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Franke Graduate Fellowships for 2019-2020

With generous funding from Richard and Barbara Franke, and in partnership with The Graduate School, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities will offer exclusive fellowships to the most promising graduate students in fields across the humanities for 2019-2020. Following a rigorous selection process, Franke Graduate Fellows will enrich their independent research within a vibrant interdisciplinary collective, which includes multilayered structured conversations among faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, internationally renowned visiting scholars, and distinguished visiting artists.
 
"These fellowships present an exciting opportunity for Northwestern because no other graduate fellowship brings together the very best doctoral students in the humanities to develop research in an interdisciplinary humanities setting,” says Wendy Wall, Director of the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. “The Franke Fellowships provide students a chance to develop and teach their own course, along with an in-depth look at arts and humanities programming—experience that’s increasingly vital in academia as well as for positions in the public humanities."
 
Franke Graduate Fellowship highlights:

  • Time - The ability to devote two full quarters, full time, to shaping/writing your dissertation within an interdisciplinary cohort
  • Mentoring and teaching - The chance to receive interdisciplinary mentoring in shaping a course, and the experience of teaching that course in your home department
  • Dissertation working group - The opportunity to present chapters in progress to graduate fellows across different humanities fields
  • Public Humanities - The advantage of seeing public humanities programs in action

For the full academic year, Franke Graduate Fellows participate in Kaplan Humanities Institute activities, including weekly lunch colloquia, a dissertation working group, and the annual Future Directions Forum, where they present their projects to Institute members. For fall and winter terms, Franke Graduate Fellows are granted time to cultivate their dissertation research. They also receive interdisciplinary pedagogical mentoring about how to shape a dynamic course for undergraduates, and experience with public humanities programming.
 
In spring quarter, each Fellow offers—in their home department—the undergraduate course that they have developed during their residency. 

Deadline
The application deadline is midnight, Thursday, February 28, 2019 (for fellowships beginning in Fall 2019).
 
Eligibility
To be eligible for a Franke Graduate Fellowship, you must be:

  • A current, funded, doctoral graduate student in good academic standing
  • Be in your fourth or fifth year of full-time study in 2019-2020
  • Pursuing an independent humanities research project in any TGS PhD program
  • Have completed all coursework, have a prospectus approved, and have achieved candidacy

Students receiving graduate assistance must adhere to the regulations governing recipients of University assistance.
 
Selection Criteria
Applications are judged on their scholarly merit: the originality, quality, clarity and importance of the proposed research project, as well as the applicant’s ability to contribute productively to an interdisciplinary group.
                       
Award
Franke Graduate Fellowships will include:

  • Two quarters of full paid tuition
  • Monthly stipend
  • $2,000 in research funds
  • Possibility to extend your funding package (the option to "bank" your TGS funding for two quarters to be used in your sixth year) 

Application Instructions
Franke Graduate Fellowship applications are submitted via an online application portal. The instructions and portal link can be found here.
 
Contact
Questions? Please contact Jill Mannor at jill.mannor@northwestern.edu
 
About the Kaplan Humanities Institute
The Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities is committed to disseminating humanities research and providing opportunities for faculty, students and the broader community to explore issues, examine beliefs, and engage in interdisciplinary dialogue about human thought and culture. As a site for exchange and connection across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences at Northwestern, we are dedicated to fostering critical, creative and scholarly discussions about what it means to be human, across time and space.

Categories: Humanities