We encourage you to apply for external funding to help cover your graduate studies and research. Many of our students have successfully competed for the fellowships and dissertation grants listed below.
AAG Grants & Awards
The AAG offers several grants to support opportunities for study, fieldwork, thesis, dissertations and geographic inquiry.
AAG Hoffman Award
Applicants must research toward a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation on a geographical subject in Eastern Europe which includes the countries of East Central and Southeast Europe from Poland south to Romania, Bulgaria and the successor states of the former Yugoslavia. The research topics may be historical or contemporary, systematic or regional, limited to a small area or comparative. Applicants must submit applications including a statement of the research topic, research methods, field of study, schedule and bibliography. Applicants should also submit a letter describing professional achievements and the goals and a letter of support from a sponsoring faculty member.
Learn more about the Hoffman Award
AAUW American Fellowships
AAUW American Fellowships support women scholars who are completing dissertations, planning research leave from accredited institutions, or preparing research for publication. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Candidates are evaluated on the basis of scholarly excellence; quality and originality of project design; and active commitment to helping women and girls through service in their communities, professions, or fields of research.
Learn more about AAUW fellowships
AAUW Career Development Grants
Career Development Grants provide funding to women who hold a bachelor’s degree and are preparing to advance or change careers or reenter the workforce. Primary consideration is given to women of color and women pursuing their first advanced degree or credentials in nontraditional fields.
Learn more about AAUW Career Grants
AAUW International Fellowships
International Fellowships are awarded for full-time study or research in the United States to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Both graduate and postgraduate studies at accredited U.S. institutions are supported.
Learn more about AAUW International Fellowships
American Council of Learned Societies
These awards are designed for one-year grant (most recently stipend of $30,000 plus funds for research costs up to $3,000 and for university fees of up to $5,000. The fellowship support a year of research and writing for advanced graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences in the last year of dissertation writing. In 2014, ACLS supported 65 fellowships in this competition, and may be held while in residency at the fellow’s home institution, abroad, or at an appropriate research site for the research. They may not be held concurrently with any other fellowship or grant. Applicants must have completed all requirements for the Ph.D. except the dissertation by the application deadline.
Details of application requirements and evaluation criteria are available on the website.
Learn more about ACLS fellowships
Boren Fellowship
Boren Fellowships provide up to $30,000 to U.S. graduate students to add an important international and language component to their graduate education through specialization in area study, language study, or increased language proficiency. Boren Fellowships, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. graduate students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests, and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The countries of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are excluded.
Learn more about the Boren Fellowship
Czamanski Dissertation Prize
The annual Czamanski Dissertation prize is awarded to author of the best Ph.D. dissertation proposal judged to exemplify the philosophy and approach of Professor Czamanski. Professor Czamanski’s research exemplified the analysis of social and economic problems with regional and spatial dimensions. In doing so, he chose judiciously the right combination of analytical and empirical research methods from his tool box to address the specific issue at hand.
Learn more about the Czamanski Prize
Lewis & Clark Fund for Research for Exploration & Field Research
The fund encourages exploratory field studies for the collection of specimens and data and to provide the imaginative stimulus that accompanies direct observation. Applications are invited from disciplines with a large dependence on field studies, such as archeology, anthropology, biology, ecology, geography, geology, linguistics, paleontology, and population genetics, but grants will not be restricted to these fields. Grants will be available to doctoral students. Postdoctoral fellows, master's degree candidates, and undergraduates are not eligible. Applicants who have previously received a Lewis and Clark Fund grant may reapply after an interval of two years. Preference is given to applicants who have not yet been granted an award from the Fund. The competition is open to U.S. citizens and residents wishing to carry out research anywhere in the world. Foreign applicants must either be based at a U.S. institution or plan to carry out their work in the United States
Learn more about the Lewis & Clark Fund
NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement
The Geography and Spatial Sciences Program sponsors research on the geographic distributions and interactions of human, physical, and biotic systems on Earth. Investigators are encouraged to propose plans for research about the nature, causes, and consequences of human activity and natural environmental processes across a range of scales. Projects on a variety of topics qualify for support if they offer promise of contributing to scholarship by enhancing geographical knowledge, concepts, theories, methods, and their application to societal problems and concerns. As part of its effort to encourage and support projects that explicitly integrate education and basic research, GSS provides support to improve the conduct of doctoral dissertation projects undertaken by doctoral students enrolled in U.S. universities when the dissertation research is conducted in a scientifically sound manner and it offers strong potential for enhancing more general scientific knowledge.
Peace Corps Coverdell Fellowship
The University of Arizona Paul D. Coverdell Fellows is for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who receive financial assistance and support while pursuing advanced degrees. Fellows provide service to benefit underserved domestic communities, participate in outreach and professional development, and enjoy a supportive Peace Corps community.
Learn more about the Coverdell Fellowship
Philanthropic Educational Organization
The PEO sisterhood proudly makes a difference in women's lives with six philanthropies that include ownership of a women's college, Cottey College, and five projects that provide higher educational assistance.
Rangel Graduate Fellowship
The Rangel Graduate Fellowship is a program that aims to attract and prepare outstanding young people for careers in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State in which they can help formulate, represent and implement U.S. foreign policy. The Rangel Program selects outstanding Rangel Fellows annually in a highly competitive nationwide process and supports them through two years of graduate study, internships, mentoring, and professional development activities. This program encourages the application of members of minority groups historically underrepresented in the Foreign Service, women, and those with financial need. Fellows who successfully complete the program and Foreign Service entry requirements will receive appointments as Foreign Service Officers, in accordance with applicable law and State Department policy.”
Learn more about the Rangel Fellowship
Regional Science Association International Dissertation Award
The Regional Science Association International (RSAI) invites submissions for the annual competition for the best doctoral dissertation in regional science. Regional science is an interdisciplinary field concerned with theory, method, and application of regional, urban and rural, geographic and spatial investigations and analyses.
The Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship
Funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, the 2016 Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship Program provides undergraduate and graduate students with financial support, mentoring and professional development to prepare them academically and professionally for a career in the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service. Women,
members of minority groups historically underrepresented in the Foreign Service, and students with financial need are encouraged to apply.
Learn more about the Pickering Fellowship
Society of Woman Geographers
SWG’s Pruitt Fellowship Program offers fellowships of between $8,000 and $12,000 to women doctoral candidates in the United States and Canada. These fellowships support dissertation research in geography and geographical aspects of related fields. http://www.iswg.org/fellowships/ Application due date: Applications from woman Ph.D. candidates for the Pruitt National Fellowship for Dissertation Research are due February 1 of each year. Eligibility Women students in PhD programs in geography or in geographical aspects of allied fields. The competition is open to Ph.D. candidates in all geographical specialties. Women are eligible to apply who are enrolled in Ph.D. programs in the United States and Canada. Preference will be given those Association of American Geographers.