AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowship Competition

The AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowship encourages the timely completion of doctorates by the most promising graduate students in the field of Jewish Studies. 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.

Recipients may receive up to $33,000 as well as complimentary registration fees to the 2027 AJS Annual Conference. The AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowships will be awarded based on merit and need. Fellowship recipients must submit evidence of any additional funding, at which point the AJS fellowship amount may be reduced to account for these extra funds. This fellowship will thus serve as a “top-off” award for recipients with additional funding. Recipients without any other funding will be eligible to receive $33,000, the full amount of the award.

Qualifications

1. •    The applicant must be completing a dissertation in the field of Jewish Studies.
2. •    Applicants must be current members of the AJS at the time of application. Membership may be taken out or renewed in order to be a current member.
3. •    Applicants must have completed all requirements of the PhD except the dissertation (ABD status) by the application deadline.
4. •    The dissertation must be in English, although citations may be in other languages provided translations are included.
5. •    Recipients of a Dissertation Completion Fellowship may not receive total grant support in excess of $33,000 during their fellowship year.

Application Requirements (to be upload as one PDF document)

1. •    CV
2. •    Dissertation Proposal
3. •    Dissertation Table of Contents
4. •    Two Dissertation Chapters (one of which should not be the introduction, conclusion, or literature review)
5. •    Bibliography (no more than 2–3 pages)
6. •    One-page timeline outlinging the schedule for completing and successfully defending the dissertation by June 30, 2028
7. •    Two Confidential Letters of Recommendation (Recommenders will only receive the link to upload a recommendation once you submit your application--please allow enough time between application submission and the due date to have your recommenders be able to upload their letters by November 2, 2026 by 11:59 PM. Also, please note that the application system does not receive letters of recommendation from other application systems, so your recommenders will need to upload their letters directly).

The deadline to submit all materials, including receiving recommendation letters, is Monday, November 2 at 11:59 PM EDT.

Questions? Contact Amy Weiss at aweiss@associationforjewishstudies.org

2016–2025 AJS Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipientss