The Humanities Center helps graduate students in the School of Humanities find and apply for external fellowships and grants to support their graduate studies. Our Ph.D. students have been awarded Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad fellowships for China, Japan and Brazil; Fulbright Student awards for Taiwan, Japan and India; the Luce/ACLS Fellowship in American Art; the American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship; and other nationally prestigious awards.

Amanda Swain, Executive Director, can assist with finding funding opportunities, planning when to apply for external funding, and preparing proposal materials. Contact Amanda at ajswain@uci.edu or schedule an appointment (by Zoom or in person) via Calendly.

Research Support Resources for Graduate Students

“I recommend having the Statement of Grant Purpose Essay and Personal Statement Essay completed well in advance so that the applicant can send their essays to their letter writers / proofreaders for feedback. I think having my letter writers provide feedback on earlier drafts of both essays helped me to submit clear and concise arguments that resulted in successful applications.” - Christopher Chacon, Fulbright Student Award to India (2021)

“I also recommend working on the application in a small cohorts of 2-3 people. It makes the process a lot easier in terms of remembering / setting deadlines and just having someone to talk to about your application.” - Christopher Chacon, Fulbright Student Award to India (2021)

“My one piece of advice for humanities PhDs is to make grant-writing a collaborative experience. I benefited greatly from soliciting the advice of peers, not only in my department but from other departments, who read my grant applications with fresh perspectives. I also received feedback from faculty, which helped in my grant-writing process. Lastly, make sure you seek out and take advantage of the resources at your disposal. The Humanities Center has created a well of resources related to grant-writing, including hands-on feedback, workshops, and other initiatives. Grant-writing can seem daunting and isolating, but creating a cohort can create sustainable writing communities that extend beyond a deadline.” - Anat Schwartz-Meron, Fulbright Student Award to Korea (2018) and Korea Foundation Dissertation Fellowship (2019)

“The one piece of advice I would share is to look at examples of past fellowship winners' applications. Checking out—and emulating—model texts helped me understand my intended audience and what they would be looking for in my application.” - Allison Dzuiba, AAUW Dissertation Fellowship (2021)