- Fellowships and Financial Aid
- Doctoral Student Funding
- Early Research Initiative
- Internal Funding Sources
Internal Funding Sources
The Graduate Center offers a number of award competitions for research and dissertation funding to current doctoral students. The grants and fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis by various doctoral programs, research centers and institutes, and committees. In some instances, students apply directly; in others, they must be nominated by their programs. Students should explore and reach out to programs, centers and committees related to their areas of study for possible funding opportunities.
New funds sometimes become available at the last minute, so be sure to check your Graduate Center email regularly for time-sensitive notices.
General Awards
The following award programs are open to doctoral students from all programs and disciplines at The Graduate Center.
Please see below for additional offerings based on area of study.
Through the Doctoral Student Research Grant (DSRG) program, Graduate Center doctoral students in years 2 through 6 are eligible for individual awards of up to $1,500, which can be spent on expenses such as conference and research travel, compensation for human subjects, and more. This program is excellent preparation for any major grant opportunities you may apply for later in your career.
The DSRG program aims to foster a research-oriented academic culture among doctoral students at the CUNY Graduate Center by providing:
- Incentives for early-career students to model and meet the requirements for succeeding in the competition for funds by clearly defining a problem, a project, and a realistic budget
- An occasion for faculty-student mentoring relationships oriented around the concrete problems of proposing, planning for, and executing research
- Opportunities for student professional development through funds for pre-doctoral research publications, presentations, and professional networking
Awarding decisions made by an applicant’s academic program. Awardees are not guaranteed to receive the full amount they request.
Awardees will be able to spend their funds from June 1 of the year they are awarded to May 31 of the following year. (For example, if you are awarded in the spring of 2020, you can spend your funds from June 2020 to May 2021.)
Deadline: January 31
Contact: Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, dsrg@gc.cuny.edu
In response to the unprecedented disruptions to academic work that have been one byproduct of the current global pandemic, the Provost’s Office is pleased to announce the Catalyst Grant program to provide short term support for doctoral student research during this academic year.
Possible uses for these grants include:
- hiring of proxy researchers (for archival, ethnographic work, data collection, lab work)
- access to databases or materials currently unavailable to GC students
- purchase of software or laboratory supplies/reagents
- language (or other specialized) training in preparation of future field/archival work
- travel to approved locations
- virtual attendance of performances
- redesign of dissertation chapters/projects in light of current conditions
Deadline: TBD
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
Humanities and Social Sciences
The Award for Archival Research in African American and African Diaspora Studies ($4,000) supports doctoral students for work in archives, repositories, and special collections (public and private) that focuses directly on the history, society, and culture of Africans and persons of African descent. The award is available for both Level III students to assist in the completion of a chapter or substantive portion of their dissertation and Level II students whose research agenda could be substantially improved by access to archival materials prior to the submission of their dissertation prospectus.
Deadline: January 31, 2023
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
The Provost’s Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship program has two main objectives:
- To allow students to conduct pre-dissertation research and training following completion of the first exam
- To support the development of a dissertation research proposal suitable for submission to an external funding agency
This program seeks to facilitate the transition from coursework to advanced individualized research. It is geared toward Level II students and awards $4,000 to conduct summer research. Recipients will undertake such activities including, but not limited to, initial field work, preliminary data collection, travel related to research, supplementary training in methods or techniques, or specialized language instruction. This program does not support conference attendance.
Deadline: February 6, 2023
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
These summer fellowships are offered to Graduate Center doctoral students from any program conducting research with a distinctive interdisciplinary turn whose main question is driven by public needs and priorities.
Deadline: February 14, 2023
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
Vera Institute/CUNY Graduate Center summer fellowships will be offered to Graduate Center Ph.D. students from any program with primary research interests in criminal or immigration justice and the work of the Vera Institute. Winners of the $4,000 award will primarily collaborate with researchers in one of Vera’s four centers or programs on research relating to a specific project — including, but not limited to, data collection, analysis, fieldwork, report writing, stakeholder engagement, and dissemination.
Deadline: TBD
Contact: TBD
Download the award application for full details.
