- Applicants must have been admitted to Ph.D. candidacy (or equivalent progression in a professional school).
- Applicants must be eligible to accept the fellowship and after receiving the fellowship funds must plan to finish within a year.
The Fellowship Fund was established by the students, colleagues, family and friends of Robert Kahn to honor his lifelong commitment to using the best social science to generate new insights on major social problems and point toward their solutions. The Kahn Fellowship was created in this spirit.
The Fellowship will provide dissertation support for one doctoral candidate each year from the University community who is committed to using empirical science to help solve the deep and abiding challenges confronting society. The Fellowship will be awarded to the candidate whose research gives most promise of dealing innovatively with some major social problem.
Application materials should include:
- An up-to-date original transcript and CV.
- Three letters of nomination from the department chair, dissertation advisor or committee members stating the strengths of the application and vouchsafing the candidate's eligibility as well as supporting the likelihood of completing the dissertation in one year.
- A brief [three page] description of the project, including the description of the social issue of interest to the applicant and the way(s) in which the applicant’s research addresses that issue. The statement should be written with an interdisciplinary faculty review panel in mind; i.e., reviewers would NOT necessarily be familiar with the technical vocabulary of a specific field.
Applications are accepted in both electronic and hard copy format. Send electronic applications to Jennifer Puckett in pdf (portable document format). Hard copy applications should be sent to or dropped off at 6065 ISR (Campus Mail 1248). Note, letters of recommendation may be sent directly by the recommender in either electronic or hard copy format.
In most instances the term of the award will be limited to twelve months. If departmental, collegiate, or extramural monies complement the ISR award, the term may be extended up to a total of 24 months, but this is discouraged.