Opportunities for Graduate Students 2008-2009 (pdf)

Graduate students are vital to the Simpson Center’s thriving interdisciplinary atmosphere. The following courses and programs are designed to assist graduate students in their research and professional development. Students from departments within the humanities and social sciences are eligible for support.

Microseminars & Courses
Crossdisciplinary graduate courses ranging from one to five credits engage students from across departments on a variety of topics related to Simpson Center initiatives.

Among the courses for 2008-2009 are:

Digital Humanities

Public Culture / Engaged Scholarship (HUM 595)

These courses explore relations among cultural research, public practice, and diverse forms of community engagement. They are also crosslisted with Masters of Arts in Cultural Studies (MACS) courses in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences (IAS) at UW Bothell.

Funding for Crossdisciplinary Research Clusters
Research clusters provide graduate students with opportunities to develop individual and collaborative projects in dialogue with students, faculty, and visiting scholars. Graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals to support crossdisciplinary conferences, colloquia, and collaborative research projects. In 2008-2009 four interdisciplinary clusters will be supported by the Simpson Center—(dis)Orienting Asian American Studies, Queer Worlds, the Race / Knowledge Project, and the Visual Praxis Collective.

Institute on the Public Humanities for Doctoral Students
Each September the Simpson Center admits 20 graduate students as fellows in the Institute on the Public Humanities for Doctoral Students. Addressed to students pursuing careers within and outside higher education, the Institute encourages participants to integrate public scholarship into their research and teaching. Now in its sixth year, the Institute provides a setting in which students learn how to identify resources, collaborate, and reflect collectively, developing institutional knowledge as well as professional skills.

Society of Scholars Research Fellowships
The Society of Scholars is an intellectual community in which UW faculty and dissertators across generations, ranks, and departments contribute to and learn from one another’s work. The group meets biweekly over the course of an academic year to discuss their research. Typically three graduate students are selected as dissertation fellows each year through a competitive process and are offered awards releasing them from teaching responsibilities for two quarters to focus on their research.