Internal Fellowships
____________________________________Division of the Humanities Fellowship Deadlines for 2025-26
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*These competitions require nomination by the student's department. Departments set earlier internal application deadlines for students, so they can review and nominate to the fellowship review committee by April 1. Please check with your department for more information.
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships
Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships are for Ph.D. students in their first five years or two-year M.A. students in their second year who must study certain languages for their programs. In 2025-2026, the University will be accepting applications for languages in two world areas: Middle East and East Asia. The FLAS program provides funding for study on campus during the academic year and on campus or elsewhere (domestic or abroad) during the summer.
Humanities CMES, MAPH TLO, and doctoral students who will register for qualifying language courses in the year of the fellowship are strongly encouraged to apply for an Academic Year FLAS. Master's students receive a $20,000 stipend, tuition aid (amount dependent on their program), and student services fee coverage. PhD students receive a $5000 stipend supplement.
Summer award benefits for all students: $2,500 stipend and up to $5,000 in tuition for the applicant's language program of choice.
Applications are available on the UChicagoGRAD website
Questions? Contact Maggie Kurkoski (UChicago GRAD) at kurkoski@uchicago.edu
For more information, please review the UChicagoGRAD FLAS website.
Hanna Holborn Gray Fellowship
The Division of the Humanities is able to award two Hanna Holborn Gray Dissertation Completion Fellowships during the 2025-26 academic year to a rising 6th year or 7th year doctoral student who is sufficiently advanced in the writing of their dissertation that they are expected to complete the dissertation during the time they hold the award. This fellowship recognizes the student’s academic achievement and will enable the student to devote full attention and effort towards completing the dissertation. The terms of the fellowship prohibit students from engaging in any remunerative activity during the period of the fellowship.
Students who have applied for other Divisional Dissertation Completion Fellowships will be considered for this award, which will provide a stipend (generally higher than the minimum stipend available), tuition, the required student services fee, and University student health insurance premium.
As with our other Divisional Dissertation Completion Fellowships, the student who holds a Hanna Holborn Gray Fellowship in 2025-26 must graduate in Summer 2026 or before. If they do not defend, complete the dissertation, and graduate during the fellowship year, they will be withdrawn from their program at the end of the summer quarter.
Humanities Division Dissertation Completion Fellowships
The Division of the Humanities is able to award approximately 24 Dissertation Completion Fellowships to doctoral students who are sufficiently advanced in the writing of their dissertation that they are expected to complete the dissertation during the time they hold the award. These fellowships recognize the student’s academic achievements, and enable the student to devote full attention and effort towards completing the dissertation.
Fellowships will provide tuition, the required student services fee, University student health insurance, and a stipend. For students under the new funding model, fellowships will include a financial bonus. The terms of the fellowship prohibit students from engaging in any remunerative activity during the period of the fellowship. The sole exception to this prohibition to this rule is that fellows may undertake a modest teaching assignment in spring quarter if it is in fulfillment of their pedagogical training plan per the student teaching policy, and when it is clear from the fellow’s progress on the dissertation that teaching will not delay completion of the degree. Requests to undertake a teaching assignment must be made in writing to the Dean of Students, and are subject to departmental approval as all teaching must be in fulfillment of the pedagogical training plan.
Please Note: Students who hold a Dissertation Completion Fellowship in 2025-2026 must graduate by or before Summer 2026. Students who do not defend, complete the dissertation, and graduate during the fellowship year will be withdrawn from their program at the end of the Summer 2026 quarter.
Franke Residential Dissertation Completion Fellowships
Each year the Franke Institute for the Humanities awards approximately four Residential Dissertation Completion Fellowships. There is no separate application for a Franke Residential DCF, but to be considered for these fellowships students must commit to being in residence during the fellowship year, and attend meetings with other Franke fellows. These fellowships differ from other DCFs in a number of ways, and include enhanced support and participation in various activities at the Institute.
Eligibility for all 2025-2026 Dissertation Completion Fellowships:
Some fellowships may only be held by students up to and including the sixth year in their program; others may only be held by students up to and including the seventh year; the few other fellowships may be held by students up to and including the eighth year of their program. If there are questions about your registration year, please contact humdos@uchicago.edu.
The following terms and conditions apply for all dissertation completion fellowships:
1. Without exception, students must be admitted to candidacy before they can apply for these fellowships.
2. Students who have held or currently hold any dissertation completion fellowship (whatever the title of the fellowship: dissertation write-up, completion, etc.) from any internal or external sources are not eligible for consideration.
3. Students pursuing a joint degree program should submit the DCF application through their home department only.
4. Students must defend, complete the dissertation, and graduate in Summer 2026 or before. If this does not occur, the student will be withdrawn at the end of the Summer 2026 quarter.
Departmental Application Deadlines
A student’s home department must nominate them for this competition. Students must adhere to their departmental deadlines for application submission.
Application Materials
Each student must complete the online application, which includes submitting the following documents:
1. The timeline for completion of dissertation writing and defense, with the student and the dissertation committee attesting to the feasibility of granting of the degree by Summer 2026.
2. Statement of purpose (3-5 pages single-spaced), describing the dissertation project. The narrative statement should include a work plan. The statement should discuss the significance of this work within the student’s specific and general fields and the contribution this project will make to the field(s) with which it engages. Please remember that the fellowship review committee will include faculty members from across the Division and thus the candidate must explain terms and contexts that might not be familiar to those outside the field or subfield.
3. A curriculum vitae (C.V.).
4. A copy of one approved chapter of the nominee's dissertation for reference by the fellowship review committee.
5. Letters from two members of the student’s dissertation committee, attesting to the quality of the work and also to the ability of the student to complete and defend the dissertation in the Summer 2026 quarter or before. These letters should be uploaded by the faculty member.
Department chairs who are nominating students for DCFs, will provide a brief summary of the nominated students as well as a ranked order of the nominees. This should be emailed to humdos@uchicago.edu.
The deadline for departments to submit their nominations is Tuesday, April 1, 2025. Students can expect to be notified in early to mid-May of the final decision.
Please note that at this time, students who hold a Divisional Dissertation Completion Fellowship in year 6 and complete their program in that year and who apply to the Teaching Fellows in Humanities (TFH) application process will be selected to receive a TFH position the following year.