external sources, or a combination of the two for the duration of their program to include the following:

● Full tuition coverage
● Annual stipend
● Fully paid individual annual health insurance premiums

The goal of the University’s commitment to ensuring that students are supported is to allow students to prioritize their studies and prepare for rewarding careers. Funding is contingent on remaining in good academic standing and making progress toward completing degree requirements.

Students in the Division of the Humanities who entered their PhD program in Summer 2016 or later, and who are still enrolled in 2022-2023 will be fully incorporated into this new funding model, and will receive at least the guaranteed stipend level (subject to applicable taxes), full tuition coverage, and fully paid health insurance premiums for the duration of their program, as long as they remain in good academic standing.

Students who matriculated before Summer 2016 will receive at least the funding they were offered at the time of admission and may be eligible for additional funding, such as dissertation completion fellowships. Over the past several years, the Division of the Humanities has increased investments in funding to support students in degree completion.

Additional fellowships and awards are available to support language study, conference travel, and research travel. 

University of Chicago internal fellowships and grants

The following are internal fellowships that students may apply for. Additional information is available at the Division of the Humanities’ website.

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships

Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships are for Ph.D. students in their first five years or two-year M.A. students in their second year who must study certain languages for their programs. In 2024-2025, the University will be accepting applications for languages in two world areas: Middle East and East Asia. The FLAS program provides funding for study on campus during the academic year and on campus or elsewhere (domestic or abroad) during the summer.

Humanities CMES, MAPH TLO, and doctoral students who will register for qualifying language courses in the year of the fellowship are strongly encouraged to apply for an Academic Year FLAS. Master's students receive a $20,000 stipend, tuition aid (amount dependent on their program), and student services fee coverage. PhD students receive a $5000 stipend supplement.

Summer award benefits for all students: $2,500 stipend and up to $5,000 in tuition for the applicant's language program of choice.

Applications are available on the UChicagoGRAD website
Questions? Contact Maggie Kurkoski (UChicago GRAD) at kurkoski@uchicago.edu 

For more information, please review the UChicagoGRAD FLAS website. 

The following internal fellowships require nomination by the department.

Hanna Holborn Gray Fellowship

The Division of the Humanities is able to award two Hanna Holborn Gray Dissertation Completion Fellowships during the 2024-25 academic year to a rising 6th year or 7th year doctoral student who is sufficiently advanced in the writing of their dissertation that they are expected to complete the dissertation during the time they hold the award. This fellowship recognizes the student’s academic achievement and will enable the student to devote full attention and effort towards completing the dissertation.

Students who have applied for other Divisional Dissertation Completion Fellowships will be considered for this award, which will provide a stipend (generally higher than the minimum stipend available), tuition, the required student services fee, and University student health insurance premium. The terms of the fellowship prohibit students from engaging in any remunerative activity during the period of the fellowship. The sole exception to this prohibition to this rule is that fellows may undertake a modest teaching assignment in spring quarter if it is in fulfillment of their pedagogical training plan per the student teaching policy, and when it is clear from the fellow’s progress on the dissertation that teaching will not delay completion of the degree. Requests to undertake a teaching assignment must be made in writing to the Dean of Students, and are subject to departmental approval as all teaching must be in fulfillment of the pedagogical training plan. 

As with our other Divisional Dissertation Completion Fellowships, the student who holds a Hanna Holborn Gray Fellowship in 2024-25 must graduate in Summer 2025 or before. If they do not defend, complete the dissertation, and graduate during the fellowship year, they will be withdrawn from their program at the end of the summer quarter.

Franke Residential Dissertation Completion Fellowships

Each year the Franke Institute for the Humanities awards approximately four Residential Dissertation Completion Fellowships. There is no separate application for a Franke Residential DCF, but to be considered for these fellowships students must commit to being in residence during the fellowship year, and attend meetings with other Franke fellows. These fellowships differ from other DCFs in a number of ways, and include enhanced support and participation in various activities at the Institute. 

