Note: For each of the fellowships listed in the categories below, please find more detailed information by consulting the CARAT database. This database also has a more comprehensive list of summer, research, and travel fellowships.
Summer Fellowships
GSAS offers two summer fellowships to assist with language study or preliminary research or fieldwork. Applications for these two GSAS opportunities can be found in CARAT.
- GSAS Graduate Society Summer Predissertation Fellowships: for outstanding GSAS doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences conducting summer language study and/or preliminary dissertation research or fieldwork. Ordinarily for students in the summer following the G1, G2, or G3 year, this merit-based fellowship is intended for the early stage of dissertation development prior to having an approved prospectus. Notification for this fellowship is typically mid-April.
- GSAS Summer School Tuition Fellowships: allows doctoral students to engage in language study at Harvard Summer School to prepare for department foreign language exams or for language needs related to the dissertation. This opportunity ordinarily is for use in the summer following the G1, G2, or G3 year, but under special circumstances students in later years may apply.
Information about other Harvard summer fellowships supporting research or language study can be found by visiting Harvard’s research center websites.
- Asia Center Graduate Summer Research Grants
- Asia Center Graduate Summer Language Grant
- Center for African Studies Summer Grants for Graduate Students
- Center for Jewish Studies Summer Study and Research Fellowships
- Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History Summer Travel Grant
- David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Summer Research Travel Grants
- Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Graduate Research and Travel Grants
- Fairbank Center Summer Chinese Language Grants for Graduate Students
- Fairbank Center Summer Research Grants for Graduate Students
- Korea Institute Graduate Summer Research Grants
- Korea Institute Summer Language Study Grants for Graduate Students
- Reischauer Institute Summer Language Study Grants for Graduate Students
- Reischauer Institute Summer Research Grants for Graduate Students
- South Asia Institute Summer Research Grant
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Canada Program Dissertation Research and Writing Fellowships
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Pre-dissertation, Mid-dissertation, and Language-Study Grants
- Jens Aubrey Westengard Fund
Research and Travel Fellowships (including Fulbrights)
Several Harvard fellowships or Harvard-managed fellowships support a semester or an academic year of research and travel abroad, including the following, applied for through GSAS. Please also see the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) entries in the CARAT database.
- Kennedy, Knox, and Sheldon Traveling Fellowships, the Lurcy Traveling Fellowships, and the Samuelson Traveling Fellowships: The Committee on General Scholarships invites Harvard graduate and professional schools to nominate candidates who wish to apply for support to conduct research or study abroad for the academic year. The competition is open to current Harvard graduate students or students who will graduate from one of Harvard’s professional schools in the current academic year. The Lurcy Fellowship is strictly for research or study in France. The Lee Whittinghill Samuelson Traveling Fellowship is awarded at the discretion of the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to support students in programs of research or study conducted abroad that span the full academic year. The fellowship was established by the gift of Lee Samuelson, MBA 1966, PhD 1972. As a graduate student, Dr. Samuelson benefited from the Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, which enabled him to study abroad. He hopes this gift will help ease financial burdens and open doors to international opportunities for future generations of graduate students, just as the Sheldon Fellowship did for him. Notification for this fellowship is typically mid-April.
- Fulbright US Student Program: for study or research abroad, administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE) on behalf of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Applicants must be US citizens. The awards are for 140 countries worldwide. GSAS students need to apply through GSAS and observe the GSAS campus deadline.
- Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program (DDRA): designed to contribute to the development and improvement of the study of modern languages and area studies in the US by providing opportunities for doctoral students to conduct research abroad. Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents. Research projects should focus on one or more of the following geographic areas: Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, South Asia, the Near East, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, and the Western Hemisphere (excluding the United States and its territories). Research is allowed in multiple countries. Please note that students must observe the GSAS campus deadline.
- Merit and Term Time Research Fellowships: A semester award that allows outstanding GSAS students to focus their time on research, fieldwork, and writing. These fellowships are for outstanding GSAS students in the humanities, social sciences, and in specifically designated areas of study in the natural sciences and mathematics. Students must have passed Generals and have an approved dissertation prospectus at the time of nomination, or no later than the beginning of the semester when the award is taken. Notification for this fellowship is typically mid-April.
Additional research and travel fellowships
- The Augustus Clifford Tower Fellowship, The French Government Fellowship for The Ecole
- Normale Superieure, and The Harvard French Exchange Program for the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (GSAS Sciences-Po)
- Center for American Political Studies Dissertation Research Fellowships
- Center for European Studies Dissertation Research Fellowships
- Charles Warren Center for American Studies Term-Time Research Grant
- David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Term-Time Research and Travel Grants
- Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Graduate Fellowships in Ethics
- Fairbank Center Desmond and Whitney Shum Fellowship
- Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS)
- Harvard China Fellowship
- Harvard Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD)
- Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Graduate Research Fellowships
- The Jorge Paulo Lemann Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Brazil
- Luce Scholars Program
- Reischauer Institute Supplementary Research Grant
Many of the fellowship opportunities listed above are applied to through Harvard's Centralized Application for Research and Travel (CARAT).