Fellowships and Assistantships
We guarantee four to five years of funding to every student we admit and offer teaching lectureships for another two years for those students in good standing as they finish up their doctoral program.
Assistantships
Every student is guaranteed a minimum of four years on a graduate assistantship (five years if entering the program with a BA). The majority of these assistantships are teaching assistantships though there are limited research assistantships as well. All of our students serve as teaching assistantships since we believe that teaching experience is a vital and valuable dimension of the graduate experience. Regardless of the type, assistantships provide cash stipends, grant-in-aid to cover tuition, as well as insurance coverage.
Conference Travel Award
The department highly recommends that our students begin to present their work in workshops, seminars and conferences as often as possible. The department will, minimally, cover basic travel and lodging expenses for one conference per year.
Seed Grants
Through the generosity of the Mark and Lucy M Stitzer Fund and the Harriet Pencak Endowment we are able to offer grants to support preliminary research on potential dissertation topics, language acquisition and preliminary archival visits.
Pre-dissertation Research
The McCourtney Family Graduate Scholarship and the Isabel F. Knight Graduate Enrichment Fund supports preliminary research directly related to research on one's dissertation topic.
University and Department Dissertation Fellowships
Graduate students in our program are encouraged to apply annually for a large number of departmental, college and university scholarships. The largest number of these are targeted for the dissertation phase (research/write-up) of a graduate student's studies. Every student admitted to our program receives a semester release from teaching duties through the College of Liberal Art's Humanities Initiative. The college also offers a Sparks Fellowship to carry out dissertation related research. Finally, the department offers a Hill Dissertation Completion Fellowship to facilitate the final write-up phase of our students' dissertation.
College and Department Awards
In addition, students in History are eligible to apply for fellowships and awards from other entities at Penn State, such as the College of the Liberal Arts, the Graduate School, and the Institute for Arts and Humanities. These fellowships offer support for summer research, writing, and travel to collections. History students have had a good record of securing this funding.
As the number of grants above suggest our students all emerge with quite advanced grant-writing skills which are also aided by workshops offering guidance at the departmental, college, and university levels.
