Arts & Sciences Graduate Dean's Office Fellowships
University Center for International Studies
History of Art and Architecture Department
Other University Funding Opportunities
Arts & Sciences Graduate Dean's Office Fellowships
The Arts and Sciences Dean's Office has a variety of fellowships that are by invitation only; the HAA department nominates candidates. These fellowships include:
Arts & Sciences Fellowships
A&S Fellowships are used to recruit doctoral students of exceptional promise and ability either when they first enroll in the PhD program or for later years. They carry a stipend plus remission of tuition. The stipend includes fund with which to purchase health insurance. No service is required.
Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowships
These fellowships are awarded to students of exceptional promise and ability when they have advanced to the dissertation stage. They carry a stipend plus remission of tuition. No service is required.
- Mellon Fellowship Process (PDF) Departmental nomination and ranking required. Applications must be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies for processing. December/January deadline (to be announced).
- Mellon Procedure and Selection Criteria
University Center for International Study (UCIS)
UCIS is a consortium of area study Centers funded by money from the U.S. government. Through the FLAS program the Centers offer money for both summer and academic year language study. They also offer other independent travel and research monies, from both federal and corporate sources. Please note that FLAS Fellowships are only open to US citizens and permanent residents. Academic-year FLAS fellowships require departmental nomination and ranking. You must submit your application to the Graduate Secretary in January (deadline to be announced) to be forwarded to the appropriate center.
Commonly Accessed UCIS Links
International Studies Fund: for travel and research, $1000 maximum, March 15 deadline
Nationality Room Scholarships: varying amounts to fund summer language programs or other summer programs abroad. Open to US citizens or permanent residents, January deadline
History of Art and Architecture Department Funding
Departmental funds are available to students from their second year and following to support language study, dissertation research travel, and/or conference presentation. Those funds are limited and we require students to exhaust the available university resources before applying for additional or supplementary funding from HAA.
- Dean's Summer Research Travel Grant
- Dietrich Summer Research Fellowship
- Friends of Frick Fine Arts/Wilkinson Travel Grant
- Dean's Research Travel Fund - Academic Year
- Fellowship Committee Guidelines
The James and Susanne Wilkinson Research Prize for Outstanding Scholarship on Topics in Premodern Art
The Department of History of Art and Architecture is pleased to announce a Research Prize in the amount of $4000.00 to be awarded each year to an outstanding graduate student paper on a topic in premodern art. The award is named in honor of James and Susanne Wilkinson, whose generous and longtime support has helped the department to maintain its tradition of scholarly excellence. The primary purpose of this award is to encourage and recognize superior scholarship on art produced in all regions of the world before the mid-19th century, or the advent of artistic modernism. The award is also intended to support continuing research, including travel to sites, collections, and archives, as may be needed for the completion of the winning candidate’s graduate degree. To that end, in addition to the paper, all submissions must include a one-page summary of the research the candidate intends to pursue with the award. The summary should state how that research relates to the completion of the degree and the candidate’s pursuit of his or her scholarly goals.
The Wilkinson Prize is open to all graduate students who are currently enrolled in the Department of History of Art and Architecture. Submissions will be accepted in February of each academic year. The chair of the department will appoint an ad hoc committee of three History of Art and Architecture faculty members. At its discretion, the faculty committee may decide not to confer an award in a given year if it determines that none of the entries merits the prize. At the request of the donor, James Wilkinson, he will be permitted to read all essay submissions after the faculty committee has decided the award. The award winner will be announced in March of each year and his or her name will be included in the list of honorees celebrated at the department’s annual graduation ceremony.
Application Requirements:
The candidate must be currently enrolled in the graduate program of the Department of History of Art and Architecture. This award is intended to assist in the completion of the PhD, and therefore should be used for research and travel expenses incurred prior to the conferral of the degree. Winning this award will have no impact on the candidate’s eligibility for other research and travel awards made available through the department.
Entries are to be no more than 50 pages in length, including notes and illustrations. They may be dissertation chapters, MA papers, seminar papers, independent study research papers, or articles completed and published while the student has been in residence in the program. All entries must be properly edited and free of typographical errors. Good quality illustrations must also be supplied, as appropriate.
Ineligible for this award are:
• book-length manuscripts, completed dissertations, and published volumes;
• students who have concluded their field research and/or are in the final writing stages of the dissertation;
• papers completed either prior to enrollment, or after award of the terminal MA or PhD degree in this department.
Guidelines on resubmission:
Students may reapply for this award as long as they are not previous winners of the award, and as long as the entry is substantively different than the previous year’s entry. It should be on a different topic, include new research, show significant revision in scope and/or refinement. It should not, in other words, be the same exact entry as was submitted the year before.
The application must include:
• the candidate’s essay to be considered for the award;
• a short paragraph describing the origin of the writing sample and its place in the candidate’s degree work; and
• a one-page summary of the research the candidate intends to pursue with the award and how that research relates to the candidate’s completion of the degree and his or her scholarly goals.
Required follow-up report:
The Wilkinson Prize winner must submit a short (ca. 150 word) summary of research completed with the assistance of the prize, within one year of the award. This report will be included in an annual report to the donors of what has been achieved with their assistance. Prize winners will also convene a committee of graduate students working in the area of premodern art sometime in spring or early fall after winning the award. This committee will prepare a ranked list of outside scholars to be invited to give a Wilkinson lecture. That list will be reviewed by the faculty in a fall department meeting and a speaker solicited to come to campus the following academic year.
Funding Opportunities for Conference Travel
Before applying to the HAA department for travel funds, graduate students must exhaust the funding possibilites offered by the Dean's office and campus graduate orgranizations. Read more»
Other University Fellowship, Scholarship, and Grant Opportunities
- A&S Graduate Student Organization: travel grants for enrolled students
- A&S-PBC and Alumni $600 Travel Fellowship: offered through the dean's office
- Cultural Studies Fellowship: one-year tuition and stipend restricted to students enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh School of Arts & Sciences graduate programs working toward or having received PhD certification in Cultural Studies
- Eureopean Union Center of Excellence: Various funding opportunities through the University Center for International Studies
- Graduate and Professional Student Government Travel Grants: small stipends for conference travel.
- Japan Iron and Steel Federation/Mitsubishi Graduate Fellowship in Japanese Studies: one-year tuition and stipend for Japanese art studies.
- Owens Fellowships: A bequest of Samuel T. Owens Jr. makes fellowships available at the University of Pittsburgh for needy students who show promise of high academic achievement. These fellowships carry an annual stipend of $2,000. The fellowships may be used in payment of tuition, books, and living expenses during the academic year for which the award is granted. Owens Fellowships are not available for a single term. Application forms are available in the University Office of Admissions and Financial Aid
- Pitt Alumni Graduate Scholarship: $5000 grant for graduate students who earned their undergraduate degree
at the University of Pittsburgh - Provost Development: need and merit based fellowship for women, minorities, and disadvantaged students pursuing the doctorate
- Women's Studies Research Prize Competition: $500 for the best graduate student paper (the Tamara Horowitz Graduate Student Paper Prize) or the best dissertation (the Dissertation Prize) in the field of women and gender studies. Contact Women's Studies Program office for guidelines and cover sheets
- Women's Studies Student Research Fund: for research relating to women and gender