PhD Funding

Each student who is admitted to the Department of English PhD program receives a five-year fellowship, which includes a tuition waiver, a generous living stipend, two summer research grants, and health insurance. The fellowship requires that students teach in the Department's undergraduate program, first as course assistants in faculty-taught courses and then as instructors of their own freestanding courses. Students typically teach in their third, fourth, and fifth years of the PhD program.

Dissertation-Year Fellowships

The PhD program at the University of Chicago supports graduate students financially for five years, and some students will complete their dissertation within that time frame. A proportion of students, however, will require an additional year due to requirements specific to their dissertation project. These students may apply for a variety of one-year dissertation fellowships, funded by either the Department or the Humanities Division. All of these dissertation-year fellowships have generous stipends; most also provide medical insurance coverage. The Humanities Division website has more information on divisional fellowships. We maintain a list of recent recipients of dissertation fellowships. There are also a number of external fellowships that support dissertation research.

Travel Grants

Students can also apply for departmental and divisional travel grants designed to defray the costs of dissertation research and presenting conference papers. These include the Marcia Tillotson Travel Award, the Maramarco Summer Research Grant, the Division of the Humanities Conference Grant, and the Division of the Humanities Travel Grant. Graduate students can also apply to the Nicholson Center for British Studies on campus for travel and research grants. For more information about divisional funding and fellowships, please contact Miranda Swanson, Associate Dean of Students in the Division of Humanities.