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Degree Type: Doctoral Students

Graduate School Presidential Dissertation Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Social Professions

2025-26 nomination deadline: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 at noon (12 p.m. PT). 

The Graduate School Presidential Dissertation Fellowship assists Ph.D. candidates in the final stages of writing their dissertations. The 2025-26 Dissertation Fellowship is offered with the support of the University President and includes one quarter of UW state tuition and fees, GAIP insurance, and a stipend at the Predoctoral TA II rate (currently $3,291 per month). Each unit listed at the end of this announcement may submit ONE nominee.  

Eligibility

  • Must have passed the General Examination and attained Ph.D. candidate status at the time of nomination.
  • Must have demonstrated progress on the dissertation that indicates completion by the end of Summer Quarter 2026 or sooner.
  • Must be in a tuition-based program; students in fee-based programs are not eligible.
  • Must not have received another dissertation fellowship from the Graduate School (e.g., Gatzert, GSEE)

Application Process

Nominations are submitted in MyGrad by departments between mid-February and mid-April. Awardees are selected based on academic merit. Students wishing to be considered for this opportunity should contact their Graduate Program Adviser.

Nomination Materials

  1. A robust letter of nomination from the GPC or Chair of the department. Information about the nominee’s current status and performance in the program or comparison with other recent students would be useful.
  2. A one-page statement from the dissertation adviser demonstrating their opinion of:
    • The significance of the research;
    • The progress made to date, including anticipated completion date;
    • Where appropriate, the nature and importance of the nominee’s contribution to a team project should be included
  3. A four page, double-spaced statement from the candidate that describes the dissertation project and includes its title, relation to current literature, methodology and goals. Footnotes can be single-spaced and are included in the four page statement limit. Bibliography or end notes are limited to one page, single-spaced, and are not included in the four page statement limit.
  4. Timeline of expected dissertation activities in 2025-26 and specifically during the planned fellowship quarter (not to exceed one single-spaced page).
  5. The nominee’s curriculum vitae.
  6. An unofficial copy of the student’s current UW transcript. 

Fellowship Requirements

  • Fellowship must be used during the 2025-26 year (summer 2025–spring 2026). The choice of the quarter will be left to the discretion of the graduate student in consultation with the supervisory committee chair.
  • Students must enroll for at least 10 credits during the quarter they receive the fellowship (except in summer, when it is 2 credits).
  • The purpose of the fellowship is to facilitate full-time work on writing the dissertation. During the tenure of the fellowship, service responsibilities such as teaching and research are typically suspended.
  • During the quarter of fellowship, students may not receive funding or employment from another source without prior approval from the Office of Fellowships and Awards.

Eligible programs for the Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship competition:

Arts and Humanities Social Sciences and Social Professions
Art History
Asian Languages and Literature
Cinema & Media Studies
Classics
Digital Arts and Experimental Media
Drama
English
French and Italian Studies
German Studies
History
Individual Ph.D. Program
Linguistics
Music
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Philosophy
Scandinavian Studies
Slavic Languages and Literature
Spanish and Portuguese		 Anthropology
Business School*
Built Environment*
Communication
Economics
Education
Environmental and Forest Resources*
Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
Geography
History
Human Centered Design and Engineering*
Individual Ph.D. Program
Information School*
International Studies (Jackson School)
Law
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Philosophy
Political Science
Psychology*
Public Affairs
Social Work
Sociology
Speech and Hearing Sciences*
Urban Design and Planning
*Social sciences emphasis only 

Questions?

Contact the Office of Fellowships & Awards.

Return to List of Fellowships

Getting Started in a Lab

If you are a new graduate student in the sciences, you will rotate through several labs during your first year at the University of Washington. Your challenge is to find the right lab for you — one that best matches your intellectual interests and that helps prepare you for your career.

How to get started in a lab

  • Sample a range of lab environments and cultures. Find a lab that will help you develop as a researcher.

Find out what the ground rules and expectations are.

  • How many hours are you expected to be in the lab? (Remember that research is not a 9 to 5 job; you should look forward to hanging out in the lab—but also make sure you know specific expectations for your time).
  • What’s the definition of “progress” in lab work? What’s the definition of progress in graduate work in your discipline?

