Hanna Holborn Gray Fellowship

Terms: This award is made possible by a generous endowment from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is designated to support the very best graduate students in the second half of their graduate program at the University. One fellowship will be awarded each year in the Division of the Humanities and one in the Social Sciences Division. The fellowship provides full tuition, a stipend of $20,000 per year, and an additional allocation to cover required fees and University student health insurance on the Basic Plan. Gray Fellows may also undertake a reasonable number of teaching assignments during the tenure of the fellowship. This teaching will be done according to the fellows' own preferences and schedules, not as a required commitment, and fellows will be compensated additionally for that work. Other employment, either at the University or off-campus, is not permitted.

Eligibility: The Gray Fellowship is meant to support students in both the penultimate and final phases of graduate study, beginning in the period when the dissertation proposal is being developed and carrying through the time of write-up and final completion of the dissertation. As with divisional dissertation-year fellowships (Whiting, Franke, Mellon), students holding Gray Fellowships will be ineligible for subsequent funding through the University upon completion of the award.

Application: Each department is invited to nominate one student who is currently in the third year of study. Basic criteria include successful completion of all course work, language requirements, and qualifying examinations no later than June 15 of the student's third academic year. Since the award is intended to support students during the period when the dissertation proposal is being developed, an approved proposal is not required, but nominees are asked to submit a general essay (eight to ten pages, double spaced) on the topic area proposed for the dissertation. Nominations must also include at least two letters of recommendation: a departmental letter from the chair or director of graduate studies, as is appropriate, and a second letter from a University of Chicago professor who has taught the nominated student and can write in support of the dissertation topic.

Deadline: Departmental nominations are due in the Dean of Students office, Walker 111, in late April.