Franke Graduate Application
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Mon., February 10, 2025 (11:59 pm CT)*
*With recommendation letter due the following day
Franke Graduate Fellowship for 2025-2026
In partnership with The Graduate School, the Kaplan Institute offers Franke Graduate Fellowships for the most accomplished doctoral students in the humanities during their fourth, fifth, or sixth year of study (see important details in "Award" section below). Franke Graduate Fellows pursue independent research within a vibrant interdisciplinary collective, which includes multilayered structured conversations among faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, internationally renowned visiting scholars, and distinguished visiting artists.
Franke Graduate Fellowship highlights:
- Time - The ability to devote two full quarters, full time, to shaping/writing your dissertation within an interdisciplinary cohort
- Mentoring and teaching - The chance to receive interdisciplinary mentoring in shaping a course, and the experience of teaching that course in your home department
- Dissertation working group – The opportunity to present chapters in progress to graduate fellows across different humanities fields
For the full academic year, Franke Graduate Fellows participate in Institute activities, including weekly lunch seminars (Wednesdays from 12 - 1:30pm), a dissertation working group, and the annual Future Directions Forum where they present their projects to Institute members. For fall and winter terms, Franke Graduate Fellows are granted time to cultivate their dissertation research. They also receive interdisciplinary mentoring about how to shape a dynamic course for undergraduates. In spring quarter, each Fellow offers—in their home department—the course that they have developed during their residency.
Award
Franke Graduate Fellowships include two quarters of full paid tuition, a monthly stipend, and $2,000 in research funds. Recipients of the fellowship who are in the fourth year or fifth year of their studies have the possibility to extend their funding package (the option to "bank" their TGS funding for two quarters to be used in spring and summer of their sixth year). Fellowship recipients in their sixth year would NOT be allowed to bank any funding for the seventh year.
(Note: Funding for each fellow's spring teaching comes out of their department's own allotment, not Franke funds. Franke Fellowship funding supports the Fellows for fall and winter quarters, freeing them up from all teaching/TA or other responsibilities so that they can focus on their research/writing full time.)
Eligibility
To be eligible for a Franke Graduate Fellowship, you must:
- Be a current, funded, doctoral graduate student in good academic standing
- Be in your fourth, fifth, or sixth year of full-time study in 2025-2026, the year of the fellowship. Remember that TGS calculates a student's year based on the number of quarters they have been in their PhD program. We encourage you to confirm your clock with TGS, especially if you have questions about an MA/PhD program.
- Be pursuing an independent humanities research project in any TGS PhD program
- Have completed all coursework, have a prospectus approved, and have achieved candidacy before the start of the fellowship (Fall 2025)
Students receiving graduate assistance must adhere to the regulations governing recipients of University assistance.
Selection criteria
Applications will be judged on their scholarly merit—the originality, quality, clarity, and importance of the proposed research project—as well as the applicant’s ability to contribute productively to an interdisciplinary group.
Application instructions
- Franke Graduate Fellowship applications are accepted via an online portal (see link below).
- The list of application materials to be requested is below.
- Documents should be prepared as PDFs and they should be double-spaced. Please title the top of each page with your name and the section title (e.g., Jackson - Research Statement, Jackson - Personal Statement, etc.).
Application materials
- Research Statement: Dissertation abstract (2-3 pages)
- Personal Statement (maximum of 3 pages) answering the question, “Why do you wish to join the Kaplan Institute community?”
- Please be specific about how your research would contribute to and benefit from interdisciplinary conversations in the humanities and how you might participate in the Institute’s wide-ranging programs (please explore the Kaplan Institute website for details about our initiatives)
- Statement of teaching philosophy (1-page); include in this teaching statement a one-paragraph description of a course you would like to teach. In addition to the 1-page statement, you may include CTECs and/or faculty evaluations from previously taught courses
- Unofficial graduate transcripts
- Writing sample (up to 20 pages). End notes or bibliography do not count toward the 20-page limit, but these may not exceed a total of two additional pages. It is recommended that your writing sample be related to your dissertation research
- Curriculum Vitae
- Letter of recommendation — see details below
Letter of recommendation
Your application must include a letter of recommendation from your dissertation chair or committee member that comments on your ability to contribute to an interdisciplinary program. Recommendations are due one business day after the application submission date. We suggest that you give your recommender advance notice so they can prepare to submit their letter by this date. In the application portal, you will submit the name of your recommender, along with their email address. After you submit your complete online application, this person will be emailed instructions for uploading their letter.
Submitting your application
- The application portal will be opened in January 2025.