Graduate Resources
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Fellowships
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
For the spring 2021 research award competition, the Graduate College encourages research addressing discrimination, inequality, and health disparities in communities of color. For the Award for Graduate Research competition, we are particularly interested in these themes from a biomedical (both clinical and basic) perspective. The competition is NOT, however, limited to the above research areas. 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. With competitions in the fall and spring, awards are designed to allow students to take advantage of unique opportunities to further their research and to aid progress toward their degrees. Awards will be made on the basis of scholarly merit and are subject to available funding.
Deadline: Mid-March annually
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External Fellowships and Awards
The Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) Fellowship
Deadline September 1, 2020. The Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) Fellowship awards three individuals with up to $150,000 to turn an inspired idea in the field of social justice into a reality. The program is designed for emergent leaders who have limited access to institutional philanthropy and whose work is traditionally underfunded. The topic of a fellow’s project should generally align with the foundation’s focus on climate change and inequality. It should aim to transform the systems and mindsets that hinder progress toward a more sustainable and equitable future for all people, particularly women and people of color.
CASVA Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowship Program, 2021–2022
UIC Department of Art History Internal Deadline: October 9th, 2020 CASVA Deadline November 15th, 2020. This CASVA Fellowship is for 2021–2022 Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowships and Ailsa Mellon Bruce Predoctoral Fellowships for Historians of American Art to Travel Abroad. Applications may be made only through nomination by the chair of a graduate department of art history or other appropriate department. Students may be nominated for only one program in any given academic year.”
The Clark Art Institute’s Research and Academic Program (RAP)
Deadline: October 15, 2020. 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 January 5, 2022.
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Study Abroad Programs
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.
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Internships
Art Institute of Chicago
Internships at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ongoing: Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI). “The Art Institute is among 20 museums from around the country chosen as a recipient of a new grant designed to increase equity in art museums—the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative, funded by the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation… [T]his new initiative will create a more cohesive and equitable internship structure, increasing the number of Chicago students from underrepresented backgrounds who enter the art museum field and working with students to develop the skills, social and cultural capital, networks, and job awareness essential to careers as future curators and museum leaders. Paid internships will replace previously unpaid internships, inviting participation by a larger number of teens, undergraduates, and graduate students, and breaking down barriers of participation.”
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Grad Appointment Sick Leave Policy
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.
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MA & PhD Student Guide
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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Weekly Digests from the DGS