Look for opportunities that will benefit your career.

  • Will you have an opportunity to publish?
  • Will you get credit—as an author, co-author—for the work you do in the lab? Will your intellectual work really be your own? Seek a lab that gives ownership of your ideas to you.
  • Will you have a chance to push beyond the boundaries of particular grants?
  • Will you be able to collaborate with other labs?

Be smart.

  • The best lab is not necessarily the one that pays the most.
  • Success is not always about being comfortable— so look for a lab where you will be pushed a bit.

How to evaluate labs

Both established and new labs have great merit.

  • In an established lab, find out: What’s the lab’s track record? Where have people ended up working after their lab experience?
  • Recognize that some younger faculty—who do not have well established labs and therefore do not have the same track record as established labs—often bring the newest ideas to the discipline and are often willing to spend time with graduate students. Such labs might be a better place to try new things.
  • Where do people in the lab publish? In top-tier journals?
  • Ask other students about the labs.
  • Trust your instincts.

Be clear about your own expectations for mentorship in a lab.

  • How often would you like to meet with faculty mentors? (Make sure that the time you request is for the most pressing matters; don’t waste time on minor details that you can find out elsewhere).
  • Can you get on the mentor’s calendar? (Ask other graduate students in the lab about the nature and extent of mentorship).

Make good use of your lab work: Publish early and publish often.

  • Publications are the currency of success.
  • Publications are a guaranteed path to a relatively carefree thesis preparation.

How to succeed in a lab

  • Participation is the key to any successful lab. A successful lab draws on a variety of skills, so contribute.
  • Recognize that a good lab is one with mutual mentorship; that means you need to contribute, too. As a first-year student, you may well have expertise that others in the lab don’t have. Be a good citizen; contribute the work. Recognize that you have the potential to be a valuable contributor from the very first day you walk in the door.
  • Learn from others and support others in the lab. Recognize the expertise of all of your lab colleagues (faculty, visiting scientists, postdocs, graduate students, undergraduates, and even high school students).
  • During your first year, complete at least one research paper.

by Tom Daniel, professor, Biology

Succeeding in a Graduate Seminar

Some of your most important and impression-forming interactions with your classmates and professors occur in graduate seminars. Your stellar performance in graduate seminars is paramount to your success in the graduate program. Graduate seminars are the building blocks for your knowledge in the field and in graduate school.

How to succeed in a graduate seminar

Prepare for class

Do the reading. All of it. But don’t stop there. Annotate your reading. Ask questions of the text in the margins. Maybe even type up your notes. Always consider what’s at stake in the reading, how the reading informs your understanding of the class themes, other course materials, the methods, the content. How does the reading relate to your own burgeoning research questions?

Come to class with questions and discussion points. If you are reticent about speaking in class, recruit a friend to chat about your ideas for five minutes the day before class. Do not, however, memorize one point in the reading so that you make your one perfunctory comment in class. Everyone is on to that game!

In class

Do your part to help foster community. This means: Listen. Participate fully. Be respectful.

Showcase your intellectual curiosity by engaging with all types of ideas, not just the ones in your designated area of study.

When you speak, remember to look at your classmates, not exclusively at the professor.

Use your breadth of knowledge — connect the readings to other readings in your class and other out-of-class readings. Feel free to apply the readings or theme of the day to your project, but don’t be so focused on utilitarian knowledge that you fail to engage fully with all of the issues at hand.

Do not fall into the trap of wholesale skewering the reading of the week. This is intellectually lazy. The work must have some redeeming value if the professor has chosen to assign it. Even if you want to make a serious critique of the reading you should attempt to articulate its contributions/interventions as well as limitations.

Writing

Turn in all writing assignments on time. Do not save your seminar papers for the last week of class. Begin generating ideas the first week of class. Talk about your ideas with your classmates and your professor. If the professor has not given you a series of deadlines, create deadlines for yourself (i.e., identify paper topic in the third week of class, generate working bibliography in the fourth week of class, create abstract in the fifth week, write your first draft in the sixth week, etc.).

Graduate seminars are your first practice attempts at being a scholar. It should be fun to engage with ideas. Be prepared to spar respectfully — and always be prepared!

by Ralina Joseph, professor, Communication