Graduate Funding Opportunities at CU:

A comprehensive list of funding available through the campus Graduate School is available here.

Conference travel:

  • Graduate Research Awards Demonstrating Excellence (GRADE):
    • Run by the campus’s Center for Humanities and the Arts
    • a semi-annual competition for graduate students working in the humanities and arts to support conference participation where students present a paper (or perform or display their artistic work). Can be used to cover the registration fee for virtual conferences.
    • Awards of $850 for domestic travel or $1,200 for international travel.
    • Main criterion for selection: the excellence of the project. “Applicants should demonstrate how their research connects to arts and humanities and their commitment to arts and humanities.”
    • Deadlines: early each Fall and Spring semester (September and January/early February); check the website for currently relevant dates.
  • Graduate School Travel Grant:
    • The applicant must be traveling to a meeting or conference to present his/her own work or work on which he/she is the primary author.
    • Up to $450 for domestic conferences; $600 for travel to Canada or Mexico; $700 for further afield.
    • Application for travel occurring in the fall is open for a 48-hour window only in mid-August; for travel occurring January to April in one year is open for a 48-hour window only in mid-December in the previous year; for summer travel (May – August) funding applications, a 48-hour window is open in mid-April.
    • An applicant receiving significant funding (over $800 for domestic travel and $1,500 for international) from an outside source (fellowship, stipend, scholarship, grant, departmental travel grant) is NOT eligible. 
    • MA students may receive funds from this source only once in their careers, doctoral students twice.
  • GPSG Travel Grant:
    • Offers up to $500 in funding. Students may receive only one award during their entire careers on the Boulder campus. Can only be for travel within the US, Canada, Mexico
    • You do not have to be presenting at a conference to receive one! – unique in this regard. 
    • There are three grant series per academic year, one each semester and one in the summer. The Fall period covers travel commencing September 1 through December 31, the Spring period covers travel commencing January 1 - May 31, and the Summer period covers travel commencing June 1 through August 31.
    • See the website or contact GPSG for application procedures and specific deadlines.

Summer grants offered by the Boulder campus:

  • CU-Boulder’s Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization offers grants of up to $1,000 “to support students studying languages associated with Western Civilization”. Applications are due annually in mid-March. Information on how to apply is available here.
  • The Center for the Humanities and the Arts offers four summer fellowships.
    • $6,000 stipend.
    • designed for graduate students conducting research in the humanities and the arts who don't already receive university-sponsored or external funding (in any amount) during the summer months. 
    • Eligible students must be enrolled in an MA or PhD program in the Arts or Humanities and be enrolled for the fall semester following the summer of the grant. The excellence of the project will be the main criterion for selection.
    • The primary criterion for selection is simply the excellence of the proposal.
    • May be used for summer travel.
    • The deadline is in mid-March, and the fellowship is advertised via the CHA’s website and facebook page. Email chagrants@colorado.edu with any questions.
  • Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the Classics Department is able to offer a Classics Field Study Scholarship to support archaeological fieldwork in each year from 2022 – 2026. Further details and instructions on how to apply are available here. The deadline is early in the spring.

Research grants:

  • Beverley Sears Graduate Student Grants:
    • Support research and creative work from students from all departments.
    • “Projects directly related to work on a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation generally receive priority, although other projects also receive funding.”
    • Can be used for summer travel.
    • Awards range are for either $1,000 or $5,000.
    • The competition is open (online) for most of the month of October.
    • To apply, you must also consult the Tips for Graduate Student Grant Proposals, available on the main website given above. This is excellent, generally applicable advice: consider consulting these “tips”, regardless of where you apply!

Group events:

  • GPSG group grant:
    • GPSG (Graduate and Professional Student Government) offers grants (typically up to $1,000) to cover events like colloquia, conferences and invited speakers that advance and enrich the graduate student experience at CU.
    • Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. First come, first served.

CU-Boulder Dissertation Completion Fellowships (CHA)

  • Arts & Humanities Dissertation Fellowships:
    • represents two fellowship opportunities across the division.
    • Benefits: 50% GPTI stipend, tuition remission for five dissertation hours, fees, and medical insurance each semester.
    • Contact chagrants@colorado.edu with any questions.
    • Criteria: the quality of the research project and of the candidate's CV; the probability of completion within the fellowship period; the fewer prior teaching-free fellowships the better.

