DISSERTATION SUPPORT FROM THE GRADUATE DIVISION

Ph.D. students engaged in early or intermediate stages of dissertation research may be nominated by their Graduate Group for the combined Penfield, Teece, and SAS Dissertation Research Award competition. The dollar amount of these awards depends on the research budget submitted by the student and evaluated by the committee. Awards are based on the overall funds available each year.

Penfield Awards, funded by a bequest that dates from 1930, are intended to aid students of “diplomacy, international affairs, and belles-lettres” who require travel abroad to complete their research. ‘Belles-lettres’ is no longer as clear a category as it was in 1930, but quite a few topics in the humanities will be considered under this rubric.

Teece Awards were created in 2007 through the generosity of David and Leigh Teece. These awards are for graduate students working in the physical and social sciences who are doing applied research that is empirical or field based in nature and interdisciplinary in its foundations. Teece Awards may cover any element of research expense, travel, books, data acquisition, and tuition.

SAS Dissertation Research Awards (DRAs) are supported by the School’s unrestricted funds, so they can aid students not eligible for a Penfield or Teece Award. In addition, once the Penfield and Teece funds are exhausted, students who would otherwise be eligible for those competitions may receive a DRA if they rank higher than remaining candidates in the combined pool of nominees.

Please note that the purpose of Penfield, Teece, and DRA Awards is to support graduate students while they are working on their dissertations. Thus, to be eligible a student must have an approved dissertation proposal prior to nomination.

As the name implies, the Dissertation Completion Fellowship is intended for SAS students who will complete the dissertation during the fellowship year (the academic year following the annual selection process). To be considered for a Dissertation Completion Fellowship, students must be far enough along in the writing of the dissertation at the moment of nomination to make it plausible that they will finish with one additional year of funding. Students who need more time as well as those who can plausibly finish sooner will not be regarded as strong candidates.

These fellowships are intended to help students who do not already have, or cannot readily obtain, comparable aid from other sources. Therefore, students who will still be receiving funding from a multi-year SAS package fellowship, from a PI, or from an external fellowship are not eligible. Students from all SAS graduate groups are eligible to compete for these awards, provided that they satisfy the criteria explained above.

Each DCF will consist of a standard academic-year stipend, general fee, tuition, and health insurance.  Completion during the fellowship year remains the expected standard of the DCF.  To reinforce the emphasis on “completion” recipients of SAS Dissertation Completion Fellowships will be ineligible for future fellowship aid from the School of Arts and Sciences.

DCF awards will be made on the basis of academic excellence and feasibility of completion, as evaluated by members of the SAS Committee on Graduate Education. These are highly competitive fellowships with a limited number available each year.

Recipients of a DCF may not be employed while receiving the fellowship. Those who receive awards from other sources must report them to the SAS Associate Dean so that benefits can be coordinated. Recipients are expected to be in residence at Penn during the fellowship year; exceptions can be made in special circumstances only after consultation with the Graduate Chair and the Associate Dean.