Social Science Research Council

With funding from the Ford Foundation, this joint SSRC/ACLS program was designed to increase the flow of talented graduate students in the social sciences into research and teaching careers oriented to the developing world, and to encourage the pursuit of context-sensitive social science. The program has been aimed primarily at graduate students at 23 universities enrolled in PhD programs in economics, political science, psychology and sociology, but has been open to students in other social science disciplines as well.

Please note that the program is no longer awarding fellowships.

Awards:

Fellowships have provided 12 months of support for a training program that prepared fellows to conduct context-sensitive dissertation field research. The intent of the fellowship has been to encourage students to prepare to undertake dissertation research in Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus, China, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Near and Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Standard Fellowships:

The standard fellowships have provided 12 months of support over a 2-year period. Fellowships typically supported a combination of language training, overseas study and coursework in area studies, in addition to living stipends and international travel expenses.

Advanced Disciplinary Training Fellowships (ADT):

A small number of ADT Fellowships have been awarded to students of economics, political science, psychology, and sociology who have exceptionally strong backgrounds in an area of the world. These fellowships supported advanced theoretical and methodological training which would provide a more sophisticated understanding of the fellows' discipline. ADT fellowships have been primarily intended for study at a US university.

Requirements:

Applicants have been expected to work with a disciplinary advisor and an area specialist in the design of a 12-month training program that would enable them to develop knowledge and skills critical to the conduct of context-sensitive research in a part of the developing world.

Please note that the program is no longer awarding fellowships.