Book Navigation Links
Support and Funding Overview
SUPPORT
The most important means of student support are teaching assistantships or associateships. A few students are offered research assistantships. Many students find ways to support their studies from sources outside the department, including teaching assistantships in the Writing Program, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Legal Studies, the Biology Department, and the Internship Office. Some receive modest funding to continue research through the summer months from the Graduate School. A few have developed research assistantships in the Department of Psychology, and others have worked for the UMASS Archaeological Services in providing contracted survey, curatorial, and cultural resource management services. Some students, as part of a financial aid package, receive work-study support. Several rely on external or personal sources of funding.
A. Tuition Waivers. The Graduate School grants a waiver of tuition to graduate students who receive any form of fellowship or assistantship support so long as the stipend exceeds a particular minimum, please see the Graduate Assistantship Office’s website for the current amount: http://www.umass.edu/gradschool/funding-support/graduate assistantship-office. This policy extends as well to employment off-campus, when such employment is considered an integral part of the graduate student's educational program. The test of whether such employment is integral to a student's education, according to the Graduate School, is a declaration by the GPD to that effect. So, if you think your work qualifies you for a tuition waiver, check with the GPD, or the Business Manager of the Graduate School.
B. Teaching Assistantships and Associateships.
1. Introduction. Teaching assistantships and associateships are not scholarships; rather, the graduate student is employed for up to 20 hours per week to assist an instructor in teaching introductory-level anthropology courses to undergraduate students. The faculty chooses those graduate students who have demonstrated a strong capability to teach well. Teaching assistantships and associateships, of course, provide a graduate student with invaluable professional experience. Students who demonstrate exceptional teaching skills may be appointed as teaching associates who teach their own independent courses under the mentorship of a faculty member. In addition to an annual stipend paid bi-weekly, teaching assistants and associates receive a waiver of tuition.
Students should gain some teaching experience even before applying for assistantships—for example, by presenting oral class reports, by offering a lecture in one of the introductory courses, or by volunteering to organize a discussion section. In such cases, the student should arrange for the course instructor to evaluate such contributions and to place a written copy of this evaluation in the student's file.
Students desiring graduate teaching assistantships or associateships must apply each academic year whether or not they have held such positions previously. Renewal is in no case considered automatic. As a rule, assistantships and associateships are granted for an academic year, but under special circumstances may be granted for a single semester. The deadline for filing applications is announced by the GPD in the Mini-Memo. Application forms are available from the program coordinator.
Preference is given to incoming students or those who have not held assistantships or associateships for an extended period of time. Various factors determine the number of semesters for which assistantships or associateships may be renewed, among them the number of qualified applicants and the number of positions available to the department; the maximum number for several years now has been six semesters. The main consideration in the granting of graduate teaching assistantships and associateships is the quality of undergraduate instruction. Selections are therefore made by the department's Graduate Studies Committee on the criteria explained below.
All graduate students in good academic standing in the department are eligible to apply for these positions. The department deems it unwise for teaching assistants and associates to elect more than nine credits per
semester while holding a full appointment. Further, those on a full appointment are required to be enrolled on a full-time basis (see Student Status page).
2. The Application Process.
a. Application. Early in the Spring semester of each year, the GPD issues a call for applications for TA positions for the ensuing academic year. The due date for these applications is on or about March 1. Only currently enrolled graduate students are eligible to apply at this point. The program coordinator has application forms and accepts completed applications. Once the department’s Graduate Studies Committee has assigned each applicant to a tier (see section 4 below) and rank-ordered applicants within each tier, the resulting list forms the basis for assigning individuals to courses, in rank order, for the ensuing Fall and Spring semesters. Late applications, as they arrive, are added to the bottom of the list. This rank-ordered list is not re-ordered with the addition of new applicants. The list is replaced by the new list developed in the ensuing Spring semester.
