Graduate Resources

Benn Williams’s Fellowship Tool Box at the Graduate School

Looking for fellowships? “Applying for a fellowship can feel solitary. Here are some tools to make the process easier.” Explore Benn Williams’s Fellowship Tool Box at the Graduate School website.

Dean’s Scholar Fellowship

The Dean’s Scholar Fellowship is a one-year, non-renewable award presented by the Dean of the Graduate College in recognition of a student’s scholarly achievement. The award is intended to provide the most distinguished, advanced-level graduate students with a period of time dedicated solely to the completion of their programs. Eligibility requirements and information on the nomination process appear below.  Applications will be reviewed by the Graduate College Awards Committee and winners announced after April 15th. The Dean’s Scholar competition is open to doctoral students who have passed the Graduate College-required Preliminary Examination and are well into their dissertation work, and also to MFA students who have passed second-semester review. Nominations must come from the program. To be considered for nomination, applicants/students should consult with their Director of Graduate Studies to ascertain the unit’s criteria/procedures for nomination.

Deadline: Mid-March annually

Award for Graduate Research (AGR)

The Graduate College’s longest-running support for research by graduate students at UIC is the Award for Graduate Research (AGR). Formerly named the Provost’s Award for Graduate Research and the W.C. and May Preble Deiss Fund for Biomedical Research Award, or collectively the Provost/Deiss Award, the name was shortened to avoid confusion with other funding mechanisms. It is one application; however, the Deiss Fund underwrites research in clinical or basic medical sciences.

Students may apply on a competitive basis for awards of approximately $1000 to $3000 to support their research. Awards will be made in two competitions annually, once in Spring semester and once in Fall semester. Please note: The awards committee reserves the right to award less in support than the student applicant requests, and frequently does so.

These awards are designed to allow students to take advantage of unique opportunities to further their research, and to aid progress toward their degrees. Effective Fall 2018, the Graduate College is delineating three spending categories–research travel, summer research stipend, and materials/supplies–if not covered by other sources, such as the grant of a major advisor.

Deadline: Mid-October and Mid-March annually

Provost’s Graduate Research Award (PGRA)

The Provost’s Graduate Research Award seeks to maximize our impact. We envision that the PGRA will be a steppingstone to larger external funding awards.

Since its inception in 2009, this graduate research award has supported multidisciplinary scholarship to expose students to varied research and creative fields. The award mechanism has naturally evolved into a way for students early in their studies to develop new research directions for their PhD dissertations or terminal degree thesis/capstone project and has been used by graduate programs as a way for students to practice writing research proposals. Starting with the Fall 2016 competition, funding in the sum of $5,000 is available for pilot grants (or preliminary research) so that students can then have stronger applications for funding from external sources.

(NB: They are processed as awards to the student, not grants; no tuition waiver is attached.)

Deadline: Mid-October annually

External Fellowships and Awards

MET rubric for evaluating fellowship applications

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowship Program

Note: While the CASVA deadline is in mid-November each year, applicants must be nominated by the department, which therefore has an earlier internal deadline, usually in early October. CASVA Predoctoral dissertation fellowships support advanced graduate research in the history, theory, and criticism of art, architecture, urbanism, and photographic media. There are ten fellowships, and each has specific requirements and intents, including support for the advancement and completion of a doctoral dissertation, and for residency and travel during the period of dissertation research. Application for a predoctoral dissertation fellowship may be made only through nomination by the chair of a graduate department of art history or other appropriate department. To be eligible, the nominee must have completed all departmental requirements, including coursework, residency, and general and preliminary examinations, before November 15 of the application year. Certification in two languages other than English is required. Candidates must be either United States citizens or enrolled in a university in the United States.

The Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program (RAP)

Deadline: October 15 annually. The Clark Art Institute awards funded residential fellowships to established and promising scholars with the aim of fostering a critical commitment to inquiry in the theory, history, and interpretation of art and visual culture. As part of our commitment to fostering diverse engagements with the visual arts, RAP particularly seeks to elevate constituencies, subjects, and methods that have historically been underrepresented in the discipline. In addition to Clark fellowships, RAP offers a number of special fellowships for specific research interests that are intended to nurture a variety of disciplinary approaches and support new voices in art history. These include: Caribbean Art and Its Diasporas Fellowship, Critical Race Theory and Visual Culture Fellowship, Futures Fellowship. All fellows are provided offices in the open-stack, 280,000-volume art history library of the Manton Research Center; apartments in the gracious residence across the street from our 140-acre campus; reimbursement of travel expenses; and a stipend.

Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowship

The Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund was created for the purpose of funding advanced education and graduate study grants, which must be carried out entirely in the United States of America. The Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowships are to be awarded only to candidates who have outstanding undergraduate records, demonstrate a need for financial assistance, are citizens of the United States of America, are enrolled in accredited colleges and universities in the United States, and who have received baccalaureate degrees. Graduate and professional students are eligible. The amount of each Fellowship will cover the cost of tuition and a stipend to be allocated towards room, board, living expenses and income taxes. The Trustee has set the stipend at $18,000 for the award year.

The UIC campus deadline is in early January. See the Graduate College’s page for National & International Opportunities for more information.

Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship

Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships support graduate students in the humanities and social sciences who show promise of leading their fields in important new directions. The fellowships are designed to intervene at the formative stage of dissertation development, before research and writing are advanced. The program seeks to expand the range of research methodologies, formats, and areas of inquiry traditionally considered suitable for the dissertation, with a particular focus on supporting scholars who can build a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable academy.

Deadline: October 25th, 2023

Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art

ACLS invites applications for Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art, which support graduate students pursuing research on the history of art and visual culture of the United States, including all aspects of Native American art, and who are at any stage of PhD dissertation research or writing. ACLS believes that humanistic scholarship benefits from inclusivity of voices, perspectives, narratives, and subjects that have historically been underrepresented in academe. We also believe that diversity enhances the scholarly enterprise, and we encourage applications from PhD candidates from all degree-granting  institutions in the United States.

Deadline: Oct. 25, 2023

The Critical Language Scholarship Program

(Funded Study Abroad Opportunity for UIC Students)

Deadline: November 17, 2020. The Critical Language Scholarship Program is a fully funded study abroad program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State that provides intensive overseas language and cultural immersion. It is open to U.S. students enrolled in all degree programs. The application for this opportunity opened recently and will close on November 17, 2020. (there is no campus deadline.) Through CLS, students spend eight to ten weeks abroad studying one of 15 critical languages and earn academic credit for their work. The scholarship includes travel expenses, coursework, group excursions, and a small stipend to cover daily living expenses. Most languages offered by the CLS Program do not require applicants to have any experience studying critical languages.

Art Institute of Chicago

Graduate Fellowships at the Art Institute of Chicago. Candidates for graduate-level fellowships may qualify upon completion of an undergraduate degree or while enrolled in a graduate program. Postgraduate applicants may be considered.

TAs can take a personal day and a set amount of sick leave if they are unable to work.

The Resource Guide provides this information on page 15:

  • Paid Sick leave is based on the percentage of appointment (FTE). A maximum of 13 non-cumulative days and non-compensable work days of leave are accrued based on the percentage of the appointment for each appointment year. Sick time is accrued and earned based on FTE. Six and one half days at percentage FTE for a semester appointment are accrued.Days are equal to your “work day,” not set at eight hours of sick leave at the percentage of their ap-pointment.
  • 0.25 FTE : 2.89 Earned Sick Time per Pay Period (hours)
  • 0.50 FTE : 5.78 Earned Sick Time per Pay Period (hours)

Also consult the GEO contract policies on sick and leave policy.

Beyond that, TAs are meant to take a personal leave if they are no longer able to do their jobs. The Resource Guide provides this information on page 15:

  • Leaves – Personal (unpaid)
  • Personal Leave of Absence
  • Graduate Assistants may be granted unpaid leave of absence during the term of their appointment, upon request to and at the discretion of the University and subject to such terms and conditions as the University may establish. Written request should be made to the department head or supervisor as soon as needed for leave is identified by the assistant. The request must include the start date and end date of the leave.

PROCEDURE FOR REQUESTING SICK/PERSONAL LEAVE

TAs should inform their supervisors immediately if they are unable to complete assignments by the agreed-upon deadline.

  • A link to the PDF guide for MA and Ph.D. Students (Art History Department). This guide is prepared for Art History graduate students to help them navigate their graduate education.
  • A set of FAQs about registration and enrollment for Art History grad students: check out this link for information about credit-hour requirements and registration processes.
  • Graduate Student Forms (Graduate College website): These forms are available to be completed online. Please make note of the list of scenarios for which the online forms may currently be used.
  • Other important forms (Art History website): Includes links to MA and PhD graduation checklists, grant applications, and application for departmental emergency funds.
  • Graduate Catalog and Graduate Study at UIC (Graduate College website): The Graduate Catalog is a record of the 2020–2022 academic years. The catalog is an academic planning tool for graduate students and is divided into five major sections. In addition, the catalog provides a listing of the graduate faculty and links to the Graduate College website and catalog archive.
  • Chicago Metropolitan Exchange Program (Graduate College) for UIC Students who wish to attend a graduate seminar at the University of Chicago or Northwestern University as Exchange Scholars.
  • Key Dates at a Glance for Grad Students: Important dates and deadlines for the current academic term.

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