MacMillan Center Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowships

The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies announces the availability of pre-dissertation grants to aid graduate students in their pre-doctoral dissertation research. Yale Ph.D. students in the Graduate School’s Ph.D. granting departments and programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences (including programs based in the professional schools) are eligible to apply. Students in the Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Engineering & Applied Sciences divisions are ineligible for this award. The MacMillan Center grants are for exploration of research sources and general feasibility of a proposed topic outside the United States.

Awards can contribute to the cost of travel, research, and living expenses consistent with the standard of living in the host country. These funds may not be utilized to purchase equipment or data sets, to hire survey firms, or to pay organizations to conduct field experiments or evaluations on the researcher’s behalf. Fellowships are intended for students to “get their hands dirty” in the field, archives, libraries, etc. MacMillan International Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowships can be used to supplement the support from other Yale and external sources. An applicant’s total budget and funds available (including pending applications) must be specified during the application process. Applicants are encouraged to obtain support from other sources, bearing in mind that any given student is only eligible to receive the MacMillan International Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowships once during the course of their Ph.D. studies.

Masters students in African or Russian and East European Studies are also eligible to apply for grants for overseas research, language study or internships. East Asian Studies masters students should apply to the Council on East Asian Studies. Masters students in other programs are eligible only if admitted to a Yale PhD program.

Applications must relate to a potential dissertation. Masters students in African Studies or Russian and East European Studies should relate their applications to their course of study, thesis research and/or professional plans.

Grant funds are limited. Not all applicants will receive grants. Grants awarded may be smaller than requested and are unlikely to exceed $5,000.

Among the factors to be considered by the Committee in establishing priorities is a judgment about how the short term project may lead to a dissertation and its usefulness in better understanding international relations or foreign societies and cultures.

A written report of the experience is to be submitted at the completion of the research period. Recipients may be asked to offer a seminar or presentation of their field project results when they return to the Yale campus. Any publication or public presentations resulting from their projects should acknowledge the support of the MacMillan Center and any specific fund identified by the MacMillan Center in an award letter.

Application Information: ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED ONLINE THROUGH THIS DATABASE.

• Project Proposal: a personal statement relating the proposed project to your degree program and career plans (not to exceed two typewritten, single-space pages).
• Budget of your total estimated project expenses and all sources of revenue including funds requested in this application.
• Language Evaluation from your language instructor regarding level of proficiency in relevant language(s). Not required for travel to English speaking countries. If your are currently not enrolled in a language course you can submit a Language Evaluation Personal Statement instead. A personal statement listing all applicable language classes taken and/or knowledge of language. ONLY for applicants who will not be submitting a language evaluation letter from instructor.
• Yale transcript (unofficial transcripts are acceptable). In order to obtain one please go to http://www.yale.edu/sis/ and print it as a PDF file.
• One letter of recommendation from a Yale faculty member who can comment knowledgeably on your project.

It is the applicant’s responsibility to see that the complete application, including letter of recommendation and transcripts, reaches us by the deadline; applications cannot be considered without this information.

Notifications of awards will be made by late April.

For more information, Julia Muravnik at julia.muravnik@yale.edu or (203) 436-8164.

Restrictions to Use of Award: Yale University policy requires that certain types of research projects involving human subjects be reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to the start of the study to ensure that the project meets University Policy and any other applicable regulations. To see if your project needs to be reviewed, for advice on working with human subjects, and for more information about the IRB process and requirements click here.

Yale Ph.D. students in the Graduate School’s Ph.D. granting departments and programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences (including programs based in the professional schools) are eligible to apply.

Masters students in African or Russian and East European Studies are also eligible to apply for grants for overseas research, language study or internships

Normally, only ONE Pre-Dissertation Grant will be awarded to a given student.

Students may not apply to both the MacMillan Center Pre-Dissertation Grant and the MacMillan Center International Dissertation Research Grant competitions at the same time. If two applications are received, one will be discarded.