Humanities Division Dissertation Completion Fellowships

The Division of the Humanities is able to award approximately 24 Dissertation Completion Fellowships to doctoral students who are sufficiently advanced in the writing of their dissertation that they are expected to complete the dissertation during the time they hold the award. These fellowships recognize the student’s academic achievements, and enable the student to devote full attention and effort towards completing the dissertation.

Fellowships will provide tuition, the required student services fee, University student health insurance, and a stipend. For students under the new funding model, fellowships will include a financial bonus. The terms of the fellowship prohibit students from engaging in any remunerative activity during the period of the fellowship. The sole exception to this prohibition to this rule is that fellows may undertake a modest teaching assignment in spring quarter if it is in fulfillment of their pedagogical training plan per the student teaching policy, and when it is clear from the fellow’s progress on the dissertation that teaching will not delay completion of the degree. Requests to undertake a teaching assignment must be made in writing to the Dean of Students, and are subject to departmental approval as all teaching must be in fulfillment of the pedagogical training plan.

Please Note: Students who hold a Dissertation Completion Fellowship in 2024-2025 must graduate by or before Summer 2025. Students who do not defend, complete the dissertation, and graduate during the fellowship year will be withdrawn from their program at the end of the Summer 2025 quarter.

Eligibility for all 2024-2025 Dissertation Completion Fellowships:
Some fellowships may only be held by students up to and including the sixth year in their program; others may only be held by students up to and including the seventh year; the few other fellowships may be held by students up to and including the eighth year of their program. If there are questions about your registration year, please contact humdos@uchicago.edu.

The following terms and conditions apply for all dissertation completion fellowships:
1. Without exception, students must be admitted to candidacy before they can apply for these fellowships. 
2. Students who have held or currently hold any dissertation completion fellowship (whatever the title of the fellowship: dissertation write-up, completion, etc.) from any internal or external sources are not eligible for consideration.
3. Students pursuing a joint degree program should submit the DCF application through their home department only.
4. Students must defend, complete the dissertation, and graduate in Summer 2025 or before. If this does not occur, the student will be withdrawn at the end of the Summer 2025 quarter.

Departmental Application Deadlines
A student’s home department must nominate them for this competition. Students must adhere to their departmental deadlines for application submission.

Application Materials

Each student must complete the online application, which includes submitting the following documents:
1. The timeline for completion of dissertation writing and defense, with the student and the dissertation committee attesting to the feasibility of granting of the degree by Summer 2025.
2. Statement of purpose (3-5 pages single-spaced), describing the dissertation project. The narrative statement should include a work plan. The statement should discuss the significance of this work within the student’s specific and general fields and the contribution this project will make to the field(s) with which it engages. Please remember that the fellowship review committee will include faculty members from across the Division and thus the candidate must explain terms and contexts that might not be familiar to those outside the field or subfield.
3. A curriculum vitae (C.V.).
4. A copy of one approved chapter of the nominee's dissertation for reference by the fellowship review committee.
5. Letters from two members of the student’s dissertation committee, attesting to the quality of the work and also to the ability of the student to complete and defend the dissertation in the Summer 2024 quarter or before. These letters should be uploaded by the faculty member.

Department chairs who are nominating students for DCFs, will provide a brief summary of the nominated students as well as a ranked order of the nominees. This should be emailed to humdos@uchicago.edu.

Please note that at this time, students who hold a Divisional Dissertation Completion Fellowship in year 6 and complete their program in that year and who apply to the Teaching Fellows in Humanities (TFH) application process will be selected to receive a TFH position the following year.

The following are funds internal to the Linguistics Department that graduate students can apply for.

Research fund in honor of Rella Cohn:

The Department of Linguistics offers an annual fund for graduate student research, made available thanks to a generous endowment from the family of  Rella I. Cohn.  This fund provides financial support for a small number of graduate student research projects annually.  Funds may be used to support any aspects of student research, including (but not limited to) fieldwork expenses, research-related travel, and payment of conference registration fees.  We will consider requests for reimbursement of past conference travel, or travel to a future conference to which the student has been accepted; we cannot consider requests for travel to conferences if the student has not yet been accepted to present at the conference.

