Getting Started

Securing funding to support research and writing is a key part of the historian's craft, and that process begins in graduate school. Graduate students should research and apply for grants and fellowships that will aid the completion of their thesis and dissertation projects. Here are some ways to get started:

• The American Historical Association (AHA) publishes a list of Grants, Fellowships, and Prizes of Interest to Historians
• Other institutions have compiled helpful pages with grant information
• Talk with faculty and other students.

Graduate Student Fellowships and Grants

Below are some major fellowships and grants to support graduate student research and writing; students are encouraged to research other possible fellowships not listed below, as funding opportunities change by year.

• American Council of Learned Societies
• CLIR Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources
• Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund Fellowship
• Fulbright Student Program (IIE)
• Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships
• Social Science Research Council's International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) and Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF)
• United States Institute of Peace Dissertation Fellowships

Other Fellowships and Grants

Below are additional fellowships and grants; most of these tend to be smaller and/or field-specific. Students are again encouraged to research other possible fellowships not listed below, as funding opportunities change by year.

• American Bar Foundation Doctoral Fellowships in Law and Social Science
• American Antiquarian Society
• American Philosophical Society
• Archaeological Institute of America Fellowships
• Center for Historical Research at Ohio State University, Dissertation Fellowship
• Central Europe Summer Research Institute (CESRI)
• Council for European Studies (CES) Fellowship Program
• Danky Fellowship, Wisconsin Historical Society
• Dirksen Congressional Research Awards
• The Samuel Eleazar and Rose Tartakow Levinson Prize
• Gerald R. Ford Foundation Grants:
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
• The Formby Research Fellowships
• Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Grants
• Harvard Academy Scholars Pre- and Post-doctoral Fellowships
• Heller-Bernard Dissertation Research Award in Gender and Sexuality Studies
• The Huntington Library Fellowships
• IHR Mellon Fellowships for Doctoral Research in the Humanities
• Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) Fellowships
• Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University
• Law and Society Association -Law & Social Science Dissertation Fellowship & Mentoring Program
• Library Company of Philadelphia & the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
• Massachusetts Historical Society Research Fellowships
• McNeal Center for Early American Studies (MCEAS) Dissertation Fellowship Program
• Miller Center Fellowship
• NACBS Dissertation Year Fellowship
• NY State Research in History Residency Program
• Penn State-Mellon Foundation Dissertation Seminar (summer humanities doctoral fellowship)
• Jerrold Seigel Fellowship in Intellectual and Cultural History
• Smith Richardson Foundation
• The Society of Cincinnati Tyree-Lamb Research Fellowship
• Starr Center Fellowships at Washington College
• University of Michigan Clements Library, Price Visiting Research Fellowship
• Winterthur Research Fellowship Program