SSRC Eurasia Fellowships

Social Science Research Council

Eurasia Program

2002-2003 Fellowships


The Eurasia Program of the Social Science Research Council is pleased to
announce a fellowship program for research on the Russian Empire, the Soviet
Union and the New Independent States. Research related to the non-Russian
states, regions, and peoples is particularly encouraged. Funding for this
program is provided by the US Department of State under the Program for
Research and Training on Eastern Europe and the Independent States of the
Former Soviet Union (Title VIII). All fellowships awarded under this program
are contingent upon the receipt of funding from the US Department of State.

Regions and countries currently supported by the program include Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian
Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.  Funding is
presently not available for research on the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania).


Predissertation Training Fellowships

These awards invite graduate students in the first or second year of their
programs at the time of application, to enhance their research skills for
projects on the Russian Empire, the former Soviet Union, and the NIS. Awards
ranging from $3,000 to $7,000 are intended to support up to three kinds of
pre-dissertation training:
. language learning at a recognized program in the US or abroad;
. formal training away from one's home institution to acquire analytical or
methodological skills normally unavailable to the candidate;
. well-defined exploratory research expressly leading to the formulation of
a dissertation proposal.
While the award may be disbursed over a nine-month period, the more common
grant would be from three months to one semester in length. No more than
four months may be spent outside the US.

Please Note:

. Applicants must distinguish these pre-dissertation proposals from their
later, formal dissertation research. Applicants should not have yet
submitted a dissertation prospectus or proposal to their departments at the
time of application. ABDs and those otherwise approved for doctoral
candidacy are not eligible. Terminal MA students are not eligible.

. These awards may not be used for tuition or support at the student's home
institution.


Dissertation Write-Up Fellowships

These awards of $15,000 for one academic year provide support to graduate
students near the completion of their doctoral programs in the social
sciences and related humanities.  These fellowships are intended for
applicants who have completed all formal components of their dissertation
field research or data collection, and who have made significant progress in
outlining emergent, innovative contributions to scholarship.


Postdoctoral Fellowships

These awards of $24,000 are designed to improve the academic employment and
tenure opportunities of recent PhD recipients (up to three years past the
PhD at the time of application) in the social sciences and related
humanities. Particular consideration is given to tenure-track faculty with
heavy teaching loads, as well as to those projects that generate
path-breaking interdisciplinary approaches, or those that invite conceptual
boundary crossings--theoretically, methodologically, or geographically. The
fellowship may be disbursed flexibly over a two-year period, although the
conventional pattern of support is for one semester and two summers.


Dissertation Development Workshop

In Spring 2003, the SSRC Eurasia Program will hold the annual Dissertation
Development Workshop. The workshop will broadly focus on Central Asia and
the Caucasus, and will bring together 10 doctoral students and 5 faculty
participants for three days of intensive and critical discussion of the
students' dissertation projects, as well as larger theoretical and
methodological issues. Graduate students in the social sciences and related
humanities disciplines, at any stage in their dissertation project, are
eligible to apply. Applicants will be asked to submit a five-page
double-spaced statement outlining their dissertation project, CV, and one
letter of recommendation. (For application procedures and other details
please check the SSRC Eurasia Program website:
www.ssrc.org/programs/eurasia.)


Evaluation

All SSRC Eurasia proposals are reviewed by an interdisciplinary panel who
reward clarity of argument, purpose, theory, and method, written in a style
accessible to readers outside the applicant's discipline.


General eligibility criteria and conditions

· Applicants (for all fellowships and the workshop) must be US citizens or
permanent residents.

· Predissertation Training and Dissertation Write-Up fellowship applicants
must be enrolled in doctoral programs in the social sciences or humanities.
Recipients of Predissertation Training and Dissertation Write-Up awards may
not be employed during the award period. As a condition of these awards, the
student's home institution must make a direct contribution to the costs of
the student's education of no less than 10 percent of the fellowship award.

· As a condition of Postdoctoral Fellowship awards, the fellow's home
institution is expected to make a cost-sharing contribution of no less than
10 percent of the fellowship award. (Independent scholars who are applying
for the Postdoctoral Fellowship are not subject to this requirement.)

Detailed information on eligibility criteria and conditions of awards will
be available in the application materials.

Application Deadlines

The deadlines for the receipt of completed applications and all supporting
material are:

All Fellowships - November 1, 2002
Dissertation Workshop - December 13, 2002

Announcement of awards

Award decisions will be announced by June 2003. First payment installments
are usually released in September or October (contingent upon the receipt of
funding from the US Department of State).

For further information and application materials:

 Download application forms from the web: www.ssrc.org/fellowships/eurasia

Eurasia Fellowship Program
Social Science Research Council
810 Seventh Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY 10019
Tel: (212) 377-2700
Fax: (212) 377-2727
Web: www.ssrc.org/programs/eurasia
E-mail: [email protected]