Graduate Fellowship Program

Ethnographic and fieldwork research demands significant time, energy, and focus.

The Ethnography Lab's Graduate Fellowship Program supports PhD students as they conduct dissertation research. Financially, fellows will receive $3,000 stipends to help defray the costs of central research tasks, which may include travel to field sites, transcription of interviews, and compensation for participants. In terms of intellectual support, the Lab coordinates and funds an "Advanced Empirical Seminar" for each graduate fellow. Each graduate fellow will select a distinguished scholar from outside the university whose insights they wish to integrate into their dissertation. In the Spring quarter, the Lab brings these outside scholars to Stanford (either in person or virtually) to provide mentorship and feedback on graduate fellows’ in-progress work (e.g., dissertation chapter, journal article).   

Fellowships are open to Stanford PhD candidates who are conducting fieldwork (e.g., observations, interviews) as a central component of their dissertations. Applicants must have successfully defended their dissertation proposal, have collected at least some portion of fieldwork data, and have begun the analysis and writing process by the time of their application.

Fellowship recipients will be expected to enroll in, or attend, at least two quarters of the Qualitative and Fieldwork Methods Workshop (Sociology 380W) during their fellowship year (participation in Spring quarter is required).

Applications will be accepted until Monday, September 23, 2024. Applicants will be notified of the decision by early October 2024.

Apply HERE with the following materials:

• Abstract/summary of your dissertation project (~500 words), describing the central research questions, data sources, and theoretical implications.
• Current CV.
• Writing sample from dissertation project. (We suggest a chapter draft, article manuscript, or other significant writing related to your dissertation project. Please do not submit your dissertation proposal.)
• The names of three faculty members from outside Stanford University that you would like the Ethnography Lab to invite to read your work and participate in your Advanced Empirical Seminar.

Questions? Email Professor Forrest Stuart (fstuart@stanford.edu).