Financial Support for Graduate Students

The Department of Art History customarily awards graduate assistantships (GAs) and tuition grants-inaid (GIAs) to all incoming graduate students. MA students are normally awarded assistantships for both years of their program; PhD candidates in good standing may anticipate an assistantship through the 4th year, with eligibility continuing through the 5th year. Fifth-year assistantships are awarded when available. Continuing students must reapply annually for an assistantship. Continuation of support is based upon satisfactory progress toward the respective degree and satisfactory performance of assistantship duties. All GA appointments are half-time and require approximately twenty hours of work a week. 

Painting of a cat with her three kittens on a blanketed ledge with ivy growing from above.

Assistantships

Policy on Remote or Online Graduate Assistantships

Graduate Assistantships may involve remote assignments, such as serving as a grader for an online course as need arises.

Student requests for remote or online assignments will be considered on a case-by-case basis, with the following criteria as guidelines for approval: 

1. An online teaching, grading, or research opportunity is already scheduled or planned for the semester or academic year in question (i.e. new online opportunities will not be created to accommodate student preferences)

2. When the department receives multiple requests, priority will be given to:

  • PhD candidates who have completed coursework and passed the Comprehensive Examination
  • Students whose progress toward the completion of their degree would be demonstrably aided by a remote assignment (e.g. remote assignment would permit student to engage in archival or other on-site research necessary for the dissertation)
  • Students who have not previously been given an online assignment at their request.

University Fellowships and Awards

The Department of Art History has the opportunity to apply for University Graduate Fellowships for incoming PhD students with outstanding scholastic records. This fellowship provides a stipend plus full tuition for a student’s first academic year. This prestigious award allows students to devote full time to their first year of study without having work obligations. All applicants to the PhD program will be considered for nomination by the department for a University Graduate Fellowship. The department may be awarded one University Graduate Fellowship per year.

As a part of Penn State’s comprehensive plan to increase diversity, the University has Bunton-Waller Graduate Awards in the form of fellowships, fellowship supplements, and assistantships. Consideration for these awards takes place after a student is admitted but before matriculation.

The Department of Art History also has the opportunity to apply for Graham Endowed Fellowships and block grants from the Fund for Excellence in Graduate Recruitment, which provide additional financial support for incoming MA and PhD students who have already been awarded assistantships. These additional funds, when available, are awarded by the Graduate Program Committee in consultation with the Department Head.

Department of Art History Dissertation Fellowships

Department of Art History dissertation fellowships have been established to support PhD candidates for one or two semesters each academic year. These fellowships are intended for doctoral students who are ABD (“all but dissertation”) and are working full-time on dissertation research and/or writing. These funds are to support normal living expenses and can also be sued for research expenses. During the period of the fellowship, the student does not need to be in residence at University Park. Each December the Director of Graduate Studies will make a call for applications for the academic year; fellowships are awarded by the Graduate Program Committee in consultation with the Department Head.

Conference/Research Travel Funding

Funds are awarded within the department to support research (particularly for MA theses/papers and PhD dissertations) and travel. The amount and sources of research/travel grants vary annually. Calls for travel funding go out in December. Students should be prepared with a travel proposal. 

Sources for departmental research from endowed funds include:

  • Babcock Galleries Endowed Fund in Art History
  • Francis E. Hyslop Memorial Fellowships
  • Lousie D. Purcel Memorial Art History Endowment
  • Susan W. and Thomas A. Schwartz Endowed Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Art History.

The Department of Art History (with funding from the College’s Graduate Travel Funds) provides generous support for graduate students presenting at scholarly papers at conferences and symposia, and also for shorter research, exhibition or conference trips. Please use the Graduate Student Travel Request Form. Calls for travel requests go out in September and January.

There are also research funds that art history graduate students can compete for with students from other programs at Penn State. 

Art History graduate students have recently received the following University awards:

  • Alumni Association Dissertation Award
  • Early Career Development Grant, Center for Global Studies
  • Graduate Student Summer Residency, Institute for the Arts and Humanities
  • Junior Scholar Award in Early Modern Studies, Institute for the Arts and Humanities Graduate Travel Grant, Office of Global Programs. 
  • Waddell Biggart Graduate Fellowships 

Summer Internships in Palmer Museum of Art

The Annie Gooding Sykes Internship is a competitive internship offered during the summer. Interns work with museum staff on a variety of curatorial projects, with a particular focus on American works on paper. Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in art history, the School of Visual Arts, women’s studies, or American studies are eligible for the Sykes Internship. One internship with a stipend is offered each summer.

The Silver Trout Curatorial Graduate Internship Program is a competitive internship offered during the summer. Interns work with the museum staff on curatorial projects and initiatives. Graduate students in art history or art education are eligible for the Silver Trout Curatorial Graduate Internship Program. Two internships with a stipend are offered each summer.

Additional Internship Opportunities: The Museum offers unpaid internships during the fall and spring semesters which may be eligible for course credit as well as additional summer internships with a stipend when funding is available. Interns work with museum staff on a variety of projects.

For more information contact Director of Education, Brandi Breslin at bgb56@psu.edu.

STAP (Summer Tuition Assistance Program)

If a graduate assistant is appointed for both the fall and spring semesters of an academic year, the student is eligible to apply for the Summer Tuition Assistance Program (STAP), administered by the Graduate School, for tuition coverage of up to nine (9) credits of summer coursework towards their graduate degree. Must apply by June 30 through the STAP.

List of Awards/Fellowships/Grants

The Office of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Arts and Architecture and the Graduate School of the University have also been very generous in providing additional research grants and travel funds for graduate students. Students are encouraged to apply for external grants, fellowships, and internships.

In recent years, Penn State art history doctoral students have been awarded the following:

View List of Awards

  • American Research Center (Sofia, Bulgaria), Fellowship
  • American Society for Hispanic Art Historical Studies, Photographs Grant
  • BET (Black Entertainment Television) Fellowship
  • Renato Cevese Scholarship, Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architecttura Andrea Palladio
  • Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX), McDermott Graduate Curatorial Internship
  • Dumbarton Oaks ( Washington, D.C.), Junior Fellowship
  • East-West Center, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Affiliate Scholar
  • European Association for Urban History Bursary Award
  • Fondazione Lemmermann (Rome, Italy), Travel Fellowship
  • Fulbright Award
  • Visiting International Researcher Residency, Lund University (Sweden)
  • The Getty Foundation (Los Angeles, California)
  • Getty Graduate Internship
  • Hispanic Scholarship Fund, McNamara Family Grant
  • International Workshop (Amalfi, Italy), Study Grant
  • Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Travel Fellowship
  • Samuel H. Kress Foundation History of the Arts Grant
  • Lord Baltimore Fellowship, Maryland Historical Society
  • Medieval Academy of America Dissertation Grant
  • Andrew W. Mellon Summer Internship, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art
  • Paul Mellon Centre Junior Fellowship
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art, Theodore Rousseau Art History Fellowship
  • National Committee of the History of Art Award
  • National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) Graduate Lecturing Fellowship
  • Pennsylvania State Archives (Harrisburg), Diversity Internship
  • The Pittsburgh Foundation, Walter Read Hovey Memorial Fund
  • Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports
  • Renaissance Society of America, Robert H. Lehmann Fellowship
  • Renaissance Society of America, Research Grant
  • Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, Robert Lehman Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
  • Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.) Predoctoral Fellowship
  • Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Doctoral Fellowship
  • Graduate Student Bursary, Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain
  • U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Swahili in Tanzania
  • Wolfsonian-FIU Museum, Wolfsonian-Florida International University Fellowship