Funding Opportunities
TEACHING/RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
Doctoral students in Romance Languages and Literatures are usually awarded teaching/research fellowships, renewable for 5 years based on satisfactory progress, which include tuition remission, competitive annual stipends, 2 summer stipends, and a University Student Health Insurance Plan. Graduate students can also receive funding as research assistants for faculty projects, preceptors for the undergraduate language program, and as workshop organizers, as the need arises.
Graduate fellowship recipients are not required to teach during their first year, allowing ample time to focus on and complete course work. Fellowship recipients then gain teaching experience by serving as lectors and then as lecturers in the College's language program.
The academic records and teaching evaluations of all lectors and lecturers are reviewed by the RL&L faculty prior to submitting recommendations to the Humanities Dean of Students for aid to continue.
Lectors
RL&L graduate students on fellowship will be lectors during the second year of their fellowship. Lectors hold conversation sessions for groups of 6 to 9 students enrolled in a particular undergraduate language course. These sessions are generally scheduled for afternoons or evenings and are a required fourth-hour extension of language courses. Lectors work 8 to 10 hours per week, teaching, holding conversational 1-on-1 practice sessions with students, organizing program-related cultural activities, attending staff meetings, and grading mid-term and final exams. Staff meetings are designed to explain and discuss both the classroom materials and effective teaching strategies to help students develop strong aural/oral proficiency. Lectors are trained and supervised by course coordinators, who determine the distribution of tasks and specific lector assignments. The course coordinator also regularly evaluates lector performance.
Experienced lectors may be offered other opportunities, such as contribution to the technological databases of ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language), editorial assistantship for the Montaigne Studies journal, the opportunity to develop literature-based lector sessions for advanced-level language courses, or they may be selected to accompany students who enroll in undergraduate study abroad programs in France, Italy, and Spain.
Lecturers
RL&L students become lecturers during the third year of their fellowship and then again during their fifth year. Foreign Language Acquisition and Teaching (RLLT 38800) is a prerequisite for a lecturer position.
Students apply for lecturer positions during winter quarter of the academic year preceding the year they are eligible for lecturer status. Hiring is done by the College upon the recommendation of the department.
Students who have finished the 5 years of their fellowship may apply for additional teaching opportunities as a lecturer if they have completed their required coursework, passed RLLT 38800, and demonstrated teaching competence and an ability to work cooperatively with other lecturers and their coordinator. These lectureships for students past the fifth year of their fellowship will receive a salary established by the College and continue to receive tuition remission.
Summer Stipends
Students who are eligible to receive summer stipends must submit a short description of how they intend to use the stipend to their graduate adviser. After obtaining the adviser’s approval, students should submit this description to the Department Coordinator for approval at the next scheduled RL&L faculty meeting. The following autumn quarter, students must submit a brief report on the work accomplished during the summer to their adviser.
Summer stipend checks are distributed through the Humanities Dean of Students office in Walker 111 and are usually available the first day of summer quarter.
CONFERENCE GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS
Students who will be presenting a paper at an academic conference can receive up to $400 in reimbursement for eligible travel expenses (airfare or gasoline) through a Division of the Humanities Conference Grant; other expenses (e.g., rental cars, parking, food, lodging, conference fees) are not covered. Students must verify eligibility and get the appropriate paperwork from the Humanities Dean of Students Secretary in Walker 111 before traveling. Students may receive the grant a maximum of 2 times in their graduate careers, and only once in any given academic year. See http://humanities.uchicago.edu/current/#grants|conference-travel for details.
The Doolittle-Harrison Fellowship awards up to $400 to doctoral students who are presenting their work at a professional academic conference, or for dissertation research that involves short-term travel outside of the contiguous United States. More information is available at http://grad-affairs.uchicago.edu/programs/doolittle.shtml.
If there are sufficient funds in the budget, the department may reimburse students up to $200 per academic year for expenses incurred while presenting a paper at an academic conference. Students must apply for other available funding (e.g., Division of the Humanities Conference Grant) before applying for departmental support, and must get approval from the department before traveling. Students should submit the following information to their graduate adviser: conference details (name, date, location), letter of participation and/or acceptance, proposed budget, and what other funding has been applied for. The graduate adviser will then submit the student’s request at the next scheduled RL&L faculty meeting for approval by the department.
OTHER FUNDING SOURCES
The Humanities Dean of Students office provides several services to help students find appropriate internal or external funding, including a Grants/Fellowships Blog. The Office of Graduate Affairs also compiles funding information that may be helpful.