Graduate Center Urban Studies Core Dissertation Fellowships

Deadline for Applications: Wednesday, January 9, 2019, by 5pm.

The Provost’s Office is pleased to announce five new fellowships in Urban Studies.  Two awards will be offered at $35,000 and three awards will be offered at $10,000.

Purpose:

The larger fellowships are for one year of field research or data collection and analysis, to be held after a dissertation proposal has been approved and before the final write-up of the results.  It will be held for one academic year, beginning in July 2019.  The smaller fellowships may be for summer research in service of drafting a dissertation proposal or to meet post-proposal data collection efforts such as travel, data collection expenses, transcription, or similar purposes.

Topics:

Proposals should explore some contemporary or historical aspect of urbanization or urban life.  Preference will be given to applicants who are studying forces or dynamics that have in the past or are currently reshaping cities in the global North and South, including analysis of the experiences, meanings, and interpretations of urban life.  These forces may include technological change, housing patterns, infrastructure, climate change, international migration, cultural diversity and interactions, changes in gender relations, family, and kinship, the challenges of governing cities and regions, economic restructuring, dynamics of inequality at different spatial scales, processes of inclusion and exclusion, the emergence of political and social movements, and new forms of cultural expression, hybridity, and ways of sensing and giving meaning to city life.

Eligibility Requirements and Guidelines:

Students must be registered or on an approved leave of absence during the 2018-2019 academic year to be eligible to apply.

To be considered for the $35,000 award students must be level III (advanced to candidacy) and have an approved dissertation proposal but not yet be at the final stage of writing up results

To be considered for the $10,000 fellowships students can be level II or level III.

A student holding a five-year fellowship from the Graduate may not hold a $35,000 Urban Studies award concurrently with the five-year award.  A student with a five-year award may apply, but if selected for a dissertation fellowship the student will have to choose between the five-year fellowship funding and the dissertation fellowship funding. The $10,000 awards may be combined with other funding.

A student holding a Graduate Center fellowship or award that is not part of a five-year award (a freestanding Graduate Assistantship A, B, C, or D and/or financial aid fellowship) may apply for the fellowships but, if offered an award, the total funding (Graduate Assistantship salary plus financial aid fellowship) may not exceed $45,000.

Fellowship recipients are required to be registered during the award year.  Students who qualify for the Ph.D. in time for an October 2019 degree are not eligible to receive funding.

Please be advised that if you are planning any travel as part of your research, the university requires you to have travel insurance.  Please see the International Travel Requirements Page for complete details.

Students must have met Human Subjects Research Protection guidelines before commencing research with human subjects.

APPLICATION COMPONENTS

Each application must include the following:

  1. Cover sheet
  1. Proposal
  • 9-page project description including a 150 word abstract (the abstract should be single-spaced at the top of page 1).  The project description should include discussion of the background, relevant literature, methodology, data, projected results, and a time-line/description indicating expected progress.
  • 1-page selected bibliography

The text describing the dissertation project and the archival statement should be double-spaced using a 12-point font with numbered pages and a 1-inch margin.  The abstract and bibliography can be single-spaced.  Students are advised to keep in mind that the review committees will be composed of faculty from various disciplines.

  1. Two-page curriculum vitae.
  1. Current Graduate Center transcript.  (Students may submit the unofficial student copy that can be printed/copied from CUNYFirst.)

The application materials should be assembled as a single document in pdf or word format in the following order:

  • Application cover sheet
  • 9-page proposal
  • 1-page bibliography
  • 2-page CV
  • Graduate Center Transcript (unofficial student copy is sufficient)
  1. One letter of reference to be submitted electronically by your adviser (see instructions below).

 

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

The completed application must be submitted no later than 5pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2019. The applications are to be submitted as per the following instructions.  Your adviser must submit a letter of recommendation by the same deadline, January 9, 2019.

Instructions for submitting your application:

  1. Combine your cover sheet, proposal (including abstract and bibliography), your archival statement, your curriculum vitae, your transcript, into a single file (either as a pdf document or a word document).

Use the following format when naming your document:         Last Name, First Name, Program

  1. Email your application as an attachment to fellowshipapps@gc.cuny.edu

Please put “Urban Studies” in the subject line of the email and use your graduate center email when submitting the application.

  1. Complete the electronic coversheet through the following form:

Graduate Center Urban Studies Core Dissertation Fellowships

 

* You must use your Graduate Center email address when you submit both parts of the application. All award notifications will also be sent to your Graduate Center email.

 

Instructions for Faculty Recommenders

  1. Prepare your reference letter as a regular word or pdf document on letterhead.
  2. Use the following format when naming your document:

Student Last Name, First Name

  1. Email your letter to fellowshipapps@gc.cuny.edu.   Please put “Urban Studies” in the subject line of the email.

If you have questions, please contact Rachel Sponzo at rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu, or 212-817-7282.

2019-20 GC Urban Studies Core Fellowships – Guidelines and Instructions

2019-20 GC Urban Studies Core Fellowship Cover Sheet