CAMWS Awards & Scholarships:

CAMWS Awards & Scholarships

Semple, Grant & Benario Awards:

  • Semple Grant: a full fellowship for attending the summer session of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
  • Mary Grant Award: a full fellowship for attending the summer session of the AAR.
  • Benario award: $3,000 for a summer travel (not fieldwork or conference) program of your own choice.
    • Deadline for all three is at the end of January.
    • None of these fellowships include airfare or other travel expenses.

CAMWS Excavation/Field School Award:

  • three $2,000 scholarships available annually for participation in summer excavation or fieldschool at an archaeological site in the Greco-Roman world.
  • the application is online, with a deadline typically at the end of January.

Presidential award for an outstanding grad student paper:

  • $200 and a one-year membership in the SCS for a paper by a student who has not yet received their PhD.
  • Submit the text of your oral talk in advance of the meeting (check the website for how far in advance: possibly as early as the end of January). Any graduate student whose abstract has been accepted by the program committee may submit a complete text of the paper for consideration for this award.
  • Criteria:
    • the quality of the scholarly argument, including the importance of the topic, the originality of the treatment, and demonstrated familiarity with scholarship;
    • indications that the paper’s oral presentation will be effective, including the quality of the writing, good organization, and interest to an audience.

Rudolph Masciantonio CAMWS Diversity Award:

  • $500 is awarded to one graduate and one undergraduate student whom the profession or life circumstances or societal structures have limited in their access to the study of Classics.
  • Deadline for application is at the end of January, online.

CAMWS Manson Stewart Travel Awards:

  • Designed specifically to assist teachers of Latin with a cash award to offset the costs of attending CAMWS meetings; graduate students, esp ones studying to become Latin teachers, are also eligible.
  • The award is not intended to cover all costs of the travel, and the size of the award varies according to the actual costs the travel will entail, the size of the committee's budget, and the number of applications. Awards for travel to annual meetings have ranged from $150 to $700; less for travel to the Southern Section meeting.
  • Due: typically at the end of January for the March/April meeting.

ASOR fellowships for fieldwork participation

  • 40 fellowships annually of $2,000 each for fieldwork in Western Asia and the wider Mediterranean
  • application deadline: mid-February
  • The list of ASOR-affiliated archaeological projects is available here
  • The Brac Island Project in Croatia is an affiliated project.

Dante Alighieri Society of Denver Scholarships

The primary purpose of the Dante Alighieri Society of Denver is to promote the knowledge of Italian culture through the study of the Italian language, literature, history, music and art.  Since its founding in 1985, the Society has furthered this goal by awarding more than $350,000 in academic and music scholarships to numerous American college and university students in the Denver metropolitan area and in northeastern Colorado. To be be eligible for Alighieri Society awards, some knowledge of Italian is required. The deadline is typically in mid-April.

External fellowships:                            

Contact: Deborah Viles (Viles@colorado.edu)

  • Jacob Javits: for completion of doctoral (or MFA) study at the home institution; 2 years or less.

  • Rhodes scholarship: supports study at Oxford for 32 US citizens.

  • Fulbright:
    • If you are interested in applying, contact Deborah Viles to schedule a time to meet and discuss the application process and your project ideas.  There will be several preliminary Fulbright information sessions each spring for applications in the following academic year.
    • The campus competition (which manages selection for the Fulbright competition itself) opens in the fall, with a campus application deadline in early September and interviews in mid-September to mid-October.

Also: Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships support the final year of dissertation work for PhD candidates in the humanities and social sciences.  Eligible proposals have religious or ethical values as a central concern, and are relevant to the solution of contemporary religious, cultural or human rights questions.  This year, the stipend is for $30,000 for a twelve-month period of dissertation writing.  The application deadline is in mid-November.

The Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships in Women’s Studies offer $5,000 awards for PhD candidates doing original and significant research about gender that crosses disciplinary, regional, or cultural boundaries in their final year of dissertation writing.  The application deadline is in mid-October.

AIA grants and fellowships:

*Many require AIA membership -> become a member now!

