Predoctoral fellowships for Penn State PhD students provide a yearlong graduate assistantship. Deadline Monday, November 17, 5pm.

The CHI Predoctoral Fellows program is sponsored by the Center, the College of the Liberal Arts, and the University Libraries. This program supports graduate student research in the humanities, providing up to six Penn State graduate students a yearlong graduate assistantship and a $1,000 research fund. For 2015-16 the expected level of stipend support is $23,000. Fellows have access to extensive research design support, as well as to grant-writing workshops, career mentoring, and archival/library support and consultation. For 2015-16 no office space will be provided; Fellows are expected to use space in their home departments.

Fellows are expected to be at University Park during most of their funded year, to participate in the Center’s weekly lunches and public lectures, and to make a public presentation of their work. There is no teaching obligation. Graduate students who wish to submit a collaborative application with an applicant for another CHI program (the predoctoral or visiting fellowships) should indicate so on their application.

CHI fellowships substitute for departmental funding. They cannot be used to lengthen the time of expected support from home departments or from Penn State more generally.

Application Deadline

Monday, November 17, 2014

Eligibility

Graduate students in any field currently enrolled in a PhD program at Penn State’s University Park campus are eligible for this program. Applicants must have passed their comprehensive exams, or plan to pass their comprehensive exams, by May 2015, in order to take up the fellowship.

Because CHI support comes primarily from the College of the Liberal Arts and the University Libraries, students associated with those units will receive some priority, though students from any College engaged in humanistic research on information are welcome to apply.

How to Apply

Applications that do not follow these guidelines will be summarily rejected.

All applications must include the following:

1)      Cover page with applicant’s name and contact information (including campus address and e-mail), date of comprehensive exams, name of advisor and committee, and project title.

 2)      Description of project, including scholarly significance and current state of completion (max. 1200 words). Please indicate if this is a collaborative application, and explain the planned structure of the collaboration.

 3)      Curriculum vitae (not to exceed four pages). Please include internal and external grants received in the past five years as well as any non-administrative release time from teaching in the two academic years before the fellowship.

 4)      One confidential letter of evaluation from the applicant’s dissertation advisor or other faculty mentor attesting to the quality of the application, to the applicant’s record of achievement, and to the applicant’s intellectual and academic promise.

 5)      A short letter from the department Head or Director of Graduate Studies indicating the department’s understanding that CHI funding cannot be used to extend the normal time of support for graduate students.

Nominations must be emailed to CHI by the applicant’s department head, program director, or director of graduate studies by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, Nov 17, 2014. Please use the subject line “Predoctoral Fellows.” Attachments should be in Portable Document Format (pdf). All applicants will receive an email receipt; please follow up if you do not hear back within one week.

Review Process

Proposals will be evaluated and recommendations made to the Director by a subcommittee of the CHI Advisory Board.

Awards for the academic year 2015-16 will be announced by December 15, 2014.

Presentation and Reporting Requirements

Fellows will be asked to give a work-in-progress presentation during their residency semester. Thirty days after the close of the grant period (consult award letter for exact date), a report must be filed with the Center on the results of the residency.