The Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation is pleased to announce the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. The fellowship supports the final year of dissertation work for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences. $25,000 stipend. Application deadline: November 15, 2009.
Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
About the Newcombe Fellowships
The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships are designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences. Proposals should have ethical or religious values as a central concern, particularly scholarly work with contemporary relevance. Dissertations may consider any historical period, but should be concerned with continuing human problems. For instance, previous awardees have addressed issues such as religious tolerance, human rights, spiritual beliefs in comparative perspective, justice, racial and gender equity issues as these are expressed through ethical or religious concerns.
Since the first round of competition in 1981, more than 1,000 Newcombe Fellows have been named. Fellows from early years of the program are now senior faculty at major research universities and selective liberal arts colleges, curators and directors at significant scholarly archives, and leaders and policymakers at nonprofit organizations and in cabinet-level government agencies. In the past decade, Newcombe Fellows have received national honors such as the MacArthur Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The Newcombe Awards for 2010
The 2010 Newcombe Fellows will receive $25,000 for 12 months of full-time dissertation writing. (No half-year or partial awards are allowed.) At least 20 non-renewable fellowships will be awarded to candidates selected from among more than 500 applicants. Graduate schools will be asked to waive tuition for Newcombe Fellows.
Eligible Candidates
These awards are made to Ph.D. candidates who are in the writing stage of the dissertation. Applicants for the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships must be candidates for Ph.D. or Th.D. degrees in doctoral programs at graduate schools in the United States. Candidates must have completed all pre-dissertation requirements, including approval of the dissertation proposal. Fieldwork or other research must be complete and writing begun by the time of the award. Applicants with D.Min., law, Psy.D. and other professional degrees are not eligible. Applicants who have held a similar national award for dissertation writing, such as an ACLS, Ford, Pew, Spencer, MacArthur, Whiting, Mellon, or AAUW fellowship, are not eligible. Applicants who have applied to the Newcombe Fellowship in previous years are not eligible.
Eligible Proposals
Students in doctoral programs in any field of study at graduate schools in the United States are eligible to apply. Candidates must have completed all pre-dissertation requirements, including approval of the dissertation proposal. Candidates should expect to complete their dissertation between April and August 2011. Candidates who are within a few months of completing their work, or those who have previously applied to this fellowship should not apply.
Application Procedures
Applications must be filed electronically and are available online at www.woodrow.org/newcombe. Components of the online application include an abstract (maximum of 200 words); a dissertation proposal no longer than six pages, double-spaced (approximately 2,000 words) that outlines the project and discusses its relevance to religious and ethical inquiry; a two-page selected bibliography; and a timetable for completion. In addition to the online application, a graduate transcript from the applicant's Ph.D. institution and three letters of recommendation--one from the dissertation director and two from other faculty members--must be separately submitted. As reapplications are not permitted, it is wise not to apply prematurely. Applications will be judged on originality, significance to questions of religious and ethical values, scholarly validity, the applicant's academic preparation and ability to accomplish the work, and whether the dissertation will be completed within a reasonable time period.
Conditions
Newcombe Fellows may not accept other awards which provide similar benefits, including fellowships such as the ACLS, Ford, Pew, Spencer, MacArthur, Whiting, Mellon, or AAUW fellowship. In rare cases, with the written permission of the director of the Newcombe Fellowship program, the Newcombe award may be combined with another award that offers some benefit uniquely significant to the Fellow's project (for instance, access to international archives), provided that the funding associated with the award in question does not exceed a set increment of Newcombe Fellowship funding. Fellows may undertake no more than six hours of paid work a week during the tenure of the Fellowship and only with the written permission of the director of the program.
Dates and Deadlines
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The online application opens the first week in September.
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All applications and supporting documents must be received by November 15, 2009.
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Notification of awards will be made in April 2010.
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Award tenure begins in September 2010.
Selection Committees
Newcombe Fellows are selected in two stages. The Preliminary Selection Committee is comprised of noted scholars from a wide range of fields who review applications and choose the finalists in the competition. The Final Selection Committee is an interdisciplinary committee comprised of scholars in fields such as Religion/Divinity, Anthropology, History, and Philosophy. These committee members make final determinations based on the overall quality of the proposal, originality, significance to questions of religious and ethical values, scholarly validity, the applicant's academic preparation and ability to accomplish the work, and whether the dissertation will be completed within a reasonable time period.
The Newcombe Fellowship and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
The Woodrow Wilson Foundation administers the Newcombe Fellowship competition at the request of and in consultation with the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, a private foundation created under the will of Philadelphia philanthropist Mrs. Newcombe, who died in 1979. In addition to the Newcombe Dissertation Fellowships, the Newcombe Foundation funds three college scholarship programs: for physically disabled students, for returning women students, and for minority or economically disadvantaged students attending a small number of colleges related to the Presbyterian Church.
For more than sixty years, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has sought to identify and develop America's best minds for its most essential professions. Particularly concerned with historically disadvantaged populations, the Foundation seeks to address the nation's most urgent educational problems, champion academic excellence, and expand educational opportunity.
If You're Interested
Please go to www.woodrow.org/newcombe and review the information provided, including FAQ and Eligibility/Application Information. If, after reviewing these pages, you have further questions, please contact Susan Billmaier, Assistant Program Director, by email at Billmaier@woodrow.org.
