Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (HFG) Young African Scholars Program 2020 ($2,000 USD grant)

In addition to the foundation’s program of support for postdoctoral research, ten or more dissertation fellowships are awarded each year to graduate students who would complete the writing of a dissertation within the award year.

These fellowships of $20,000 each are designed to contribute to the support of the doctoral candidate to enable him or her to complete the thesis in a timely manner and are only appropriate for students approaching the final year of their Ph.D. work.

This fellowship is not for support of doctoral research. Applications are evaluated in comparison with each other and not in competition with the postdoctoral research grant proposals. Applicants may be citizens of any country and studying at colleges or universities in any country.

Questions that interest the foundation concern violence and aggression in relation to social change, intergroup conflict, war, terrorism, crime, and family relationships, among other subjects. Dissertations with no relevance to understanding human violence and aggression will not be supported. Priority will also be given to areas and methodologies not receiving adequate attention and support from other funding sources.

Eligibility

These grants are made to Ph.D. candidates who are entering the dissertation stage of graduate school. Usually, this means that fieldwork or other research is complete and writing has begun. If analysis and writing are not far enough along for an applicant to be confident that he will complete the dissertation within the year, he should not apply, as the application will not be competitive with those that comply with this timetable.

In some disciplines, particularly experimental fields, research and writing can reasonably be expected to be completed within the same year, and in those cases it is appropriate to apply.

Timing

Applications for dissertation fellowships must be received by February 1, for a decision in June. Applications are reviewed during the spring and final decisions are made by the Board of Directors at its meeting in June. Applicants will be informed promptly by e-mail as well as letter of the Board’s decision. Awards ordinarily commence on September 1, but other starting dates (after July 1) may be requested if the nature of the project makes this appropriate.

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Final Report

Recipients of the dissertation fellowship must submit a copy of the dissertation, approved and accepted by their institution, within six months after the end of the award year. Any papers, books, articles, or other publications based on the research should also be sent to the foundation.

Application

Applications are submitted online–the application will be available beginning October 1st. (However, we will still accept a mailed application using our previous application method, a printable PDF form, provided it arrives at the foundation’s office no later than February 1, or the following Monday if February 1 falls on a weekend.) Applicants will first create a login account and will then be able to access detailed guidelines and the online application.