Applications for the Fall 2024 FHC Research Fellowship are due May 20, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Earn $1,000 for part-time work and workshops during the semester.
Take the lead on your own independent research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor. It can be any research, scholarship, or creative work related to your studies, or even an interdisciplinary project.
You'll be part of a community of Honors research scholars from different fields and gain a broad perspective of what research looks like across disciplines. Each week, you’ll develop your research skills by learning foundational research concepts, attending group meetings, and sharing your work with other fellowship awardees.
Fellowship Details
The Frederick Honors College (FHC) Research Fellowship aims to:
- Provide students an opportunity to intellectually engage with a variety of subjects across the humanities, arts, social sciences, and natural sciences.
- Facilitate topical, conceptual, and even abstract connections across disciplines.
- Promote critical thinking about different forms of research, scholarship, and creativity, as well as different research methods.
- Develop a student's ability to communicate to a variety of audiences.
- Increase students’ awareness of research funding structures and processes.
The fellowship supports University of Pittsburgh undergraduates who conduct an independent research project, participate in an interdisciplinary weekly seminar in which Fellows present and discuss their projects, and attend a series of faculty talks, workshops, and panel discussions. The fellowship awards a stipend of $1000; in addition, it requires students to register for 1 credit of research. Please note that if the 1 credit pushes a fellowship winner over 18 credits, with special permission the Fellow may register for this credit in a later term.
Awards will be divided as evenly as possible among arts/humanities, natural sciences/professional schools, and social sciences disciplines. The student Fellows must be able to attend a weekly student seminar.
Student Seminar
The weekly seminar will give students the opportunity to share their research with one another through both class discussion and learning how to present your work to different audiences. Because the interdisciplinary interactions that occur in the seminar are paramount to the FHC Research Fellowship, every effort will be made in the selection process to ensure there is an equal distribution of disciplines.
While discussion will be primarily student driven, students will learn about different approaches to research and scholarship within the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences to bring different perspectives to the discussion.
Who May Apply
Undergraduate students on the Pittsburgh campus who have identified a research mentor or appropriately qualified graduate student who has agreed to work with them during the Fellowship. Students also must be registered for courses full time during the term for which the fellowship is awarded. The fellowship is open to students from any field and any class, including first-year students and seniors.
Selection Criteria
Projects may be analytic or purely creative. The FHC Research Fellowship supports any form of research, scholarship, or creative work that is appropriate to a student’s discipline.
Fellows are selected based on the following criteria:
- Their academic record
- The quality and coherence of their proposal (Is it understandable to someone outside their discipline?)
- The originality and promise of their proposed projects
- Their interdisciplinary interests and potential to contribute to the interdisciplinary community of students in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and applied disciplines
While all types of proposals are strongly encouraged, special consideration will be given to projects that are interdisciplinary in nature (crossing the boundaries of humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences).
It is important to remember that unlike many other research proposals this one must be written in a manner that is understandable to a broad, non-expert audience, and therefore use minimal jargon.
* A note to undergraduates at the early stages of research: While the FHC Fellowship is primarily for students with developed projects, there are also spaces reserved for students in the earlier stages of the process. In an effort to promote budding researchers across disciplines, students at the early stages of the research process are welcome to apply to further develop their research. Students are encouraged to work with a research mentor to learn foundational research methods in their field and assist them in conducting their individual research projects.
How to Apply
In consultation with the sponsoring faculty member the student must submit an application by May 20, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. All application materials must be received by that time. The FHC will evaluate the proposals, and all applicants will be notified of the decisions within roughly 30 days of the application deadline.
Download detailed application instructions (PDF).
Given the number of applications received, no late applications will be considered. Students are highly encouraged to submit applications ahead of time and anticipate potential submission obstacles (e.g., internet outages, computer problems, etc.).
The Awards
Each successful applicant will be awarded $1000 for carrying out the proposed project. The funds are directly credited to the Fellow’s student account as a stipend; therefore, a student must be registered for courses during the term for which the fellowship is awarded.
Application materials required (detailed explanations of each item can be found in the application instructions above:
- A project proposal
- A brief statement of interest in the community
- An up-to-date academic transcript
- A letter of recommendation from your faculty or research mentor
It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide all materials mentioned above and to ensure that the mentor’s letter of recommendation is submitted. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.