Visiting Humanities Fellows receive a stipend of $50,000, which is often paid directly to the fellows’ home institution, which allows them to maintain their normal salary while being relieved of teaching duties. Additionally, visiting fellows receive faculty library privileges, an office in the UCHI suite, and assistance in locating housing. They are expected to participate in Institute activities including fellows’ teas, colloquia, grant workshops, and related scholarly events. Visiting Humanities Fellows will also offer a public talk on their research during the course of the fellowship year. Tenure normally covers an uninterrupted period of nine to ten whole months. Fellows are required to be in residence for the academic year. Ordinarily, fellowships run from late August through May. Fellowship recipients will not be allowed to defer a UCHI fellowship. Finally, Visiting Humanities Fellows are expected to acknowledge the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute in publications resulting from work supported by the Institute.

Eligibility

UCHI Visiting Scholar fellowships are intended for scholars with a significant record of scholarly accomplishment. Applicants with a Ph.D. or terminal degrees in their field must have held their advanced degree for at least four years. Independent scholars—such as writers, museum professionals, and artists—need not have a terminal degree to apply, but must have an advanced record of professional accomplishment, which does not include research and publications completed during graduate school. Independent scholars with terminal degrees must have held that degree for at least four years. Former UCHI fellows are welcome and eligible to apply for fellowships five academic years after completion of their UCHI fellowship (i.e. 2019-20 fellows are eligible to apply for 2025–26 fellowships).

Application

Applications for 2025–26 fellowships must be submitted via Interfolio by February 1, 2025.

Applicants are required to submit the following materials:

• project proposal (3 pages)
• bibliography (1 page)
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) (2 pages)

Applicants must also request three signed letters of reference submitted directly by the referee through Interfolio.

All application materials must conform with our application guidelines.

Apply

UConn Humanities Faculty Fellows will retain their regular appointments and salaries while being released from teaching for the academic year. They will be released from departmental and administrative duties, but they will retain responsibility for the supervision of graduate advisees. They will also be responsible for attending UCHI panels and workshops dedicated to applying for grant funding. We are particularly interested in applicants who are planning to pursue further funding during their fellowship year.

UConn Humanities Faculty Fellows will have access to office space at the Humanities Institute on the UConn Storrs Campus, and are expected to be in continuous residence at UConn for the term of the award. They are expected to participate in Institute activities including fellows’ teas, colloquia, grant workshops, related scholarly events, and offer a public talk on their research during the course of the fellowship year, which follows the calendar of UConn’s academic year. Tenure normally covers an uninterrupted period of nine to ten whole months. Fellowship recipients will not be allowed to defer a UCHI fellowship. As part of our mid-career faculty success initiative, one Faculty Success Fellowship will be awarded each year to a faculty member who has held the rank of Associate Professor for at least five years. In the service of an impartial selection process, UCHI Faculty Fellows are chosen by a committee comprised of non-UConn Faculty members.

Priority is given to UConn faculty applicants who have not held a leave (sabbatical or other) in the 12 months preceding the academic year (September 1) of the fellowship. Former faculty fellows are eligible to apply for the academic year five years after completion of their UCHI fellowship (i.e. 2019–20 fellows are eligible to apply for 2025–26 fellowships). Finally, UConn Humanities Faculty Fellows are expected to acknowledge the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute in publications resulting from work supported by the Institute.

UCHI offers one Justice, Equity, and Repair (JER) fellowship each year, which is intended for full-time UConn faculty members whose research addresses the persistence of bias and inequities and/or offers novel approaches to raising awareness of or reflection on questions of justice, equity, and repair. Interested applicants should indicate that on the application form that you would like to be considered for the UCHI/JER Fellowship. Indicating that you would like to be considered for the UCHI/JER Fellowship does not preclude you from being offered a UCHI Fellowship—indeed, any application for the UCHI/JER fellowship is considered as an application for a standard UCHI fellowship. Criteria for successful applicants include, but are not limited to: quality of research proposal; strength of reference letters; and articulation within the proposal of how this project can contribute to a larger consideration of systemic injustice. UCHI/JER Fellows are full members of the UCHI fellowship class and have all the same benefits and responsibilities.

Application

Applications for 2025–26 fellowships must be submitted via Interfolio by February 1, 2025.

Applicants are required to submit the following materials:

• project proposal (3 pages)
• bibliography (1 page)
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) (2 pages)

Applicants must also request three signed letters of reference submitted directly by the referee through Interfolio.

All application materials must conform with our application guidelines.

Apply

To aid emerging UConn scholars, UCHI offers, with support from the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate School and the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Fellowship Fund, up to four residential graduate dissertation fellowships.

Humanities Dissertation Scholars receive a full academic year fellowship to enable dissertation fellows to concentrate solely on completion of their Ph.D. dissertation. Graduate students must have completed qualifying exams, the prospectus, and sufficient research by the start of the fellowship period so that they can complete the dissertation during the year-long fellowship. Students scheduled to defend in the Fall semester are not qualified for the fellowship. Teaching during the fellowship year is prohibited. Humanities Dissertation Scholars will have an office and are expected to be in continuous residence at UConn for the term of the award. They are expected to participate in Institute activities including fellows’ teas, colloquia, and related scholarly events, and to offer a public lecture on their research during the course of the fellowship year. Finally, Humanities Dissertation Scholars are expected to acknowledge the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute in publications resulting from work supported by the Institute.