  • Anna McCann Diversity Student Travel Grants

    • Deadline: mid-November. $500 per award.
    • These grants are meant to assist undergraduate or graduate students who qualify under the category of “underrepresented minority” with their travel expenses to attend the AIA Annual Meeting.
  • Elizabeth Bartman Museum Internship Fund
    • Deadline: beginning of April.
    • A scholarship established in honor of AIA Past President Elizabeth Bartman to assist graduate students or those who have recently completed a Master’s degree with the expenses ($1,000 - $4,000) associated with participating in a museum internship either in the United States or abroad
      ​
  • Graduate Student Travel Award
    • Deadline: mid-November
    • These grants are to assist graduate students presenting papers at the AIA Annual Meeting with their travel expenses
       
  • Jane C. Waldbaum Archaeological Field School Scholarship
    • Deadline: beginning of March; $1,000 per successful applicant
    • open to students who have not yet completed their first year of graduate school
    • to assist students with the expenses of participation in archaeological field schools.
  • Helen M. Woodruff Fellowship of the AIA and the American Academy in Rome
    • Deadline: beginning of November (apply to AAR)
    • To support a pre- or post-doctoral Rome Prize Fellowship for the study of archaeology or classical studies
    • Awarded every other year; $9,000
       
  • John R. Coleman Traveling Fellowship
    • Deadline: beginning of November; dissertation research fellowship
    • To honor the memory of John R. Coleman by supporting travel and study in Italy, the western Mediterranean, or North Africa; $12,000
       
  • Olivia James Traveling Fellowship
    • Deadline: beginning of November
    • For travel and study in Greece, Cyprus, the Aegean Islands, Sicily, southern Italy, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia
    • Preference is given to dissertation research or post-doc projects of at least half a year’s duration; $26,000; restricted to US citizens only.
       
  • The Archaeology of Portugal Fellowship
    • Deadline: beginning of November; up to $7,000
    • To support projects relating to the archaeology of Portugal (incl. research projects, colloquia, symposia, publication, and travel for research or to academic meetings for the purpose of presenting papers on the archaeology of Portugal.

For further external funding opportunities specific to Classics check here: https://medium.com/@billbeck/funding-opportunities-for-graduate-students-of-classical-philology-ancient-history-and-classical-6d1cc64d9744

In general                                         
Here are some basic aspects of grant-writing to keep in mind:

  • Describe how the work you’ve done in the past qualifies and prepares you to do the work the project describes. (Why should the committee think that you are fit to carry out this work competently?) How does the project fit into your greater research interests?
  • Describe why it is important for your project to be carried out: how does it fit in with other work being pursued in your field at the moment? Who (that is, which intellectual communities?) will be interested in the upshot of your project?
  • Describe the methodology you will use to conduct your study: that is, make it clear that you have thought through how to bring this project to a successful and meaningful conclusion.
  • Remember your audience: who will be reading this application? How best can you enter their thinking and understand how the proposal will be read? What is the right tone? What strategy will best persuade what may be multiple audiences?
    ​Subsidiary points here are:
    • Write your proposal in language a non-expert can understand. To check your success on this front, you might ask a friend—a prepared, thoughtful, interested friend, that is!—from outside of your field to read your proposal and explain its significance.
      NB: this in no way involves “dumbing down” your work; it requires pitching the issues at a level of generality sufficient to making them clear and of interest to the general scholarly reader: why should someone outside your specific sub-discipline care about your work? Finding answers to this question is good practice for the academic job-market too.
    • Make sure your proposal is well written. The evaluation committee will take the quality of writing in your proposal as an indicator of the quality of the work that will result from the grant, should they award it.
  • Explain, contextualise, and organise! There is no “one size fits all” for writing grant proposals, so one of your main tasks is to figure out how best to organise and explain your kind of project and your proposed approach.

Among strategies you might consider are:

  • which questions will you be addressing, and how have they fared in your field to date? Have others broached these questions, and, if so, what progress did they make? How will your inquiry advance matters? Or are they new questions, in need of attention? Either way, explain why the questions you propose addressing need to be answered, how that will advance the (sub-)field as a whole.
  • consider using a case-study. This is often a vivid, dramatic and therefore effective way of communicating, especially to non-specialist readers, the significance and sorts of results to be expected of the work you propose. It also helps demonstrate how you are qualified to do the work in question (see first bullet-point above).
  • explaining your intellectual and scholarly trajectory helps establish the connection between you and your project. You want to explain both how your previous work informs what you propose to do and how this is new work for you: what new layers of detail, expanded discussions, newly drawn relationships, or newly emerging questions will the project draw you into?

 

Best of luck with all your grant applications!