Dissertation Completion Fellowship 2025-2026: Life/Story

Description

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Emory University

Dissertation Completion Fellowship Program 2025-2026: Life/Story

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry is pleased to open applications for our one-year dissertation completion fellowships. We invite applications from current Emory graduate students from any humanistic discipline whose research engages with and advances the 2025-2026 theme, Life/Story, and who are eager to be part of a community of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students engaged in innovative and interdisciplinary scholarly conversations.

The Fox Center will appoint up to three dissertation completion fellows for the academic year 2025-26. Fellows will participate in a weekly interdisciplinary seminar, presenting their research at one of these meetings, and will attend the Center's program of events. Dissertation completion fellows, who will normally be in their 6th-year of graduate study during the fellowship year, will receive a 9-month stipend (September-May), 100% subsidy for the Emory University Student Health Insurance Plan (EUSHIP), and shared office space at the Center. The first stipend payment will be at the end of September and the final payment will be at the end of May. The stipend will be $28,100 paid over nine months.

The application deadline for applicants to submit their materials is December 9, 2024. The deadline for receipt of letters of recommendation is December 13, 2024.

Life/Story

How do the humanities capture a life, and in what ways does this genre—the craft of unearthing and rendering a life story—shed light upon key moments in time, social and political movements, critical junctures in history, or elements fundamental to a particular culture and place? How are different methodologies and epistemologies mobilized in telling the story of a life that also offer broad social and political commentaries? How does a single biography, in any medium, shed light upon central themes of the human condition?

We invite applications from graduate students whose research interests are resonant with such a panoramic view of “writing” a life. We envision that fellows may pursue research employing a range of historical, contemporary, social, cultural, artistic, and philosophical approaches to capturing a life, including but not limited to oral and archival histories, ethnography, philosophy, creative writing and film.

Qualifications

Fox Center dissertation completion fellowships are open to students currently enrolled in doctoral degree programs at Emory University's Laney Graduate School. Applicants must be able to complete their dissertation during the fellowship period.

Application Instructions

To complete the online application, you will need to provide the following:

• Dissertation abstract (200 words maximum)
• Project description (1000 words maximum, see instructions below)
• Curriculum vitae
• Unofficial transcript
• Diversity and inclusion statement
• E-mail information for three recommenders

Please note that as part of the University’s Interfolio system, each applicant is required to complete the Equal Employment Opportunity form and the Diversity and Inclusion Statement. The Fox Center will not have access to the completed forms.

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

Recommendation letters: Recommenders are automatically notified via Interfolio to submit/upload their letters to your file. Be sure to leave enough time so that your letters of recommendation are submitted by the deadline.

Project description: Applicants should describe the specific research planned for the period of the fellowship and the expected output and include a detailed timeline. They should also describe their engagement with the annual theme and how they would benefit from the interdisciplinary environment. Please remember that fellows are expected to be in residence at the Center full-time each semester.

Diversity and inclusion statement: Please describe your vision and experience teaching and mentoring students of diverse backgrounds.

It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that all required documents are uploaded to Interfolio and submitted. Incomplete applications cannot be considered after the deadline.

ACCEPTANCE PROCEDURES

Upon notification of a Fox Center Dissertation Completion Fellowship award, recipients must agree to: 

1. conduct dissertation work in residence full-time at the Fox Center for the academic year;
2. take full responsibility for contributing to and maintaining an environment conducive to academic research while at the Center;
3. complete the dissertation