Apply for a CPS Dissertation Workshop Fellowship

Applications for Summer 2025 Center for Premodern Studies Dissertation Fellowships are due by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. Application materials should be emailed in PDF format to [email protected].

Download the description of application materials and cover sheet.

In Summer 2025, the Center for Premodern Studies (CPS) will provide support for five to six graduate students at the early stages of dissertation research and writing to participate in the CPS Dissertation Fellowship Program. The goals of the workshop are to help doctoral students 1) think about their work in comparative, premodern, global, and cross-disciplinary ways; 2) engage collaboratively and generatively with peers about their own scholarship and that of others; 3) make progress on their research and writing through intensive collaboration and feedback.

The workshop will be led by Dr. Patricia Ahearne-Kroll, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Religions and Cultures at the University of Minnesota and Trustee for Ancient Studies with the Center for Premodern Studies. Dr. Ahearne-Kroll is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, and religious practices in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods (especially in Egypt). Her research and teaching focuses on discourses of power and identity in antiquity, and she is currently working on a project that engages book history and challenges the use of reconstructed texts in the study of Judaism. She is also an active member of the Future of the Past Lab based in CNRC. 

Schedule: Awardees will meet on May 19th-23rd for an initial workshop and again at the end of the summer on August 11th-15th (August 11th and 12 may be asynchronous workshop days. This will be determined during the May workshop). The active workshop time is usually between 9 or 10 am and 3 pm each day with lunch provided for in-person days.  Virtual check-ins may occur periodically during June and July. Students who receive the award must commit to participating fully in both intensive workshops.

Award Details: Five to six applicants will be selected to receive fellowships to support their participation in the workshop. Fellowships will be at least $5,000. CPS will contribute a minimum of $3,500 per student. Fellows’ programs are asked to commit to providing an additional $1,500 or more toward the student’s support. The application form asks DGSs to document departmental commitment to providing such support. CPS will pay out their portion of the support at the end of Spring semester 2025. Departments are responsible for making their own plans and timeline for their portion of the fellowship payment. Note: The CPS Dissertation workshop is supported by CLA fellowship funding, which includes the condition that the Center seek matching funds from departments. CPS appreciates this support from departments as we are also compensating the faculty mentor for their time leading the workshop. If a department is unable to contribute to their fellow’s award, the DGS should contact the Center to discuss potential opportunities for additional support.

Eligibility: Prospective fellows must commit to participating in the May and August workshops. No other appointments (teaching or research assistantships) may be held during the Summer fellowship term. We see this fellowship as an opportunity for students to focus on their scholarship in a supported environment and want them to protect their time to benefit from this opportunity. Students may hold other fellowships in the summer to support their research.

This fellowship is designed to support students who work in the historical humanities and social sciences and who are at the early stages of dissertation research and writing. For this reason, preference will be given to students who have completed or plan to complete their preliminary Ph.D. exams between September 2023 and May 15, 2025.

Dissertation topics need not be comparative or interdisciplinary in order to benefit from the CPS dissertation fellowship program. It is our view that any dissertation project, even one focused on a narrowly specific time, place, and  topic, can be enriched by multi-disciplinary and comparative discussions.