The student submits a cover letter, a completed application form, a teaching inventory, an unofficial transcript, and a current CV. The purpose of the cover letter is to provide information not included elsewhere in the application materials. The letter may contain such items as supplemental areas of study (language, background research, complementary courses outside the department), and fieldwork or other issues that may have affected the rate of progress through the program. The applicant should make sure that her or his file is in order. Complete files should minimally contain: course/teaching evaluations for courses applicants have taught or assisted in teaching at UMass or elsewhere; current transcript; letters of evaluation of teaching experience and/or of core program courses (as relevant); and copies of publications and other relevant papers.
b. Assessment of applications. The department's Graduate Studies Committee is responsible for reviewing all application packets and applicants’ files and for developing a rank ordering of all applicants, following the guidelines set forth below in sections 3 and 4. The Chair informs each applicant of 1) her/his/their point score broken down by category, and 2) rank out of a total number of applicants.
c. Assignment to courses. The GPD assigns those on the ranked list to specific courses primarily based on the best match between the needs for instruction and the candidates’ qualifications. In making assignments, the GPD considers applicants’ preferences and tries to assign individuals so that cumulatively throughout their graduate student teaching careers, they teach across the anthropology curriculum. Those applicants not appointed to teaching positions remain as alternates to be appointed in rank order as positions may become available throughout the academic year.
3. Applicant Tiers. As the first step in the ranking process, applicants are separated into the following tiers and then ranked within each tier according to standards of teaching and academic excellence, outlined in the criteria listed below in section 4.
a. First tier: applicants who at the time of the effective date of their appointment would begin their first through fourth semester of being a teaching assistant funded out of Department allotment of TA resources. Incoming graduate students will be ranked by the Graduate Studies Committee and placed at the bottom of Tier 1 for TA ranking purposes.
b. Second tier: applicants who at the time of the effective date of their appointment would begin their fifth or sixth semester of being a teaching assistant funded out of Department allotment of TA resources.
c. Third tier: applicants who at the time of the effective date of their appointment would begin their seventh or more semester of being a teaching assistant funded out of Department allotment of TA resources.
d. Fourth tier: applicants who:
1. have submitted a late application.
e. Fifth tier: Ineligible for appointment. This includes applicants who:
1. are on probation in the department.
2. have more than one incomplete grade*
3. have teaching evaluations that manifest a pattern of strongly negative responses and /or failure to perform duties at the minimum standard acceptable to the department and the University.
*Note: For students in tier 5 because of incomplete grades, if the student can complete coursework for an incomplete grade, and if the professor responsible submits a grade change form, the student should inform the Department Chair and will be moved to tier 4, assuming not more than one other incomplete grade remains. None of the above shall allow prior TA offers to be rescinded.
Applicants must submit all application materials to the program coordinator on or before the deadline. The program coordinator will promptly inform the applicant whether the application is complete, and if not, exactly what materials remain to be filed. In such instances, the applicant will be expected to file the missing materials promptly. Applications that remain incomplete by noon on the date when they are reviewed shall be considered formally late.
Upon request, the Graduate Studies Committee provides students placed in this tier with reasons for this assignment.
Tier Rankings and 20-hour vs. 10-hour positions: Typically, the Department of Anthropology can offer students three years of funding from the Teaching Assistantship budget. This assumes the equivalent of one 20-hour position per semester, two semesters per year. The Department also at times offers 10-hour positions. These positions (whether Lab coordinator, RA, or grader) will count as one-half of a full-time
(e.g., 20 hours) position in terms of calculating tier rankings. Placement into tiers is therefore based on a system of equivalences (e.g., two 10-hour positions equals one 20-hour position). The Graduate Studies Committee keeps track of all assignments from Department resources.
Tier rankings can change midyear in several ways, including the following situations: a 10-hour position for one semester; a 10-hour position for two semesters; or a 20-hour position for only one semester. The latter case may happen when a student who was at the bottom of tier 2, for example, and who did not receive an appointment in the fall but due to the Graduate Students’ request that the GPD “loop around” when making TA assignments, receive a TAship for only the spring semester. Lab coordinators are also assigned 10 hours for the academic year, and these funds also come out of the TA pool thus those assignments count toward tier ranking.