The Fried fellowship honors the memory of international human rights expert John H. E. Fried by awarding a grant to an advanced Ph.D. student in political science to conduct research on international human rights. The $5,000 award is given to foster original research and analysis that results in a conference paper, published article, dissertation proposal, or dissertation chapter dealing with the causes of or possible solutions to human rights violations as well as strategies for promoting international human rights. The applicant should approach these issues from the perspective of comparative or international politics, organizations, or law.
To apply, submit a short proposal (under 1,000 words), a current curriculum vitae, and a transcript by March 1, 2020. In addition, brief confidential letters of recommendation from two faculty members who are familiar with the proposal should be sent separately before the deadline.
Applications and references can be submitted by mail to:
Fried Memorial Fellowship
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
The CUNY Graduate Center, Suite 5203
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Applications can also be sent by email to Eli Karetny at ekaretny@gc.cuny.edu
Deadline: TBD
Contact: Eli Karetny, ekaretny@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-193
These $4,000 fellowships will be offered to Graduate Center Ph.D. students from any program with primary research interests related to the collections at the Morgan Library and Museum. Award winners will primarily collaborate with curators and librarians from the Morgan in order to process uncatalogued collections, improve public access to documents and related materials, and gain experience in creating and organizing collections.
Deadline: March 31, 2023
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
These CUNY-sponsored $4,000 fellowships will be offered to CUNY Graduate Center Ph.D. students from any program with primary research interests related to the environmental humanities that can be studied using the collections of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden. The fellowship recipient will conduct their own research and collaborate with curators and archivists to expand public awareness of the important historical materials that reflect worldwide knowledge of plant science and culture, the vision of nature, landscape, and garden design.
Deadline: TBD
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
Download the award application for full details. [insert app PDF lnk]
The Knickerbocker Archival Research Grant in American Studies provides a modest stipend for doctoral students at The Graduate Center to begin their archival dissertation research. Grant recipients receive a maximum of $4,000 to cover expenses incurred during their archival work. Recipients of the award are expected to submit a short write-up detailing their research activities and participate in a professional development workshop focused on grant writing the semester following the award.
Deadline: January 31, 2023
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
Science
The Science Summer Fellowship program has three main objectives:
- To allow students to conduct early-stage research and training following completion of the first doctoral exam
- To support the development of a dissertation research proposal suitable for submission to an external funding agency
- To support travel to a national/international scientific meeting.
This program seeks to facilitate the transition from coursework to advanced individualized research. It is geared toward Level II students and awards $4,000 to conduct summer research.
Deadline: February 9, 2023
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
Interdisciplinary
These $5,000 fellowships are offered for Graduate Center Ph.D. students from any program conducting research whose main question is driven by an exploration of topics that intersect or overlap art and science.
Deadline: February 15, 2023
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
These $4,000 fellowships will be offered to Graduate Center Ph.D. students from any program conducting research on New York City and its environs (including, but not limited to: the city’s natural and artificial environments; its architectural landscapes; its infrastructure; city planning; city politics; its prominence as a global and economic hub; the city’s political, cultural, and social histories; its foodways; its flows of population; its communities; its ethnoscapes, soundscapes, mediascapes, and ideoscapes; and its evolving urban ecosystems).
Deadline: February 13, 2023
Contact: Provost's Office, rsponzo@gc.cuny.edu
The Graduate Center Digital Initiatives project — overseen by the Provost’s Office — offers small awards to support cutting-edge digital projects designed, created, programmed, or administered by Graduate Center students. Students submit proposals to an annual competition for these awards, which range from $500 to $3,000.
Contact: GC Digital Initiatives
The GC Digital Fellows Program operates as an in-house think-and-do-tank for digital projects, connecting Fellows to digital initiatives throughout The Graduate Center. Digital Fellows utilize a team-based approach as they explore creative solutions for projects that can be implemented in a collaborative fashion. In the process, the program helps build out “The Digital GC,” a vision of The Graduate Center that incorporates technology into its core research and teaching missions. The award is for $27,000 and will include a graduate assistantship appointment that will carry eligibility to purchase low-cost NYSHIP health insurance.
Contact: GC Digital Initiatives
