Connected PhD Grant to Fund Fellowships in Higher Education Administration During Coronavirus Pandemic
June 2, 2020
Simon Goodacre | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) has dedicated some Connected PhD funds to support fellowships in higher education administration at Brandeis University. The launch of the Connected PhD was announced on August 22, 2019. The four-year initiative, supported by a $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is intended to make the consideration of careers and work outside the academy, including careers in higher education administration, an integral part of doctoral education in the humanities and humanistic social sciences at Brandeis.
GSAS is collaborating with a variety of offices around the University to develop fellowship opportunities over the summer and fall semester, including: the Dean of Arts and Sciences Office, Institutional Advancement, the University Writing Program, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and many academic departments. PhD students in Anthropology, English, History, Musicology, Music Composition and Theory, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS), Politics, and Sociology may apply for any of these positions. The fellowships must provide meaningful supervision and professional development, a project with a concrete deliverable, and the ability to continue work on-campus and remotely. Students interested in applying for fellowships should apply online by June 12, 2020. As the fellowships become available, they will be posted in the Connected PhD section of the GSAS website and shared in email updates to students.
“This was a happy coincidence,” says Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs. “We always knew that many of our PhD students would be interested in careers in higher education administration, so we had been planning to create these fellowships for some time. The Coronavirus pandemic created an urgent need for graduate student employment opportunities at Brandeis, so we have expedited this program in the hopes that it will relieve some of the financial pressures associated with the crisis. We are grateful to the Mellon Foundation for allowing us to be flexible with the Connected PhD grant during this challenging period.”
Departments that are interested in creating a Connected PhD fellowship should contact Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli or Emily Wheeler in the GSAS office.