Call for Applications: 2016 AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowship Competition

The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), the largest learned society and professional organization representing Jewish Studies scholars worldwide, invites applications for its first annual Dissertation Completion Fellowship competition. Funded for five years, this fellowship program will award seven finishing-year fellowships annually ($20,000 each) to PhD students entering the final year of their programs and completing a dissertation in the field of Jewish Studies. The 2016 competition will support fellowships during the 2016-2017 academic year.

The Dissertation Completion Fellowships will encourage the timely completion of doctorates by the most promising graduate students in the field; create a cohort of fellows who will lead the field of Jewish Studies for decades to come; expose new audiences to Jewish Studies scholarship through fellows’ public lectures; and promote continued growth of academic Jewish Studies, at a time of institutional cutbacks in the humanities and social sciences. The program will both provide resources to fellows, in the form of a $20,000 stipend, as well as professional development opportunities, through a mid-year workshop and ongoing contact with mentors during the fellowship year. Particular attention will be dedicated to training the fellows to speak publicly, in an accessible fashion, about their work. Only students who are in the final stages of writing their dissertations and who display clear evidence of their ability to defend their dissertations by July 2017 are eligible to apply for this program.

A unique feature of the program will be its public engagement component. Each fellow will be asked to give one public lecture or workshop at the end of their fellowship year in which they will share their research with a general audience. The purpose of this public speaking component is to give fellows crucial experience in making their work accessible to an interested but non-expert public, and to help satisfy the great demand for engaging and sophisticated discussion of Jewish history, literature, religion, and culture.

 Application Deadline: March 2, 2016

For further information, including application instructions, please visit the AJS website.  Questions? Contact Amy Weiss, AJS Grants Manager, at aweiss@ajs.cjh.org or 917.606.8249.

AJS’s mission is to advance research and teaching in Jewish Studies at colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning, and to foster greater understanding of Jewish Studies scholarship among the wider public. Its 2000 members are university faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, and museum and related professionals who represent the breadth of Jewish Studies scholarship. The organization’s 75 institutional members represent leading North American programs and departments in the field. Learn more at ajsnet.org.