Funding
Incoming doctoral students receive funding packages that include a tuition waiver and several years of teaching and/or research assistantships, contingent on satisfactory progress in the program. Beyond those initial years of funding, other funded teaching opportunities are available subject to departmental needs, and both internal and external funding is available on a competitive basis. The department also offers workshops and support to help advanced graduate students seek and obtain external research grants for writing, fieldwork and other research.
Department of Political Science Conference / Summer Research Grants
This department provides modest amounts of competitively allocated grant support to doctoral students currently in their second year or higher for conference travel and summer research or training in the following categories:
- Conference Grants
- Summer Language and Training Grants
- Summer Research Assistantships Grants
- Summer Research and Writing Grants
Full-Year Internal Funding - UMass Amherst
- Center for Research on Families Fellowship
- Graduate School Dissertation Research Grants
- Graduate School Predissertation Research Grants
- Graduate School Dissertation Fieldwork Grants
External Funding for Graduate Study
A good first step in the pursuit of external funding is to visit our Graduate Funding Database.
External Funding - Pre-dissertation, general
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (requires no more than 1 year of graduate study to be eligible)
- Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans (first or second year graduate students, of foreign birth)
External Funding - Dissertation, general
- Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program
- National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants
- Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship
- American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship
- CLIR Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources
- Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
- Jefferson Scholars Foundation National Fellowship
External Funding - Specialized areas of study
Ethics
- Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship for Doctoral Dissertation Research (research area: ethics and religion)
Global Issues
- Belfer Center Middle East Initiative Research Fellows
- Boren Fellowships (National Security)
- Mandel Center Fellowships (Holocaust Studies)
- Chateaubriand Fellowship (humanities and social science research in France)
- Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Fellowship (Russian Studies)
- Council of American Overseas Research Centers Fellowships (language learning)
- Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies -- Academy Scholars Program
- Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar Dissertation Fellowship (international conflict management and peace building)
- Kanner Fellowship in British Studies
- Mellon-CES Dissertation Completion Fellowships in European Studies
- Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship
- Open Society Foundation Civil Society Scholar Award
- Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center Oman Research Fellowship Program
Governance and Institutions
- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Research Fellowship
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities State Policy Fellowship Program
- Cromwell Dissertation Prize (American Legal History)
- Dirksen Congressional Center - Congressional Research Grants (research on the US Congress)
- Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Research Travel Grants Program
- Gerald R. Ford Scholar Dissertation Award
- Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy (social policy)
- Institute for Humane Studies Humane Studies Fellowship (studies directed towards the “intellectual and institutional foundations of a free society”)
- Institute for Humane Studies Hayek Fund
- John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship (African-American studies)
- Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library Middleton Fellowship in Presidential Studies
- National Academy of Education Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program (Education research)
- National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship in Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Philips Fund Grant for Native American Research
Women’s Studies
- Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics
- Woodrow Wilson Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in Women’s Studies
Library Research
- New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship
- LBJ Foundation Moody Research Grant
- Roosevelt Institute Research Grant
Research Methods