All positions (RA, TA, RAP, or other stand-alone courses in the Department) will be counted towards a student’s total amount of Departmental funding. Positions for graduate students that are funded through external grants (e.g., NSF) or from other Departments will not be counted as part of a student’s allotment of Departmental funding.
4. Ranking Criteria. Applicants within each category are ranked according to the Graduate Studies Committee’s assessment of their teaching ability and the quality of their academic record, based on information in the applicants' files. Teaching ability and academic excellence are given equal weight. Each of the criteria is assessed in detail. In addition to submitting an application form, applicants must make sure their files are complete and up-to-date. The following items constitute the basis of the evaluation:
Academic quality is rated in two categories (i.e., coursework and academic awards; and research and scholarship) and teaching ability is rated in two categories (i.e. teaching experience; and teaching quality). For each applicant, each of these categories is scored on a scale of zero to five points, with the exception of the teaching quality category, which is scored on a scale of zero to ten points. Thus the maximum possible point score is 20 points. Details of the categories are:
Academic quality:
Category 1: a combination of grades (with GPA relevant only for Anthropology courses), evaluations of coursework, and academic awards received during graduate study. Maximum of five points.
Category 2: a combination of publications, technical reports, papers presented at conferences, grant proposals and grants awarded, and, where appropriately documented, professional service. These forms of research and scholarship are weighted by type and by years of graduate study. Maximum of five points.
Teaching quality:
Category 1: a combination of type and degree of evaluated teaching experience, within and outside of the department. Maximum of five points.
Category 2: quality of teaching as indicated by classroom/student evaluations and letters of evaluation. Maximum of five points.
Finally, the academic and teaching subtotals are added for a maximum possible of 20 points. The applicant with the most points is then ranked 1st, the applicant with the second largest number of points, 2nd, etc.
5. Grievance Procedure. This Grievance Procedure exists to help ensure that any errors made in the Department's TA selection and ranking process are identified and rectified promptly. Utilization of this Grievance Procedure will normally be preceded by a TA applicant's informal inquiry to the GPD. The Grievance Procedure may be initiated when a TA applicant believes his/her position in the TA ranking has resulted from a misunderstanding or misjudgment of his/her qualifications or credentials. The Grievance Procedure does not apply when: (a) the applicant's position in the ranking derives from his/her failure to submit a complete application and /or to include relevant materials in his/her file before the selection deadlines; or (b) the grounds for the ranking and/or dissatisfaction with it result from the qualitative assessments expressed in such evaluative materials as teaching evaluations. TA applicants who wish to challenge their positions in the TA applicant ranking established and published by the Graduate Studies Committee of the Department have recourse to the following Grievance Procedure.
The steps and guidelines of the Grievance Procedure are:
a. The TA applicant who is grieving the ranking must present his/her objections to the ranking to the Departmental Chair, in writing. Submission of the written grievance by the applicant constitutes permission to have a Graduate student member on the Grievance Committee who has access to the grievant’s file.
b. On receipt of the written grievance, the Departmental Chair will:
1) sequester the file of the Grievant in the hands of the Departmental Office staff; and 2) initiate the creation of the Grievance Committee, which must be appointed within two weeks of the Chair's receipt of the written grievance.
c. From the time the Chair receives the written grievance until the Executive Committee reaches a final decision on the grievance, no materials may be added or removed from the Grievant’s file, or, if relevant, from the files of other TA applicants.
d. The Grievance Committee is an ad hoc committee, consisting of one faculty member appointed by the Executive Committee, one faculty member appointed by the Grievant, and one graduate student, who is not one of the ranked TA applicants, appointed by the Graduate Caucus. Each appointing body will inform the Departmental Chair of its appointee to the Grievance Committee in writing, and within two weeks as stipulated in 2b. The Chair will then formally appoint and charge the members of the Grievance Committee, and provide each of them with copies of the TA Selection Guidelines, the Grievance Procedure, and the Grievant's written statement of objection.
