Funding & Fellowships

Beginning in the Autumn Quarter 2019, new doctoral students will receive a comprehensive 6-year funded fellowship to support them in their scholarly and pedagogical training. Included in the funding package is a yearly stipend ($31,000 for students beginning in Autumn 2019), full tuition, and health insurance coverage. Students may also apply for additional funds to support research and travel related to their course of study.

Pedagogical training is a vital part of the educational experience at the University, and all fellowships include a required teaching component. Generally, students focus on their course requirements during the first and second year and fulfill the teaching requirement during the third through fifth years of their program. Appointments as Lecturers and Course Assistants are distributed through an internal application process and are approved by Department faculty. More information can be found in the Teaching section of the Dean of Students Office's website.

Through awards from its Felding, Rhind, and Kaschins endowments and Departmental gifts, the Music Department also funds library and archival research, ethnographic fieldwork, composers' attendance at summer festivals, and specialized language study. Students typically apply for these funds in early March, and decisions on funding are made in the spring quarter.

After their sixth year, doctoral students may receive tuition aid and health insurance coverage for two additional years, and they continue to be eligible to apply for research and conference travel grants. The Division of the Humanities and the University also offer Dissertation Completion Fellowships to support students as they finish their thesis in a final year of dissertation writing.

As an incentive for timely completion, students who finish the Ph.D. in 7 or fewer years are eligible to become a Humanities Teaching Fellow. Dissertation Completion Fellowships continue to be available on a competitive basis, and students who complete the degree within 6 years and hold a Dissertation Completion Fellowship in the final year are guaranteed an appointment as a Humanities Teaching Fellow.

Fellowships from public or private agencies can supplement a student’s overall financial support, and applicants are encouraged to explore all funding opportunities available to them. The Division of the Humanities has additional information on the types of financial support available to doctoral students.

A number of prestigious internal and external fellowships to support graduate education are available to enrolled students in the Department. Some, such as the Liebmann Fellowship and the Dissertation Completion Fellowships, require nomination from the faculty of the Department. Others may be applied for directly by the student. Students pursuing fieldwork or source studies abroad are encouraged to apply for Fulbright Fellowships through Graduate Student Affairs; many countries also offer their own research fellowships to international students (such as the DAAD Fellowships from Germany). Students are encouraged to explore all fellowship opportunities through the Fellowship Kiosk maintained by the Office of Graduate Student Affairs.