We offer funding packages for students who intend to pursue the PhD – an application for admission to the PhD program is also an application for funding. Students receive the MA as a milestone while in the PhD program. We offer no funding for those seeking a terminal MA only.
Multi-Year Funding Package
If you are accepted to the History or the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology (HSMT) PhD 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 vary by funding source, field of study, and other circumstances, and the guarantee is contingent on satisfactory progress and performance. Most of our support packages 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 fellowship funding and may include summer support:
- George L. Mosse fellowships in modern Jewish history, European cultural history, and/or LGBTQ history – offered annually as funds permit.
- Graduate Research Scholars fellowships for underrepresented students and/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 PhD students in History with research interests in 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.
Additional years of guaranteed funding will come from employment as teaching assistants (TAs) or project assistants (PAs) 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 the 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 for students in the HSMT degree program.
In addition, UW-Madison offers many additional opportunities to compete for funding offered through 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.