All applicants accepted for the Ph.D. program will receive full funding for 5 years. This includes tuition and University related fees. Aid is restricted to students in the PhD program. The department strives to support every student in good standing as fully as possible. Aid is restricted to students in the PhD program, and is dependent on students making Satisfactory Academic Progress toward the degree.
PhD students entering in Fall 2019 will receive summer stipends in addition to service or non-service fellowships in the academic year. Students in their fifth year with an approved Dissertation Prospectus qualify for a non-service fellowship to support full-time work towards their dissertation.
Department Funding
The department provides limited funds to PhD students to attend conferences in their field, with more funding being available to students who are presenting at the conference than there is to students who are attending but not presenting. At the beginning of each academic year, the Director of Graduate Studies and/or the Department Administrator will announce the amount available for conference travel for that year and the deadline for budget proposals.
Reimbursement is limited to transportation costs (airfare, rental cars, airline fees), conference registration fees (including membership fees), and accommodation costs.
Reimbursements will not be done on a rolling basis, though every attempt will be made to reimburse students in a timely manner.
If you have any questions about department funding, please do not hesitate to contact the Director of Graduate Studies, Professor Alexis Peri, or the Department Administrator, Cady Steinberg, at cady8590@bu.edu.
Internal University Funding
The Graduate School offers Graduate Research Abroad Fellowships (GRAF) that fund dissertation research, as does the Boston University Center for the Humanities (BUCH). In both cases, History graduate students must apply first to the Director of Graduate Studies, who will review applications with the Graduate Studies Committee.
Occasionally, the Graduate School will make available summer research fellowships for advanced PhD students. If and when these fellowships are available, the Director of Graduate Studies will inform students of the application process.
A generous gift from Boston University alumna Elisabeth M. Kenosian established the Charles K. and Elisabeth M. Kenosian Graduate Fellowship Fund in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences for doctoral candidates who are studying modern Armenia. The fellowships will help underwrite research travel, summer research, and/or dissertation work.
The Kenosian Fellowships seek to support studies resulting in new insights and knowledge on such themes as:
- Armenian emigration to the U.S.;
- Armenian ethnic identity and nationalism;
- Armenian diplomatic and trade relations with the U.S., the European Union, and the Middle East; and
- Armenia’s role in the EU, the United Nations, and the Middle East.
All applicants accepted for the Ph.D. program in the BU History Department will receive full funding for 5 years. Doctoral candidates who have completed their undergraduate educations in the U.S. and are now engaged in research relevant to modern Armenia are eligible to apply for a Kenosian Fellowship. For more information, contact Simon Payaslian, Charles K. and Elisabeth M. Kenosian Chair in Modern Armenian History and Literature, at payas@bu.edu.
External Funding
There are many opportunities for external research funding beyond those offered at BU.
The General Society of Colonial Wars funds a fellowship, named the General Society of Colonial Wars John Adams Grant for Studies in American Colonial History, for doctoral students working in the period of American history between the founding of Jamestown and the Battle of Lexington. For more information on this fellowship, click here.
For more information about funding opportunities, click here. While this is not a comprehensive list of graduate funding opportunities, it is a good place to start, particularly for pre-dissertation and dissertation research funding.