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Ballard and Seashore
Dissertation Year Fellowships

The Graduate College is pleased to call for nominations for the Ballard/Seashore dissertation year fellowships for doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences. The deadline for nominations is Monday, March 3, 2008.


Who Should be Nominated
Ballard/Seashore fellowships are intended to help students complete writing of their dissertations. Priority will be given to proposals where it is clear the dissertation will be completed within the fellowship period. Departments/programs may nominate one student for every eight doctoral students admitted to candidacy, or major fraction thereof, up to a maximum of five students.


Award Amount
This year, the funding level has been increased to $18,000 for the academic year, plus a summer stipend of $4,000. In addition, the fellowship provides for 2 credit hours of tuition, standard graduate student fees, and a health and dental insurance allowance for the duration of the award. Fellowship recipients may elect to receive their summer stipend either before or after the fellowship year, but must continue to be registered as a graduate student to receive the stipend after the fellowship year.

“Receiving the Ballard Seashore Fellowship meant I had a highly productive final year in graduate school. I was able to translate and analyze numerous documents, finish my 300-page thesis, present my research at a prestigious conference, write a successful grant proposal, and land a great tenure-track job at the University of Northern Iowa. This was my best year at The University of Iowa, and I'm a better scholar and teacher today thanks to this fellowship.”

—Dr. Sara Kimble on the value of Graduate College funding for graduate students.


Additional Eligibility Requirements
Students must be nominated by their department or program and must have completed the comprehensive examination at the time of nomination. Recipients of the Ballard/Seashore Dissertation Year Fellowship may not hold other teaching or research appointments, except in unique situations in which the appointments substantially contribute to the student’s professional development. Such appointments must be approved by the Graduate College.

Funds for three Ada Louisa Ballard Fellowships were initially bequeathed by the late Professor Clarence E. Cousins to honor his mother. Professor Cousins for many years was a member of the Department of French and Italian. This year the Graduate College will continue to award three Ballard Fellowships, along with twenty-seven Seashore Fellowships.


Nomination Requirements
Nominations must come from a student’s department/program and should include:

  1. A brief abstract (limited to five double-spaced pages) of the candidate’s proposed dissertation, prepared with the following guidelines in mind:
  1. The proposal is to be written so that it may be understood by persons not in the student’s field of specialization.
     
  2. The proposal should include a clear statement of the purpose of the research, how it is to be carried out, and its value to the intellectual community.
  1. A clear outline of the proposed timetable for completion of the dissertation (limited to one page).
  1. Because this is a final year fellowship, a student may be nominated only once, when there is a high likelihood of finishing during the fellowship period.
  1. A letter from the student addressed to the Ballard/Seashore Fellowship Selection Committee describing the significance of the proposed work to his/her professional objectives.
     
  2. A resume of the nominee’s educational and professional experience, honors and awards, and publications (limited to one page)
     
  3. Two letters of support. One should be from the candidate’s dissertation director, indicating the candidate’s accomplishments and potential in research and scholarship and stating:
  1. how long the student has been working on the Ph.D.
     
  2. how much work has already been accomplished on the dissertation
     
  3. the value of the research topic to the specific field
     
  4. the student’s qualifications for carrying out this particular project
     
  5. the prospect that the degree will be completed by the end of the spring or summer sessions, 2009, with some supporting evidence.

The second letter of support can be from the student’s graduate director, a committee member, or other faculty member.

  1. In addition to the two letters of support, a brief endorsement of the nomination must come from the chair of the candidate’s department or program.
  1. If the department is nominating more than one student, include an indication of how the department ranks the students nominated for the fellowship.

Nomination materials should be received in the Graduate College office on or before Monday, March 3, 2008. Questions concerning the fellowships should be addressed to Dan Berkowitz, Associate Dean, 335-2136 or dan-berkowitz@uiowa.edu.


Eligible Departments
The following departments are eligible to nominate students for the Ada Louisa Ballard and Seashore dissertation year fellowships:

If departments not on this list wish to nominate a doctoral student whose dissertation clearly has a humanities or social science emphasis, contact Dan Berkowitz, Associate Dean at 335-2136 or dan-berkowitz@uiowa.edu
 

 

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