University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research

ISR Fellowships

ISR offers the Innovation in Social Research Fellowship annually. The fellowship is designed to support a candidate to complete dissertation research and writing.

The purpose of this fellowship is to promote innovative empirically grounded, social scientific analysis of important intellectual or practical issues pertaining to human behavior or social life. The proposed research should challenge conventional wisdom, use innovative/novel techniques and/or cross-disciplinary boundaries in new and unusual ways. In addition, the award should facilitate such analysis in active association with an ISR research project or program area.

Eligibility

Applicants must have completed all requirements for Ph.D. candidacy (or equivalent degree in a professional school).
Applicants must have been admitted to candidacy and must provide a written letter confirming candidacy from the thesis advisor or student's graduate chair. Must be eligible to accept the fellowship and after receiving the fellowship funds must plan to finish within a year.
Candidates within the social and behavioral sciences departments or inter-school, interdisciplinary programs with such departments will be given preference; other applicants will be considered, however.

Terms

The award will cover tuition and Grad Care and will include a stipend of $20,000. In most instances the term of the award will be limited to twelve months. If departmental, collegiate or extramural monies complement the ISR award, the term may be extended up to a total of 24 months, but we discourage this.

Application Procedure and Deadline

Nomination materials should include (1) an up-to-date original transcript, (2) two or three letters of nomination from the department chair, dissertation advisor or committee members stating the strengths of the nomination and vouchsafing the candidate's eligibility, (3) a brief [two to three page] description of the project, its title, and its intellectual relationship to an ISR project or archived data including identification of the dissertation advisor and/or committee.

Applications should be sent to Jennifer Puckett at 6065 ISR.

The deadline for submission is Friday, March 6, for the award starting in Fall 2009. The winner will be announced by March 27, 2009.

Past Innovation Fellowship Awardees

Recipient	Department	Year	Disseration Title
Sandberg, Jack	Sociology	2001	Child Mortality, Family Building, and Social Learning in Two Nepalese Communities
McConnaughy, Corrine	Political Science	2002	Extension of Suffrage as Policy Innovation - A Comparative Study of the American States
Thoms, Christopher	SNRE	2003	Devolutionary Disconnect: A Political Ecology of British Aid, Commuity Forestry and the Gap Between Policy and Practice in Nepal
Taylor, Laramie	Communications	2004	Framing Articles About Sex in Popular Magazines: Processes and Effects
Niia, Yu	Psychology	2005	Contingent Self-Worth and Vulnerable Self-Esteem: Learning Orientations as a Buffer
Sahm, Claudia	Economics	2006	Changes in Risk Preference
Williams, Nathalie	Sociology	2007	Migration and Armed Conflict: the civilian consequences of political violence
Griffin, Tiffany	Psychology	2008	Intersections of Class, Race, and Gender in Present‐ and Post‐Affirmative Action Higher Educational Contexts: Implications for Discrimination and Policy

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