Department of History

The Department offers various types of financial aid to students in the doctoral program. The application for admission serves as the application for financial aid and is due December 15, 2011.

Department Fellowship/Teaching Assistantship: Stipend ($20,000 in 2011-2012) and tuition support (nine credits) for five years, two additional years of tuition support, and health insurance for the duration of the fellowship. Renewable Assistantships are awarded on entry to the program to seven or eight students, and grantees must maintain an A- average (3.67 GPA), avoid incomplete course work, complete degree requirements on time (including passing at least one language exam by the end of their first year of study), and do satisfactory work as teaching assistants to be renewed. Those who meet these criteria are automatically renewed. Students receiving these awards normally serve for three years as Teaching Assistants assigned to work with members of the faculty. Two of the five fellowship years are non-service. All first-year students are exempt from service requirements. A second year without service is guaranteed, with certain requirements, to wit: 1) That second year without service is to come after students have passed their comprehensive exams, and after they have filed a dissertation prospectus with the Graduate School; 2) The second non-service year can be awarded only after students have satisfied their dissertation committees that they have applied for all appropriate outside grants.

Environmental History Fellowship: Each year the Georgetown History Departments awards a full five-year fellowship in environmental history. Holders of this fellowship may study any part of the world, in any period. Students interested in this opportunity should apply to one of the eight fields the Department offers and make clear their interest in environmental history in the application. Students holding this fellowship have no formal service requirements to the Department. In other respects the terms are the same as with renewable Teaching Assistantships. (see above). Students interested in applying for this fellowship should contact Professor John McNeill.

Fellowship in the History of the Early Modern World: Starting in 2009, the History Department will occasionally award a five-year fellowship for students interested in early modern history with a global reach. Students holding this fellowship have no formal service requirements to the Department. In other respects the terms are the same as with renewable Department Fellowships/Assistantships (see above). Students interested in applying for this fellowship should contact Professor Alison Games.

American Studies Association Fellowship: The fellowship covers tuition fees and and stipend support ($20,000 per year) for the first year of study in the Ph.D. program. The fellowship is renewable for a second year, contingent on satisfactory performance.

Competitive Teaching Assistantships: The department awards some one-year teaching assistantships to continuing, non-funded students, based on an annual competition. Such grants are not renewable, but those who hold such an assistantship may re-enter the competition in succeeding years.
Teaching assistants lead discussion sections in lecture classes, help grade student work, and usually give one lecture each semester. A teaching assistant's work is limited to 15 hours per week; most find that they work about 10-12 hours per week, except during those weeks when they are grading papers or exams.

Scholarships: The department offers tuition scholarships independently of stipend support to some students; such support is based on an annual competition. These awards are available to students progressing within the seven-year time limit and are dependent on availability of funds.

Evan Armstrong North Graduate Research Award Fund: This fund has been established by Dr. Diane Tarantino North, in the memory of her son, Evan Armstrong North, a distinguished graduate of our Master of Arts in Global, International and Comparative History (MAGIC) program who went on to win a fellowship in our Ph.D. program, where he continued to do outstanding work. Evan North’s extraordinarily promising scholarly career was cut tragically short by his untimely death in April 2011 at the age of 28. His mother is hopeful that Evan’s “legacy as a seeker of truth, creator of knowledge, and dedicated teacher will endure through the establishment of this Fund.”
The income from the promised endowment will support a merit-based research award for a graduate of the MAGIC program who has been admitted to the Georgetown History Ph.D. program, or—in years when no MAGIC graduate joins the Ph.D. program—for a graduate of another Master’s program who has joined our doctoral program. The History Department’s Graduate Studies Committee will select award recipients in accordance with its policies and procedures.