Open To

Ph.D. students in all disciplines who are in the dissertation-writing stage. See Eligibility section for details.

The Anne Firor Scott Public Scholarship Fellowship, funded directly by The Graduate School, supports one advanced graduate student with a strong interest in carrying out dissertation research that connects with broader public constituencies through innovative forms of scholarly publication (including digital projects of the use of social media) or forms of community engagement and advocacy.

The fellowship provides an academic-year stipend (equivalent to the Graduate School-recommended Arts and Sciences nine-month stipend rate), as well as tuition, mandatory fees, and the health-insurance premium for fellowship recipients who enroll in the Duke Student Medical Insurance Plan.

The successful candidate will be expected to engage in significant work in public scholarship, for and with the broader community outside of Duke, by working in collaboration with the Forum for Scholars & Publics (FSP) to develop programming, workshops, community engagement, or digital projects. FSP will provide the successful applicant with support for programming and projects.

The Anne Firor Scott Fellowship was created in honor of Scott, a pioneer historian of American women. She served on the Duke University History Department faculty from 1961 to 1991. Scott was the first professor at Duke to include women's scholarship in her teaching and research. She wrote numerous books and publications including The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930. Initially published in 1970 as the first study to be based on a close review of women's personal documents, it remains in print today as baseline for the modern study of southern women's history. In 1980, she was appointed the first women to chair the History Department at Duke and was named the William K. Boyd Professor of History—a distinction which she continues to hold as professor emerita.

Eligibility

  • Applicants must be in good academic standing.
  • Applicants must have completed the preliminary exam by the end of the spring semester before the period covered by the award.
  • Students are not eligible for this award if they have already received one of the following: Evan Frankel Fellowship, Rubenstein Library Internship, Katherine Goodman Stern Fellowship.
  • Applicants are expected to be in their final year of their doctoral program next academic year, during the term of the Scott fellowship.
  • No other award (whether fellowship or training-related) may be held concurrently with this fellowship without special permission from the dean of The Graduate School.

To Apply

You Need

  • Approval from your department (see step 1 below)
  • Your CV (PDF)
  • A copy of your current Duke transcript or DukeHub report (PDF)
  • Two letters of recommendation from your DGS and faculty advisor. If your DGS and faculty advisor are the same individual only one letter of recommendation is required.
  • A PDF file that includes, in the following order,
    • A brief proposal (no more than 3 pages, using 1-inch margins, 1.5 line spacing, and Arial 12-point font) that describes:
      • your dissertation project;
      • why you are interested in public scholarship;
      • the public-scholarship project you will work on related to your dissertation research, and ideas for how you could collaborate on programming or projects with the Forum for Scholars & Publics; and
      • what broader goals in terms of public impact and engagement are for these projects
    • OPTIONAL: You may also include an additional 1-page bibliography.

Steps

  1. Get approval to apply from your department. Each department can only nominate up to two students each year for this award. Before you can submit your applications for this award to The Graduate School, you must first get approval from your director of graduate studies (DGS). Programs differ in how they choose their nominees. Check with your DGS.
  2. Once you have received approval from your DGS, go to The Graduate School’s fellowship application system to submit your application. | Application instructions (PDF)

Application Period

The application cycle opens in early October and closes in late November. Award recipients will be notified in spring semester. The Graduate School will announce exact dates closer to the start of the cycle, and they will be posted with the award listing on the school’s online application system.