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Call for Applicants: IUPLR/Mellon Dissertation Fellowships, 2016-17

The Inter-University Program for Latino Research is now accepting applications for the IUPLR/Mellon Fellowship Program (academic year 2016-17). The program supports ABD doctoral students in the humanities who are writing dissertations in Latina/o studies. Doctoral students in the social sciences whose research uses humanities methods may also be considered. The fellowship facilitates completion of the dissertation and provides professional development, job market support, and mentoring for students who will graduate in Spring 2017.
 
With support from the Andrew G. Mellon Foundation, IUPLR will select fellows through five designated research centers:
 
  • The Center for Mexican American Studies and the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
  • The Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA
  • The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, The City College of New York
  • Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College, CUNY
  • The Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago
The fellowship includes a $25,000 stipend and travel support to attend IUPLR conferences and a required two-week summer institute in Chicago. Matriculation fees and health insurance will be paid by the home institution, provided that the fellow is in residence.
 
Who is eligible?
Applications will be accepted only from PhD candidates enrolled at UT-Austin, UCLA, CUNY, and UIC. Applicants will be considered by the IUPLR center at their home institution (see list above).
 
Applicants must have advanced to candidacy (ABD status) and be completing a Latina/o studies dissertation in the humanities or in a humanities-adjacent discipline. Applications will not be accepted from candidates who have not yet defended their dissertation proposal. As this is a dissertation completion fellowship, all applicants should already have a significant portion of the dissertation drafted. Finally, applicants should be planning to pursue a career in teaching or research.
 
During the fellowship year, students must be enrolled at their home institution. Fellows will be expected to forego other employment during the year.
 
Application materials
When applying, please prepare a dossier of the following materials:
 
  • A cover letter listing your name, university, department, the month and year that you advanced to candidacy (reached ABD status), the name and year of any dissertation completion fellowships you have already had (both internal and external), and a fifty-word description of your project’s relationship and significance to the humanities.
  • CV
  • Dissertation prospectus, including chapter outlines
  • Completed chapters (preferably two or three)
  • Writing plan that demonstrates ability to defend dissertation during fellowship year
  • Recommendation letters from 1) the dissertation chair and 2) a Latina/o studies faculty member or other faculty member at the student’s home campus who can speak to the dissertation’s relevance to Latina/o studies. The letter from the dissertation chair should confirm that the applicant has defended the proposal and will be able to graduate by Spring 2017. Letters must be sent directly to the contact person below by the recommenders, not by the applicant.
You should send your dossier of materials in either Word or PDF form, preferably as a single document. If your materials contain images please send a zip file.
 
Deadlines and important dates
 
  • Application materials must arrive by January 8, 2016.
  • Decisions will be made by January 29, 2016.
  • Selected fellows will attend the Latino Art Now! Conference in Chicago, April 7–9, 2016 (mandatory).
  • Fellows will attend the IUPLR/Mellon Summer Institute in Chicago, June 2016 (mandatory).
  • Fellowship stipends will begin June 15, 2016.
Send all queries and application materials (Word or PDF) to the IUPLR/Mellon program coordinator, Dr. Meghan Marie Hammond (hammondm@uic.edu), AND the appropriate IUPLR Center director(s). Contact information for applicants applying through UCLA is below. Contact information for the other four centers can be found on the IUPLR website.
 
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
Dr. Chon Noriega, director