Regulations for Graduate Study – Funding

Departmental Funding

Departmental First-Year Fellowships

The department awards a small number of one-year fellowships each year to incoming students. Each fellowship includes a stipend, full tuition coverage, and student health insurance. Students receiving these fellowships cycle onto the GTA track in subsequent years.

Departmental Dissertation Fellowships

The department awards a limited number of one-year departmental dissertation fellowships each year to students who are writing their dissertations. Each fellowship includes a stipend, full tuition coverage, and student health insurance.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

Each year the department awards a number of Graduate Teaching Assistantships. Each GTA position includes a stipend, full tuition coverage, and student health insurance. The majority of GTAs assist faculty members teaching the department’s introductory survey courses. Graduate Teaching Assistants are expected to attend all of the professor’s lectures, meet with the professor and the other GTAs assigned to the course regularly, and conduct four fifty-minute discussion sections each week for up to twenty students per section, for whom the GTA has full grading responsibility. All students serving for the first time as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of History must register for HY 600: Teaching History in the Fall Semester of the first year of their GTA appointment.

Reappointment to a Graduate Teaching Assistantship position is contingent upon successful performance of GTA duties, maintaining a 3.5 GPA in the student’s own coursework, and demonstrating adequate progress in the degree program. Students who fail to show progress towards their degree will not be renewed. The Director of Graduate Studies may waive these requirements, in consultation with the Graduate Committee, at his or her discretion.

History Writing Fellows

The Department of History employs two History Ph.D. students each year as History Writing Fellows at the University Writing Center. History Writing Fellows provide writing tutoring to students writing papers (especially History papers) throughout the University. Writing Fellows receive a stipend, full tuition coverage, and student health insurance.

Graduate School Fellowships

Graduate Council Fellowships for Incoming Students

The departmental Graduate Committee is able to nominate a small number of highly-qualified incoming students for consideration for one-year fellowships awarded by the University’s Graduate Council. Graduate Council Fellowships are awarded in a University-wide competition and are the most prestigious awards given by the University to incoming graduate students. The fellowships come with a stipend, full tuition coverage, and student health insurance. No service to the University is required. Incoming students receiving Graduate Council Fellowships cycle onto the GTA track in subsequent years.

Graduate Council Fellowships for Dissertators

The Graduate Council awards a limited number of one-year fellowships to students in the late stages of their dissertations. The departmental Graduate Committee solicits applications from Ph.D. students for these fellowships and selects a small number to nominate to the Graduate Council. Applicants are selected based on the student’s overall academic record, progress toward degree, quality of dissertation research, evidence of professional development and scholarly productivity, as well as overall service to the department and the University. The awards come with a stipend, full tuition coverage, and student health insurance.

McNair Graduate Fellowships

McNair Graduate Fellowships are awarded by the Graduate School to incoming graduate students of superior ability who are either first-generation college students from low-income families or are members of groups that are traditionally underrepresented in graduate education (Hispanic, African American, Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander.) The departmental Graduate Committee is able to nominate a small number of incoming students for consideration for these fellowships. McNair Graduate Fellowships are awarded for one year for M.A. students and two years for Ph.D. students, and come with a stipend, full tuition coverage, and student health insurance. Students receiving McNair Graduate Fellowships cycle onto the GTA track in subsequent years.

National Alumni Association Graduate Fellowships

To be eligible for these awards, the applicant must hold regular admission to the Graduate School, must have an academic record of superior quality and indicative of a high probability of success in graduate school, and be a resident of the State of Alabama. Preference is given to incoming students.

Graduate Conference Travel and Research Funding

The Department of History partners with the University’s Graduate School to support student travel to present the results of their research at academic conferences and to conduct academic research. Students are eligible to apply for support for one conference trip and one research trip per academic year. Applications are solicited three times per year for travel in the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters respectively.

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