The Penn Urban Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship is a competitive fellowship with a service component for advanced doctoral students in the final year of their dissertation work. In addition to completing the dissertation, the fellow will be responsible for teaching one course for the Urban Studies program and taking a leading role in organizing public programs and communication for the Urban Studies graduate certificate program. As with the Graduate Division’s SAS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, the award is nonrenewable.

The Fellowship is open to Ph.D. candidates in any department in the School of Arts & Sciences whose research is relevant to urban studies and who are in their 6th or 7th year of study. Preference will be given to students enrolled in the Urban Studies Graduate Certificate Program, but students in other departments whose work is significantly urban-related will also be given consideration.

A completed application must include a cover letter explaining the applicant’s interest in the fellowship, and how their work represents an urban focus. In addition, the application should include:

(1) An up-to-date, unofficial Penn transcript.

(2) Two current letters of recommendation. (Letters should be emailed directly by the recommender to urbs@sas.upenn.edu. Please have them include “Urban Studies DCF recommendation” in the subject line.)

(3) A CV that includes a list of publications and conference papers. (Please attach PDFs of 1-2 publications, if available.)

(4) The tentative title of the dissertation, the name of the dissertation supervisor/chair, and a 2-page abstract of your dissertation proposal that includes an explanation for how it addresses issues or questions relevant to Urban Studies.

(5) A statement from the nominee discussing his or her specific plans for completing the dissertation and their degree by the end of the fellowship period.

(6) A summary of the applicant’s previous teaching experience.

Criteria for selection are: 1) likelihood that the applicant can complete their dissertation and degree during the award year; 2) previous research and teaching experience; and 3) relevance of research and teaching for urban studies. The review committee will announce its results by the end of May.

Compensation includes a teaching stipend (based on current graduate student funding in SAS), dissertation fee reimbursement, and benefits.

Please send all materials via email by Thursday, April 30, 2020, to urbs@sas.upenn.edu, and include “Urban Studies DCF application” in the subject line. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.