2025-2026 Urban Studies Dissertation Completion Fellowship
The Urban Studies dissertation completion fellowship is a competitive fellowship with a service component for advanced doctoral students in the final year of their dissertation work. In addition to completing the dissertation, the fellow will be responsible for teaching one course for the Urban Studies program, and taking a leading role in organizing public programs and communication for the Urban Studies graduate certificate program. As with the Graduate Division’s SAS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, the award is nonrenewable.
The Fellowship is open to Ph.D. candidates in any department in the School of Arts & Sciences whose research is relevant to urban studies, and who have reached the end of their funding in the year that they hold this fellowship.
Preference will be given to students enrolled in the Urban Studies Graduate Certificate Program, but students in other departments whose work is significantly urban-related will also be given consideration.
A completed application must include a cover letter explaining the applicant’s interest in the fellowship, and how their work represents an urban focus. In addition, the application should include:
(1) An up-to-date, unofficial Penn transcript.
(2) Two current letters of recommendation. Letters should be emailed directly by the recommender to urbs@sas.upenn.edu. Please have them include “Urban Studies DCF recommendation” in the subject line.
(3) A CV that includes a list of publications and conference papers. (lease attach PDFs of 1-2 publications, if available.
(4) The tentative title of the dissertation, the name of the dissertation supervisor/chair, and a 2-page abstract of your dissertation proposal that includes an explanation for how it addresses issues or questions relevant to Urban Studies.
(5) A statement from discussing your specific plans for completing the dissertation and degree by the end of the fellowship period.
(6) A summary of your previous teaching experience.
Criteria for selection are: 1) likelihood that the applicant can complete dissertation during the award year; 2) previous research and teaching experience; and 3) relevance of research and teaching for urban studies.
Compensation includes a teaching stipend (based on current graduate student funding in SAS), dissertation fee reimbursement, and benefits.