e. The Grievance Committee will then review the Grievant’s case and present its findings and recommendation to the Executive Committee, via the Chair, and to the Grievant, within two weeks of receiving its formal appointment and charge.
f. In reviewing the Grievant's case, the Grievance Committee may review the file of the Grievant and any other TA applicants’ files it deems relevant to the case. The Grievance Committee may also: interview the members of the Executive Committee or otherwise request information on the procedure and process followed by the Executive Committee in carrying out the TA selection; and/or request additional information from the Grievant relevant to the case.
g. The agreement of any two of the three members of the Grievance Committee is sufficient to constitute a recommendation to the Executive Committee.
h. The report of the Grievance Committee to the Executive Committee must be in writing with a copy provided at the same time to the Grievant. The Grievance Committee must and may only recommend either (a) that the Executive Committee let stand its original, published ranking of TA applicants; or (b) that the Executive Committee should reconsider the original ranking. In either case, the Grievance Committee must explain the reasons for its recommendation.
i. If the Grievance Committee recommends that the Executive Committee let stand its original ranking, the Executive Committee need take no action. The Dept. chair will then inform the Grievant of the outcome, in writing, and will file all documents relevant to the grievance case.
j. If the Grievance Committee recommends that the Executive Committee review and reconsider the original ranking, the Executive Committee must do so, with attention to the reasoning of the Grievance Committee, within two weeks of receipt of the Grievance Committee's report. The Executive Committee will decide the extent and details of its review of applicants' files and on any other steps necessary for its reconsideration.
k. Regardless of the outcome of the Executive Committee's review of the ranking, it must publish the results of its reconsideration as part of its minutes in the MegaMemo. If the Executive Committee decides, as a result of its reconsideration, to change the original ranking of the TA applicants, it should include a summary of its reasoning in the published Minutes.
l. Within one week of the Executive Committee's review of its ranking, the Departmental Chair must formally notify the Grievant, in writing, of the outcome. The Chair will then file all documents relevant to the grievance case. This procedure will be deemed to have been exhausted once the Chair has informed the Grievant of the Executive Committee's deliberations.
C. Stand-Alone Teaching Opportunities in the Department. The University's +/University Without Walls (U+) and the Residential Academic Program (RAP) in cooperation with the department offer courses that graduate students organize and teach. The departmental chair develops, with counterparts in U+ and RAP, just which courses are to be taught in anthropology during the fall and spring semesters, the Winter term, and during the two summer sessions. Then the chair makes an announcement in the Mini-Memo calling for applications to teach U+ courses. There are also occasionally stand-alone sections of departmental courses offered during the regular semester, though these are often created on an ad hoc basis in response to enrollments and student demand.
There will be two calls per year for stand-alone teaching opportunities. The first call will usually be in the spring, at the same time as the call for TA applications. This call will include applications for RAP for the following academic year, U+ courses for the fall, winter, and spring, and stand-alone teaching opportunities in the Department for the fall. The second call will be late in the fall semester and will include applications for summer OL courses, and stand-alone teaching opportunities in the spring. The stipend for OL courses is related to the size of enrollment; if enrollment is too low, the OL may cancel the course.
The following guidelines apply to all regularly scheduled stand-alone teaching opportunities in Anthropology offered through the Department.
1. Posting:
A. The GPD will place a call for applications in the Mini-Memo at least three weeks in advance of the deadline. That call will indicate which courses are to be offered; the deadline for submission of applications; that the applications must be hand delivered (or faxed) to an office staff person; and those materials necessary for a complete application.
B. The submission deadline will be before a scheduled Graduate Studies Committee meeting at which the applications will be considered.
C. The call for applications will be made twice per year, as indicated above. The chair will work with OL and RAP staff and the Graduate Studies Committee to plan which courses will be offered in any given semester. The application deadlines will appear in any departmental master calendar.
2. Application Process:
A. Each applicant will submit:
1) a completed application form;
2) an up-to-date curriculum vitae;
3) a completed teaching inventory form;
4) a letter of intent that will minimally state, in rank order, those courses the applicant wishes to teach and why. This letter may also discuss financial exigencies.
