The annual deadline for fellowships to be held in the following academic year is March 1.
AY 26-27 Dissertation Fellows
| Brady Dailey |
Linguistics |
| Sümeyra Güneş |
Anthropology |
| Sarah Lewinger |
Anthropology |
| Adebola Ola |
Musicology & Ethnomusicology |
The Dissertation Fellowship provides a semester’s stipend and releases students from work obligations during the semester in which they hold their fellowship. Fellows are also eligible for office space in the BUCH suite. In AY 26-27, Graduate Dissertation Fellowships will be paid at the rate stipulated by the BUGWU contract.
These fellowships are separate from the Graduate Student Awards. Students who have won a BUCH Graduate Student Award are eligible for a Graduate Dissertation Fellowship in a subsequent year.
Defining the Humanities
The Center defines the humanities both as designated departments and as an expansive and flexible mode of inquiry. In keeping with the Congressional Act that created the NEH, the humanities include the study and interpretation of the following: linguistics; literature; history; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of life. We understand humanities methods as primarily critical or speculative, as distinguished from the empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences. We welcome nominees who share an interest in issues of interpretation and value that are central to humanities work.
Eligibility & Expectations
Eligible departments or programs may nominate up to two graduate students to apply for a Graduate Dissertation Fellowship. No student may hold a dissertation fellowship beyond their 7th year. For example, a student who is in their 7th year in AY 25-26 would be in their 8th year in AY 26-27 and would not be eligible for nomination.
Faculty must be rigorous in selecting nominees who will unquestionably be ready to defend their dissertations by the end of the academic year in which they hold the fellowship. Applicants for AY 26-27 must defend by the end of AY 26-27. The Graduate Dissertation Fellowship is intended to be the final stage of each fellow’s graduate work at BU, and fellows should not continue their graduate student affiliation with their departments in the year after their award.
GDFs should plan to be available to attend the BUCH Fellows Seminars during the academic year that corresponds to their fellowship semester. They are expected to focus exclusively on their dissertation work during their fellowship semester and not engage in additional employment while holding this fellowship.
Application Components
- Signed Dissertation Prospectus Approval Page
- Description of the applicant’s dissertation project and stage of writing, plus a bibliography
- CV
- Confidential letter of support from your First Reader. In this letter, your first reader must confirm that you will defend by August 2027.
- Confidential letter of support from your DGS. This letter should explain the department’s rationale for your nomination.
*Only students who have been formally nominated by their department/program may apply