Graduate Student Support

Conference and Summer Research Grants

The Department provides modest amounts of competitively allocated grants to support Anthropology graduate students for conference travel and summer research or training in the following categories:

Travel 

• Department Travel Grants
• Richard Woodbury Travel Grant
• Summer Pre-dissertation Research Fellowships

Other Department Awards

• Armelagos-Swedlund Graduate Research Award
• Sylvia Forman Award

Graduate School

• Pre-dissertation Research Grants (between $250 and $1000)
• Dissertation Research Grant (up to $1000)
• Dissertation Fieldwork Grants (between $1000-$5000 related to fieldwork)
• Summer Dissertation Research Fellowship (funding for under-represented groups completing their Dissertation)

Internal Funding - UMass Amherst

• Center for Research on Families Fellowship
• Graduate School Dissertation Research Grants

External Funding - Pre-dissertation, general

• Jacob K. Javits Fellowships Program (requires no more than 1 year of graduate study to apply; preferably 0 completed credits)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (requires no more than 1 year of graduate study to be eligible)

External Funding - Dissertation, general

• Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program
• The Leakey Foundation, Research Grants in Biological Anthropology
• National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants
• Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship
• Wenner-Gren Foundation, Dissertation Fieldwork Grants

External Funding - Dissertation, writing

• American Association of University Women, AAUW
• Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship
• The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Dissertation Fellowships

External Funding - Diversity

• American Anthropological Association (AAA) Dissertation Fellowship for Historically Underrepresented Persons
• American Association of University Women, AAUW
• Ford Foundation Fellowship Program
       1.  Pre-dissertation
       2. Dissertation/Doctoral
• Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans

The University+/University Without Wall's On-Line Education (UWW) 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 UWW and RAP, which courses are to be taught in anthropology during the fall and spring semesters, the January term, and during the summer sessions. Then the chair makes an announcement in the Mini-Memo calling for applications to teach Online 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 standing-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, UWW/CPE courses for the summer and fall, and stand-alone teaching opportunities in the Department for the fall. The second call will be early in the fall semester and will include applications for winter and spring UWW online courses, and stand-alone teaching opportunities in the spring. The stipend for UWW courses is directly related to the size of enrollment; if enrollment is too low, the UWW may cancel the course.

The following guidelines apply to all regularly scheduled stand-alone teaching opportunities in Anthropology offered through the Department.

Posting

• A. The department will place a call for applications in the Mini-Memo and via email notification 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; the applications are submitted through a Google Form; and the materials necessary for a complete application.

• B. The submission deadline will be before a scheduled Graduate Study 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 UWW and RAP staff and the Graduate Study Committee to plan which courses will be offered in any given semester. The application deadlines will appear in any departmental master calendar.

Application Process

• A. Each applicant will submit through Google Form:

  1. a completed application form;

  2. an up-to-date curriculum vitae;

  3. a completed teaching inventory form;

  4. syllabi for any courses, including newly proposed courses, for which the applicant wishes to be considered; and (*Not currently required but strongly suggested)

  5. 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.

• B.  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.

The Criteria for Selection

• A. Priority for teaching stand-alone courses will be given to graduate students in good standing enrolled in the Department. To be in "good standing" an applicant may not have more than one "Incomplete" course. Applications from candidates not enrolled as graduate students will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

• 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 UWW 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 which 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 a UWW course.

• D. A graduate student member of the Graduate Study 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.

The Selection Process

• A. In order to ensure wide accessibility to UWW courses, the Graduate Study 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 a consideration of 4.A. The Graduate Study Committee will use the following criteria to rank the candidates for each course being offered (using the following criteria in rank order):

  1. Teaching experience and quality of instruction will be weighted equally. The Graduate Study Committee will prioritize applicants with teaching experience in the following rank order: instructing that particular course; independent instruction of other courses; working as a TA in that particular course, and being a TA in other courses. The quality of the syllabus and the quality of the applicant's teaching evaluations on file in the department will also be considered.

  2. Letter of Intent.

  3. Professional Development. The Graduate Study Committee will review each applicant's CV to determine which applicant has the strongest professional experience in the area of the proposed course and in related areas.

• C. In considering all of these applications, the Graduate Study Committee will follow all employment guidelines stipulated by the university and GEO.

Notification of Selection

• A. The Graduate Study 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. In order to make the application procedure a learning experience for graduate students, at an 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 Graduate Study Committee or through written notification.

• D. If the Graduate Committee disqualifies an application, that applicant must be notified of the reason or reasons. This may be done verbally or through written notification.

In any given year, there may be one or more research assistantships available in the department, depending on outside funding of faculty research.  The selection of research assistants is left to the discretion of the principal investigator.  Announcements will be made as Research Assistantship become available.