Applications for Rella Cohn funds will be accepted every quarter (including the summer) in order to fund future activities (typically carried out on the following quarter). Application materials include a one-paragraph description of the project, an itemized budget (including discussion of what you could do with partial funding), a current CV, and a list of current and pending support for this project.

Rella Cohn received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago in 1995, with a dissertation on Yiddish names. This work, published in 2008 as Yiddish Given Names: A Lexicon by Scarecrow Press, provides both a linguistic history of Yiddish first names and insights into the structure and history of Yiddish more generally.

Graduate Research Aid Initiative in Linguistics (GRAIL):

The Department of Linguistics offers GRAIL funds for graduate student research, including attendance at workshops, conferences, summer schools and training, funds needed for fieldwork, lab work, access to collections or archives, etc. In years when the LSA Linguistics Summer Institute is held, we give priority to funding students to attend the Institute.

Applications for GRAIL funds will be accepted every quarter (including the summer), in order to fund future activities (typically carried out on the following quarter). Application materials include a one-paragraph description of the project, an itemized budget (including discussion of what you could do with partial funding), a current CV, and a list of current and pending support for this project.
 

Dissertation Research Travel Awards are available for students who have been advanced to candidacy. Application deadline: rolling 

The Division of the Humanities Conference Reimbursement Grant provides up to $400 in reimbursement to doctoral and masters students for eligible travel expenses to present their work at an academic conference.

Eligibility: Doctoral or masters students in the Division of the Humanities who present a conference paper (or, for MFA students, in an exhibition). Doctoral students may receive the grant a maximum of three times in their graduate careers, but only once in any given academic year (academic years begin in Summer quarter). Master’s students may receive the grant a maximum of one time in their graduate careers.

Eligible expenses:

Airfare (economy or coach only)
Train fare (economy or coach only)
Bus fare
Gas fare (based on mileage)
Car rental

All conference grant reimbursements must be supported by adequate documentation, which consists of four parts: receipts, proof of participation (such as a program or letter of invitation), a completed Humanities Conference Grant Application Form, and a completed Student Certification for Business Related Travel Reimbursement.  More detailed instructions, as well as the two forms required, can be found below.

Requests for reimbursement will not be processed until all supporting documentation is received.  All application materials should be submitted electronically to humdos@uchicago.edu.

Students who receive their reimbursement prior to attending a conference must provide proof of attendance following the conference. This should be submitted to humdos@uchicago.edu, and may include a final conference program or booklet (scanned copy or link) showing conference participation or schedule of events. Pictures or other documentation may also be accepted.

Should your plans change and you do not attend the conference, any funds received prior to the event will need to be paid back to the Division by check or money order. Please contact humdos@uchicago.edu or reply to this email for instructions should this occur. Failure to return money from this grant is considered theft and is a University policy violation, which would be addressed by Area Discipline per the Student Manual.

The Graduate Council Fund provides financial support for academic, professional, and social events created by and intended for UChicago graduate students. The fund supports events that foster intellectual, professional, and social engagement across the graduate student community, targeted to both niche and broad audiences.

Funding is not guaranteed. Registered Student Organizations (RSO’s) and other organizations can only receive funding for one initiative per academic year. Applicants are encouraged to apply for funding in advance. Applications will be reviewed quarterly as long as funding remains. The Graduate Council Fund will open for applications Thursday, September 5, 2024.

CLS also offers funds for conference travel. Each grad student is entitled to reimbursements of up to $500 per academic year for conference-related expenses (travel, hotel, registration, etc.). There is no limit on the number of conferences that can make up this $500, but left-over funds from previous years do not roll over into the new academic year. Requests for reimbursements for a given year must be made by the start of the fall quarter of the following year at the latest. Requests for reimbursements made after that will count towards the funds available for the new academic year. For more information, you can contact current CLS officers.