Application

Applications for 2025–26 fellowships must be submitted via Interfolio by February 1, 2025.

Applicants are required to submit:

• a project proposal (3 page)
• a bibliography (1 page)
• a CV (2 page)

Applicants must also request three signed letters of reference submitted directly by the referee through Interfolio, including one from their major advisor.

All application materials must conform with our application guidelines.

Apply

The UConn Humanities Institute (UCHI) and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) are excited to offer year-long fellowships for undergraduate students pursuing innovative research in the humanities.

The fellowship supports a year-long research project supervised by a UConn faculty member. The project should explore big questions about human society and culture and should lead to an original contribution to your area of study. The exact parameters (length, format, etc) will be set by your faculty advisor. Depending on your major and your academic and professional plans, your project may consist of a scholarly research project or a creative product with a significant research component. At the end of the year, students will submit the final project to their faculty advisor, UCHI, and CLAS.

The project should ask questions or explore issues and ideas that feel urgent and exciting to you. We highly encourage proposals for projects that use methods, ideas, and approaches from more than one discipline.

Fellows will be welcomed as members of the Humanities Institute, a lively community of accomplished faculty and graduate student scholars conducting advanced research in the humanities. In addition to immersion in this intellectual community, the fellowship offers:

• A $2,000 scholarship
• A desk/work area at UCHI, located conveniently in Homer Babbidge Library for conducting research
• Bi-weekly check-in meetings
• A public presentation about the project at UCHI in the spring semester
• Participation at UCHI’s events (for example, presentations by visiting scholars and artists) and special opportunities to meet with such visiting speakers
• A field trip or cultural excursion (for example, a visit to a museum or archive) to be announced during the year
• The opportunity to present your work at the Humanities Undergraduate Research Symposium
• 6 credits for the academic year, through the successful completion of one 3-credit independent study each semester with the UConn faculty member supervising your project
• (For non-Honors students) Admission into the Honors Program through the successful completion of this program, if other Honors admissions criteria are met.

Learn more about the fellowship program in this video.

Eligibility

Fellowship applicants should be rising sophomores or rising juniors in good academic standing (that is, students who will be sophomores or juniors in Fall 2025). Rising seniors are also eligible to apply, but preference will be given to students earlier in their degrees. Please note that students who applied in previous years and did not receive a fellowship are eligible to apply again.

Fellows from all campuses are welcome. Although the fellowship includes bi-weekly meetings on the Storrs campus, accommodations will be made for fellows unable to attend those meetings in person. However, the public presentation in the spring semester will take place on the Storrs campus.

The proposed project should be humanities research. Broadly speaking, the “humanities” means the study of human society and culture. Humanities majors or minors typically include but are not limited to: Africana Studies; American Studies; Anthropology; Art and Art History; Asian and Asian American Studies; English; History; Human Rights; Journalism; Latino and Latin American Studies; Philosophy; Sociology; Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. If you aren’t sure if your project is humanistic, please email uchi@uconn.edu.

Fellows should check individually with the Office of Student Financial Aid Services to ensure that they are eligible to accept the scholarship.

Application

1. A Word document with answers to the following questions:
   1. What is your project's title?
   2. What big question(s) is your project asking, and why are those questions important to you, your community, and society? (maximum 300 words)
   3. What is your plan for the project? What work will you do to try to answer its questions? (maximum 300 words)
   4. How do you think working on this project contributes to your own goals? (maximum 200 words)
   5. Optional question: Are there additional factors in your background or life experience that would help you benefit from this opportunity? Discuss social, economic, educational, or other obstacles, as appropriate. (maximum 300 words)
2. A writing sample of your best research and writing (for example, your best final paper).
3. One letter of recommendation from a UConn faculty member that also includes their willingness to supervise the project over the course of an academic year. (The faculty member should email their letter directly to uchi@uconn.edu. There's no need to wait until the letter is complete to submit the rest of your application.)
4. An unofficial transcript.

Applications for the 2025-26 fellowship year must be submitted by February 28, 2025.

All questions and application materials can be sent to uchi@uconn.edu.

Please know while we will make every effort to review submissions as soon as possible, the materials you submit may not be reviewed immediately upon receipt. Please note that all University employees are mandated reporters of child abuse or child neglect. In addition, UConn employees have responsibilities to report to the Office of Institutional Equity student disclosures of sexual assault and related interpersonal violence; any information you submit in this application is subject to UConn reporting policies. If you feel you need more immediate assistance or support, we encourage you to reach out to the Dean of Students Office and/or Student Health and Wellness- Mental Health. In addition, if you have concerns related to sexual harassment, sexual assault, intimate partner violence and/or stalking, we encourage you to review the resources and reporting options available at: https://titleix.uconn.edu