The Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan (WCED) offers Weiser Emerging Democracy Fellowships for Incoming Graduate Students in 2015-16. These fellowships will be awarded to incoming graduate students at the University of Michigan who expect to focus their graduate work around the theme of "emerging democracy past or present".
This focus on emerging democracy is understood broadly. For example, it might refer to the historical development of democratic (or conversely, autocratic) rule; the impact of culture, literature, or the economy on democratic governance; the public sphere and civil society; or the impact of environmental conditions.
Working with departments and schools, WCED will help recruit students to the University of Michigan and the study of emerging democracy. We encourage all units to collaborate with us in developing this thematic within scholarly disciplines, and across the university, by nominating their best prospective students in this field of scholarship. The fellowships are intended to recruit excellent individual students--they cannot be used to supplement the pool of departmental graduate funding and subsidize other graduate candidates.
Fellowship awards up to $20,000 will be given; the number of fellowships awarded is contingent on the availability of funds.
We expect Weiser Emerging Democracy Fellows to participate in the various lectures and conferences of the Center, and to join the Emerging Democracies Graduate Workshop. Upon successful completion of this workshop, up to an additional $3,000 will be added to awardees’ accounts to support their research on emerging democracy.
Nominating departments/schools must provide:
1. A copy of all application materials submitted for consideration of admission.
2. A short letter of support from the department chair and/or faculty advisor, including information on other funding to be offered to the nominee and the proposed use of Weiser Emerging Democracy Fellowship funds, and a brief explanation about how this student's work—if not obvious from the application—would inform the study of emerging democracy.
Deadline for submission of nomination materials:February 16, 2015.
For more information, please contact Julie Burnett at 734.936.1842 or jclaus@umich.edu.
Please send nominations to:Student FellowshipsWeiser Center for Emerging Democracies1080 S. University Ave, Suite 3668Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106