5) an unofficial transcript
B. All applications will be received and kept together in a central location to be determined by the chair.
C. There will be no limit on the number of courses for which an applicant can apply in any given semester.
D. Applicants will promptly receive a receipt for their application. This can be a form letter handed to the applicants when they apply.
E. If there are advertised courses for which no one applies, or if a successful candidate declines an offered position, a second call for applications for that position will be made, whenever necessary.
3. The Criteria for Selection:
A. Criteria for OL courses
1. Students should have completed at least 4 semesters of a TA or equivalent to be considered eligible.
2. Students who have taught fewer than 6 OL courses will be prioritized over students who have taught 6 or more OL courses.
B. In keeping with the letter and spirit of the GEO contract, no applicant holding a fellowship, TA, RA, or other position covered under the GEO contract will be discriminated against during the application and/or selection process for OL positions, provided that the applicant is in good academic standing and is making sufficient progress toward his/her degree. However, if an applicant holds a fellowship that prohibits such employment, the terms of the fellowship will be honored.
C. If there are any questions concerning an applicant's academic standing or progress toward her/his degree, the applicant, the GPD, and the applicant's advisor will determine if it is in the best interest of the applicant to teach an OL course.
D. A graduate student member of the Graduate Studies Committee who has applied for a stand-alone teaching position cannot participate in the selection process. The Grad Caucus will appoint a replacement, as it does for the TA ranking procedure.
4. The Selection Process:
A. To ensure wide accessibility to OL courses, the Graduate Studies Committee will attempt to place as many qualified applicants in positions as possible. To ensure that qualified candidates are given the opportunity to gain critical teaching experience and that no one student monopolizes a given course, applicants will not be given priority to teach the same class more than four times. In addition, no applicant will be given priority to teach more than one stand-alone course during any given session.
B. If there is more than one application for a given course after consideration of whether a student has maxed out their time to teach the same class (4.A), the Graduate Studies Committee will use the following criteria to rank the candidates for each course being offered (using the criteria in rank order):
1. Teaching experience and quality of instruction will be weighted equally. The Graduate Studies Committee will prioritize applicants with teaching experience in the following rank order: a. Standalone experience in a specific course (STA)
b. Experience in other standalone (other STA)
c. TA experience in a specific course (TA)
d. TA experience in other courses (other TA)
2. Letter of Intent.
3. Professional Development. The Graduate Studies Committee will review each applicant's CV to determine which applicant has the strongest professional experience in the area of the proposed course and related areas.
C. In considering all of these applications, the Graduate Studies Committee will follow all employment guidelines stipulated by the university and GEO.
5. Notification of Selection.
A. The Graduate Studies Committee will notify all applicants of its decision within three weeks of the application deadline.
B. Each successful applicant will be appointed a faculty mentor to assist and advise in the design and instruction of their course or courses.
C. To make the application procedure a learning experience for graduate students, at any applicant's request, the GPD will notify the candidate of the specific reasons why her/his application was unsuccessful. This may be done verbally in a meeting of the candidate with the GPD and other faculty members of the Executive Committee or through written notification.
D. If the Graduate Studies Committee disqualifies an application, that applicant must be notified of the reason or reasons. This may be done verbally or through written notification as outlined above in 4. C.
D. Research Assistantships. In any given year, there may be one or more research assistantships available in the department, depending on outside funding of faculty research. In general, research assistantships carry the same stipend, time commitment, and tuition waiver that teaching assistantships do. Selection of research assistants is left to the discretion of the faculty principal investigator. Likewise teaching assistantship funds that are tied to individual instructors operate the same way (e.g., summer archaeological field school assistants, lab supervisors).
