Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) – Dissertation Completion Fellowship

The Dissertation Completion Fellowships encourage the timely completion of doctorates by the most promising graduate students in the field; create a cohort of fellows who will lead the field of Jewish Studies for decades to come; expose new audiences to Jewish Studies scholarship through fellows’ public lectures; and promote continued growth of academic Jewish Studies. The program both provides resources to fellows, in the form of a stipend, as well as professional development opportunities, through a mid-year workshop and ongoing contact with mentors during the fellowship year. Only students who are in the final stages of writing their dissertations and who display clear evidence of their ability to defend their dissertations by the end of June of the fellowship year are eligible to apply for this program.

A unique feature of the program is its public engagement component. Each fellow is asked to give one public lecture or workshop at the end of their fellowship year in which they share their research with a general audience. The purpose of this public speaking component is to give fellows crucial experience in making their work accessible to an interested but non-expert public, and to help satisfy the great demand for engaging and sophisticated discussion of Jewish history, literature, religion, and culture.