Laurance S. Rockefeller Graduate Prize Fellowships

Fellowship Information

The GPF program recognizes and supports post-generals graduate students enrolled at Princeton University with distinguished academic records (in any discipline) whose dissertation research centrally involves the critical study of human values. In addition to providing tangible support, a main purpose is to enable scholars working on topics in human values to engage with each other both informally and in the yearlong faculty-led course, Dissertation Seminar, where they present their work in progress and participate in workshops on career development and placement. 

Graduate Prize Fellowships provide a “premium” stipend for their departmental division, for twelve months. (In 2023-24, the stipend is $50,400 for graduate students in the Humanities/Social Sciences divisions and $52,920 for students in the Natural Sciences/Engineering. These stipend rates may be adjusted for next year.) The stipend replaces the student’s University fellowship stipend during the Graduate Prize Fellowship term. The fellowship (and thereby, the monthly stipend payment) will end following a successful final public oral examination, withdrawal, or other enrollment-terminating event, regardless of when such an event occurs during the academic year.

Fellows are expected to make substantial progress towards completion of their dissertations and to participate regularly in the dissertation seminar. GPFs will be invited to participate actively in the intellectual community of the UCHV including seminars, colloquia and special events.

Selection Criteria

The principal considerations in the selection of fellows will be the promise of excellence in an applicant’s dissertation work, the applicant’s capacity to contribute constructively to the fellows’ group and the likelihood that participation in the program will help to shape and improve the applicant’s dissertation. Accordingly, substantial preference will be given to applicants who are in relatively early stages of work on their dissertation; the application asks students who would be in their sixth or later year of enrollment (when the fellowship would be held) to explain exceptional circumstances in order to be considered eligible. Fellows are expected to be enrolled and in residence during the 2024-25 academic year; those who intend to do fieldwork or research away from Princeton for extended periods of time in 2024-25 are not eligible.

Application Instructions

Those wishing to apply should submit an online application on the Global Programs System (search Program Name: Rockefeller and Show: Scholarship). The direct link to the Fellowship application is: https://gps.princeton.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Students.Apply&Program_ID=11073.

Please log in to apply using your Princeton username and password. Applicants must provide the following supporting materials (note that the research statement is the most important element of the application you submit, and that it should fully explain the dissertation project):

  • a current CV, which should include the length of the program in which the student is enrolled and their current year of enrollment;
  • a research statement of no more than 1,500 words that provides an overview of the applicant's dissertation written for non-specialists with a description of how the project bears on a dimension of the critical study of human values; this should include a description of which parts of the dissertation have already been written and the plan for completion; the applicant should also say why holding the fellowship would be valuable to their dissertation completion and future goals;
  • a dissertation chapter or other scholarly paper written in the past year (not to exceed 12,000 words, not counting references);
  • a departmentally-approved dissertation prospectus with a descriptive title – unless one of the two following conditions apply:
    • if the applicant’s department does not require approval of a prospectus by the date of this application, please submit a complete draft prospectus instead, and state the expected departmental date of approval;
    • if the applicant's department does not require a prospectus at all, then this element of the application can be skipped, or the applicant can submit a description of the planned dissertation of five to thirty pages in place of a formal prospectus;
  • statement of exceptional circumstances (between 50 and 300 words):  If you are applying to hold the fellowship in your sixth year (or a higher year), please explain what exceptional circumstances you have faced. These might include having become a parent during your time in graduate school or having had your fieldwork delayed by circumstances beyond your control, for example. If you have not faced exceptional circumstances that explain your seeking the fellowship in a year beyond your fifth year, then you are not eligible to apply for the fellowship;
  • the names and contact information for two faculty referees (including the dissertation supervisor) who are familiar with the applicant’s work. Referees will be contacted directly with instructions for uploading letters of reference. Applicants should inform their referees of their intention to apply for the fellowship so that they have ample time to prepare letters; and
  • an unofficial graduate transcript.

The deadline for submission of all applicant materials is Monday, February 19, 2024, for fellowships beginning September 2024. Faculty letters of recommendation are due on Friday, February 23, 2024. Please make sure your recommenders are made aware of their deadline before your application is submitted, given the short timeframe between the two due dates. The names of the recipients of the Graduate Prize Fellowships will be announced in May 2024.

Note on teaching, RA and RGS work during tenure of a Graduate Prize Fellowship: 

Graduate Prize Fellows are expected to spend the majority of their work time on their dissertations during the year in which they hold the fellowship. Thus, in the past, Graduate Prize Fellows were not permitted to take on teaching jobs (either as lecturers or assistants in instruction) or research assistantships during the year in which they hold the fellowship. 

This policy was recently changed to allow such work in exceptional circumstances only. Graduate Prize Fellows may now request permission to do so for a specific and limited opportunity from the UCHV Director and the Director of Early-Career Research, who will decide jointly. Whether permission is granted will depend, in any case, on (a) how much such work would interfere with the focus on dissertation work that is the purpose of the program; (b) in the case of teaching, whether the University Center and the student’s home department deem the teaching to be unusually advantageous to the student’s degree completion and professional development; or (c) whether the University Center and the student’s home department deem the work to be unusually advantageous to the student’s professional development, for example in view of an intended co-authored publication with the faculty supervisor. Please note that on the basis of the current policy, while some requests to undertake such work have been approved, other requests have been turned down, even when coming from the same student later in the same year.

Lastly, those seeking to hold both an LSR Graduate Prize Fellowship and a Resident Graduate Student (RGS) position in one of Princeton’s residential colleges should make their RGS position known to the University Center if awarded a Graduate Prize Fellowship.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Melissa Lane ([email protected]), Elizabeth Harman ([email protected]) or Regin Davis ([email protected]).

Click here to see this year's cohort of Graduate Prize Fellows.