The International Studies Association (ISA) invites applications for a new graduate student fellowship for 2024-2025. This award is targeted at students in the later stages of their PhD program (typically the final 2 years). The fellowship is intended help students offset the costs incurred as a result of research and writing activities necessary for the successful completion of the dissertation. The ISA Dissertation Completion Fellowship is open to applicants from across the social sciences and humanities working in the broad field of International Studies.

While the fellowship is open to all eligible graduate student members of ISA, the committee particularly encourages applications from groups, genders, and nationalities that have been historically under-represented in the field of International Studies. Applicants may request up to $5000 to cover expenses related to the costs of carrying out the final stages of dissertation research and writing. It is the committee’s sole discretion to award lesser amounts than requested, as they deem appropriate. Preference will be given to students without access to other sources of funding to assist with dissertation completion.

Funds may be used only to support dissertation completion; however, the committee takes a broad interpretation of such expenses. Examples of activities that could receive funding include (but are not limited to): transcription, short-term travel for additional field research, archival research costs, survey costs, interview costs, translation costs, copy-editing or proofreading. Living expenses, such as rent and child-care may be considered acceptable expenses, particularly if they can reduce the need to teach or take on other work to allow the proposer concentrated time for dissertation completion. The funds may not be used for payment of tuition. The applicant should make clear in their proposal how the specified activity or resource for which funding is sought will assist in the successful completion of their dissertation.

Eligibility Criteria

1. Applicants must be members of ISA to apply and must maintain their membership during their fellowship year.
2. Applicants must be doctoral candidates or the equivalent by the time the award is received. Applicants may apply before achieving candidacy, but they cannot receive funds without proof of candidacy or equivalent confirmation of permission to proceed to PhD thesis/dissertation.
3. Applicants must be working on a topic in the international studies field.
4. Preference will be given to applicants from underrepresented groups within ISA.
5. The committee will prioritize proposals from applicants who are unable to acquire resources to complete their project from other sources. Applicants should identify all current sources of funding and clearly identify funding shortfalls.
6. All funds must be expended in a single fiscal year (running July 1 to June 30).
7. Awardees must submit a 500-word final report to the committee chair that details how the funding supported their dissertation completion by 60 days after the end of the fiscal year (September 1).
8. The committee reserves the right to redistribute funds to other applicants at their sole discretion in such cases where additional funding has been received since acceptance.

Application Materials

Students must submit the following for consideration:

1. A 1000-1500 word proposal laying out the dissertation project.
2. A one-page statement detailing all financial support received through the PhD program, including institutional and other sources, such as granting agencies. This should also include a statement of financial need. At the time of disbursement of funds, a student must disclose any further funding received after the time of acceptance.
3. A one-page narrative budget detailing the different kinds of expenses foreseen, and justifying how funding for these expenses will advance dissertation completion.
4. A current CV.
5. A letter of recommendation from the student’s dissertation major advisor, which should be submitted separately with the applicant's name in the subject line. Advisors are asked to comment on the student’s financial need in their letters.
6. Proposals are due by September 1 each year and awards start on July 1 of the following year.

Submission Process & Deadline

Applications open on July 1, 2023 and should be submitted directly to the ISA Dissertation Completion Fellowship Committee at fellowship@isanet.org by September 1, 2023. The applicant's last name should be clearly specified in the subject heading. Do not submit any application materials before July 1st.

Any questions about the application process, or the Fellowship more broadly, should be directed to melody.fonseca2@upr.edu.

Committee Members

Melody Fonseca (University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras) - Chair
Jessica Auchter (Université Laval)
Arjun Chowdhury (University of British Columbia)
Stéphanie Martel (Queen's University)
Ida Bastiaens (Fordham University)