FAQs

Cover letters can be addressed to the Global History Selection Committee. Please use this as an opportunity to briefly tell us what draws you to the Research Cluster. You can also contextualize your work within the global history context and let us know how it fits in with our mission to promote global history as a critical humanistic enterprise in today’s world of coexisting and contending cultures. Please keep things concise- one page is ideal, and no more than two.

Global History Fellows are expected to be in residence and full participants in the scholarly community during the formal programming period of the Research Cluster (late August through the end of April), with the exception of the winter, spring, and summer breaks. You will be expected to carry out any extensive fieldwork during the winter, spring, or summer breaks. Short trips to attend conferences and other academic engagements are permitted as long as they do not conflict with your Global History obligations.

Research Proposal

Your research proposal should be no longer than 1500 words. References and citations will not count towards the word limit. The Selection Committee is most interested in the relevance and the contribution your research makes to your discipline. These should be clear in the research proposal.

The Selection Committee is also interested in how you intend to use the fellowship year. In many cases, Fellows intend to use to prepare the dissertation for publication as a book or a series of articles. If applicable, scholars should summarize their publication plans and future research plans. If you expect to begin a new research project that is significantly different than your PhD dissertation, you should introduce the topic and perhaps explain how your new research continues/expands your doctoral research or takes you in a different direction.

Applicants may wish to consult the essay "On the Art of Writing Proposals" (pdf) by Przeworski and Salomon on the SSRC website. Note, however, that this essay is written with specific proposals in mind, rather than the Research Cluster’s broader interest in an applicant's research.