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Humanities Initiative Dissertation Support
Semester Release Opportunities, 2009/2010

 

The arrival of Humanities Initiative funds has made it possible for the College of the Liberal Arts (CLA), in cooperation with its affiliated Centers and Institutes, to expand support for dissertation writers in 2007-08 and succeeding years.  This memo describes a plan for providing releases from teaching or related service to humanities students who are supported on assistantships. Note that this program is meant to complement, not replace, existing programs such as the CLA dissertation research support and release awards and Institute for the Arts and Humanities summer residencies.

General Ground Rules

1. To be eligible for a dissertation release award, students must be ABD and be supported on an assistantship for the period covered by the dissertation release.  Fixed-term faculty are not eligible for dissertation releases.  Unless the Associate Dean approves an exception under special circumstances, it is assumed that departments will continue to pay regular assistantship stipends and tuition grant in aids for students receiving awards during fall and spring semesters.
2. Dissertation releases will be paid for by means of a $4000 grant to departments, to permit departments to replace the affected students; or $3000 grants to students directly, in the case of a summer release.  In order to participate, departments must arrange to replace fully the teaching responsibilities or other departmental duties of a student who receives a dissertation release so that students may devote full time to work on the dissertation.  In other words, the students cannot be given a partial release from teaching or other duties; they must be given a complete semester release.  Departments which violate this understanding may be dropped from the program.
3. Students are expected to remain in residence at University Park during the period of the release unless they receive permission from their Graduate Director to travel for the sake of research or other legitimate academic purposes.
4. The Associate Dean's office serves mainly as a clearinghouse for the determination of eligibility.  Students will be certified as eligible when the Graduate Director in each department certifies that the student has completed an acceptable dissertation proposal. 
5. To facilitate planning for the academic year, graduate directors will be asked to estimate students' eligibility; but only students who in fact complete accepted proposals will actually be given the award.  Graduate directors should anticipate that students will clear all hurdles when making estimates (so that planning can be effective in departments and in the Associate Dean's office).  Only in extraordinary cases will students be given a release when the graduate director has not indicated their likely eligibility beforehand.
6. Cooperating Center and Institute directors will offer complementary support as they see fit.  They will establish eligibility, guidelines, and decision-making procedures on their own, without approval of the Associate Dean. Complementary support from a Center or Institute does not supplant the Humanities Initiative Dissertation Release; the awards are conferred concurrently.
7. Centers and Institutes, as well as the CLA Dissertation Support Program, may permit students to compete for awards that would give them a second service-free semester of support exclusively devoted to the dissertation.  However, in order to participate in the programs described here, departments themselves may not provide a second semester of released time for the dissertation. Second semester dissertation releases from the CLA Dissertation Support Program will be granted only after the Humanities Initiative Dissertation Release semester.
8. It is understood as a condition of receiving CLA dissertation support that students will present their work at the spring Graduate Research Exhibition, unless their dissertation research has already been presented at the Exhibition.  Those affiliated with a Center or Institute may receive additional stipulations in its letter of offer.

The Program

Humanities Initiative Dissertation support semester release opportunities take the form of a Department Dissertation Release Award, which can be augmented by a Center and Institute Grant.

Department Dissertation Release Awards

Department Dissertation Release Awards ($4000) will go to departments in order to compensate them for releasing students from teaching or related activities so that students may devote full attention to their dissertations during the fall or spring semesters; or they will be $3000 awards made directly to the student in the case of a summer 2010 release (in which case the student is ineligible to teach in the department that summer).  Except for requiring a presentation at the Graduate Research Exhibition, these awards carry no additional responsibilities or compensations. 

Center and Institute Grant

The Center and Institute grants may be offered by the Africana Research Center, the Rock Ethics Institute, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the Center for Language Acquisition, the Center for Democratic Deliberation, and the Center for American Literary Studies.  (Centers that develop in the future will be invited to participate as well.) Those units will announce the details of their awards in separate communications; they may not always provide summer opportunities. 

Students who receive a Center or Institute grant will not only be excused from teaching or related duties (by means of the automatic Department Dissertation Release Award); depending on the particular Center, they will also receive an additional award in the form of a grant (typically between $500 and $1500) to support their research and related activities, be affiliated with the Center or Institute and have opportunities to participate in (and in some cases even plan) some of its activities, share common experiences with others affiliated with the Center or Institute, and share work in progress with faculty and other graduate students.  In some cases, recipients of Center and Institute Grants will be invited to use work space in a Center or Institute.  In all cases students will profit from stimulating research environments and gain recognition for their affiliation with a Center or Institute.  Precise activities will be specified in announcements and acceptance letters from the respective Center and Institute directors.

The Center and Institute directors stress that they welcome dissertation students whose work is related to their respective scholarly focuses.  The Africana Research Center focuses on scholarship related to the African diaspora.  The Center for Language Acquisition supports research on the learning and teaching of foreign and second languages. The Institute for the Arts and Humanities encourages studies, often interdisciplinary in nature, directly related to the humanities and/or the intersections between the humanities and the arts.  The Center for Democratic Deliberation is concerned with civic life and the character and quality of public discourse. The Richards Civil War Era Center promotes scholarship into the social, political, military, economic, and cultural aspects of the Civil War period.  The Rock Ethics Institute promotes ethical inquiry and awareness. 

How to Qualify and Apply

Graduate Directors

By March 1, 2010, departments should send to the Associate Dean a list of students who are likely to be eligible for a release and an estimate of what semester the student will take the release.  Changes are possible later, but it is especially important to know with some reliability whether students wish a summer release. 

Students

Students who wish only a Department Dissertation Release Award need not apply for it. 

Students who also wish to be considered for Center and Institute Grant award should forward an application to Denise Solomon, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies ( DHS12@psu.edu ), who will organize the applications and send them to centers and institutes for consideration.  Applications, submitted only by means of email attachments, should include a one-page description of the project (including an account of when the dissertation proposal is scheduled for approval), as well as the student's name and student number and contact information; a curriculum vitae (no more than three pages); and an additional one-page statement naming the Center or Institute they wish to be affiliated with, indicating the semester they wish to be so affiliated, and explaining why their projects are appropriate for that Center or Institute.  Center and Institute Grant deadlines are set per individual Center or Institute. See the corresponding Center or Institute calls for applications for additional information and specific application deadlines.

Selections will be made by the Center and Institute directors. Those not selected for a Center or Institute, if otherwise eligible, will always be granted a department dissertation award.

Notifications will be made by May 1.