E. Pre-Dissertation Research Awards are awarded to a limited number of PhD students each year. The competition is open to students in all subfields. The Graduate Studies Committee critically reviews grant proposals. Grants are meant to enable students to undertake a feasibility study that will be conducted before beginning dissertation research. The purpose of the pre-dissertation study might include visiting research sites and establishing necessary contacts, refining research questions collecting pilot data, and testing research methodologies. The application procedures and accounting for the awards are designed to give students practice in all aspects of grant preparation and reporting. Well-conceived pilot studies are expected to produce information that can form the basis of grant proposals. If any dissertation data or information is to be collected from human subjects/informants during this research, prior clearance from the UMass Institutional Review Board for working with human subjects is required.
F. Graduate School Summer Fellowships: The Graduate School offers two different fellowship programs for PhD students. Research Enhancement and Leadership (REAL) Fellowships are available to graduate students from underrepresented populations in the social sciences. The Fellowship provides a stipend of $4,000 in each of four summers, contingent on continued good standing in the program by departmental standards. The SBS-Graduate School summer research fellowship provides $4,000 per summer for three summers to encourage ongoing research activity. Students are expected to devote themselves primarily to some aspect of their research during each of the fellowship summers. The award is also contingent on satisfactory academic performance.
G. Travel Grants and Woodbury. The Department of Anthropology and the Graduate School offer travel grants to current graduate students. Grants are awarded exclusively for travel to national and international conferences that occur between September 1 and August 31 of each academic year to present the results of research conducted during graduate study at UMass Amherst. Awards are for presentations rather than to attend a conference or facilitate a session. Grant funds apply to registration, transportation, and lodging expenses documented by receipts. Awards will typically range from $400-$600. Meals, copying, and other incidentals are not reimbursable. Students are strongly encouraged to share travel expenses with others attending the conference. The applicant must 1) be enrolled (for credit or Program Fee), and 2) be accepted or invited to present at a conference or professional meeting. Students will be prioritized to receive one travel grant per academic year. The Department of Anthropology also awards up to two Woodbury Travel Grants per year. The Woodbury Committee consists of two faculty members from the Graduate Studies Committee and one graduate student. The committee is entrusted with the responsibility of honoring the gifts of Dick and Nathalie Woodbury, who have created the Richard B. Woodbury Endowment. The interest earnings from this endowment are to be used to help defray the cost of travel for a graduate student presenting her/his/their first paper at a major professional conference. The Woodbury committee calls for papers once each year (in the spring), and then selects the best two papers to be honored with the award. The endowment generates more than $1,000 of interest each year.
To clarify, a student may receive both a department-graduate school travel grant and a Woodbury Travel Grant in a single academic year once during his/her/their graduate studies.
H. Dissertation Writing Fellowships. The Graduate School together with the College of Social and Behavioral Science makes available fellowships that are up to the department’s discretion to distribute. In consultation with graduate students, the Department of Anthropology decided to use the funds for up to two dissertation writing fellowships for $12,000 each. There are no duties other than to devote oneself to writing the dissertation. The department issues a call for applications each spring, and qualified students may apply. The successful applicants will demonstrate a significant record of achievement that is broad, diverse, impressive, and interesting. The Graduate Studies Committee chooses from among the applicants, giving priority to students at or near the dissertation writing stage. (See Appendix 4.)
I. The Sylvia Forman Graduate Scholarship provides a stipend for a graduate student in anthropology who is a citizen of the Global South or who is a Native American. The scholarship was created by a bequest by Professor Sylvia Helen Forman, who was a professor in the department from 1972 until she died in 1992. Memorial gifts from friends and alumni have bolstered the capital of this fund substantially. Professor Forman’s objective in creating the scholarship was to recruit graduate students from those regions of the world that historically had hosted anthropologists. It was Professor Forman’s view that anthropology must be decolonized, and a key means to accomplish that is to diversify the identities and social positions of its practitioners. While the stipend varies from year to year depending on the amount of interest the fund has earned, the trustees endeavor to award an amount to cover room, board, tuition, fees, and transportation for one graduate student per year. In general, the fund’s trustees aim to award the scholarship to an incoming graduate student each year, though any student in the graduate program who meets the citizenship requirement, may apply.