Purpose
This initiative is designed to promote and support doctoral study in the humanities by accomplished graduates of small and mid-sized private liberal arts colleges. Two fellowships, worth up to $50,000 each and renewable for a second year, will be awarded annually through 2011. The fellowships will be available to students from eligible institutions who enroll in doctoral programs at any of 23 leading independent research universities in the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland. Eligible fields of study include history, philosophy, literature and languages, and fine arts.

Details
The American Graduate Fellowships are intended to:

• Directly support the advanced education of a few stellar graduates of
  small colleges;
• Encourage the best students at small colleges to apply for graduate work in the humanities at top-tier private research institutions; and
• Signal to the leading graduate programs that small colleges remain a rich source of talented doctoral students.

Who can apply: American Graduate Fellowships must be graduating seniors or recent graduates of an eligible undergraduate institution. They must intend to enter a doctoral program in one of the eligible fields of study during the subsequent academic year. All applicants must be citizens of the United States.

Eligible fields of study: The eligible fields of graduate study are history, philosophy, literature and languages (including classics but excluding linguistics), and fine arts (excluding archaeology and the performing or studio arts). Interdisciplinary graduate programs that incorporate one or more of these fields—such as American studies or the history of science—may also be eligible, although students should check with CIC before submitting a fellowship application. Fellowship recipients must enroll as candidates for the PhD or DPhil or enter into graduate programs where the doctorate is the expected terminal degree.

Eligible graduate institutions: American Graduate Fellowships may only be used to support doctoral study at one of the 23 institutions listed on the right, which represent many of the finest independent research universities in the English-speaking world.

Awards: Up to $50,000 for each American Graduate Fellow during his or her initial year of graduate study, including tuition, fees, and a stipend for living expenses and research costs. Fellows attending universities in Great Britain or Ireland may also apply a portion of their awards to international travel. Fellowships will normally be renewable for a second academic year (in the same field of study at the same institution), on the condition of satisfactory performance during the first year.

Selection process: Applications will be reviewed by an expert panel of distinguished humanities scholars from the eligible fields of study. This panel will recommend the top candidates. Finalists will be selected by mid-January.

See the main American Graduate Fellowship (CIC) website for further details:  http://www.cic.org/projects_services/grants/americangrad.asp