We offer funding only to students who intend to pursue the Ph.D. – an application for admission to our PhD program is also an application for funding. Students receive the M.A. as a milestone while in the Ph.D. program. We offer no funding for those seeking a terminal M.A. only.
Multi-Year Funding Package
If you apply to the History or the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology (HSMT) Ph.D. degree programs and are accepted, you will be offered a multi-year support package, which begins in your first year. The details of our support guarantees may vary by funding source, field of study, and other circumstances, and the guarantee is, of course, contingent on satisfactory progress and performance. Most of our support packages offer 5 years of support and begin with a fellowship year from the UW-Madison Graduate School, generously funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Our most distinguished packages are designed to attract and support students in particular fields of study. They include two years of fellowships funding and may also include summer support:
- George L. Mosse fellowships in modern Jewish history, European cultural history, or LGBTQ history – offered annually or as funds permit
- Julie A. and Peter M. Weil Fellowship in American Jewish history and select U.S. history fields – offered annually
- Graduate Research Scholar fellowships for underrepresented students or first-generation college students – offered annually
- William J. Courtenay Fellowship in Medieval history – offered as funds permit
- Gerda Lerner Fellowship in women’s history – offered as funds permit
- John A. Neu Fellowship in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology – offered as funds permit
- Karpat Center for Turkish Studies Summer Fellowships: The Karpat Center provides generous summer funding to Ph.D. students in History whose research interests are within the scope of Turkish Studies. Fellows are selected and notified at the time of admission to the PhD program. Recipients of this award are encouraged to take Turkish language classes, but are not required to do so.
Additional years of guaranteed funding will come from employment as teaching assistants or project assistants or additional fellowships. All students in good standing can apply for writing prizes, conference travel awards, and supplements to external awards.
Competing for Additional Support
Once graduate students have passed their preliminary examination and advanced to candidacy, they may apply for departmental fellowships and research travel funding. Our advanced dissertators can also apply for awards that give them the opportunity to design and teach an undergraduate course – the Merle Curti Teaching Fellowship (open field) and the George L. Mosse Teaching Fellowship in European History.
Further funding opportunities are available to students who have reached the advanced stages of dissertation writing. The William Coleman Dissertation Fellowship in the History of Science supports one semester of advanced dissertation writing by students in the HSMT degree program. We are also pleased to offer the Doris G. Quinn Fellowship, thanks to the Doris G. Quinn Foundation, which supports the final year of dissertation writing in any field.
In addition, UW-Madison offers a wealth of other opportunities to compete for funding offered, for example, by the International Division, the Institute for Research in the Humanities, and the UW Graduate School (research and conference travel awards).
More details on our funding for current/continuing students are available here.
* If you wish to apply only for the History M.A. or the HSMT M.A. (the so-called terminal M.A.) or for the M.A. in History of Medicine for Health Professionals, please describe your sources of support on the History Supplemental Application. For information on the cost of graduate study at UW-Madison, click here.