Overview

The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Fund for Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies encourages scholarly research, publication and teaching in the various disciplines of Jewish studies. Established in 1960, we have awarded fellowships to over 600 scholars, including many leaders in the field.

The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies are made for one academic year and are given for the final stages of completing an English-language  dissertation, typically in the fifth year of study. Applicants should have completed all doctoral requirements, except for the completion of their thesis, and must show evidence of being able to complete their thesis within the fellowship year.

Four fellowships of $16,000 were granted in 2010.

To download the guidelines please click here.

To apply, please click here. Applications are due Monday, December 12 by 5 PM EST

To download the Funding Opportunities for Jewish Studies chart from our 2010 Doctoral Dissertation evaluation please click here. To download the entire evaluation, click here.

Eligibility

The Doctoral Dissertation grant is intended to help students in their last year of thesis writing only. Please note that we can no longer accept applications from students who have applied previously unless students petition on an individual basis for an exception and can provide sufficient evidence of their ability to complete their thesis during the fellowship year. All applicants will be expected to provide a sample chapter (or more) of their thesis as part of the process.

Applicants should:

• Be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Canada;
• Have completed all academic requirements for the Ph.D., except dissertation, by the date of application;
• Demonstrate significant course work in Jewish studies at the graduate level;
• Provide evidence of proficiency in a Jewish language (i.e. Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Aramaic, etc.);
• Have a proposal or prospectus that has been approved by a thesis committee;
• Complete online application in full. Partially completed applications cannot accepted. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that applications are complete by the deadline.

A strong preference is given to individuals preparing for academic careers in Jewish studies, and to those who indicate that they will pursue a career in the United States. Applications must be in English.

To enable recipients to devote themselves fully to completing the dissertation, it is expected that they will not hold a full-time job or equivalent academic workload during the fellowship year. We request that grantees inform us of any other fellowships or grants they may receive during their fellowship year.

Fellowships cannot be postponed or deferred to another year. Grantees who defer their awards will not receive special consideration upon reapplication.

To apply, please click here. Applications are due Monday, December 12 by 5 PM EST

Criteria for Selection

Each application is reviewed according to the following criteria:

• Academic promise and ability of candidate as judged by previous performance and recommendations;
• Potential of project to significantly impact understanding of Jewish life, culture or thought ;
• Clarity, originality, breadth, and depth of the thesis proposal;
• Qualifications and academic record of applicant’s advisors and references;
• Likelihood that an applicant will go on to teach Jewish Studies at an American college or university.

Recent Panelists

The panel included two co-chairs, Dr. David N. Myers (History, UCLA), who was returning for the second year, and Dr. Ephraim Kanarfogel (Rabbinics, medieval Jewish history, Yeshiva University), as well as five panelists: Dr. Lila Corwin Berman (American Jewish History, Temple University); Dr. David Engel (History, NYU); Dr. Talya Fishman (Religious studies, modern intellectual history, University of Pennsylvania); Dr. Judith Hauptman (Rabbinics, JTS); and Dr. Wendy Zierler (literature, HUC-NY). Dr. Hauptman served as a panelist for the Doctoral Dissertation grant back in the 1990s.

Current Grantees

We are proud to announce the recipients of the 2011-2012 Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Fund for Doctoral Dissertation:

Shaun Halper (UC-Berkeley, History), writing on Jews in the Age of Homosexual Emancipation 1897-1948.

Alexander Kaye (Columbia University, History), writing on The Legal Philosophy of Religious Zionism 1937-1967.

Joshua Teplitsky (NYU, Hebrew and Judaic Studies: History), writing on Between Court Jew and Jewish Court: David Oppenheim, the Prague rabbinate, and eighteenth-century Jewish Political Culture.

Zohar Weiman-Kelman (UC Berkeley, comparative literature) writing on “So the Kids Won’t Understand”: Inherited Futures of Jewish Women Writers.

For a complete list of past grantees, click here.

For further information, please contact us at grants@jewishculture.org.

Program Funders

The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Fund for Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies has received generous major support from The Dorot Foundation, The Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, Association for American Jewish Studies, Robert S. Rifkind, E. Robert Goodkind, Linda and Shearn Platt, Kerri Steinberg, Arthur and Susie Goldner, Joan Schnitzer Levy, Louis Blumengarten, the American Academy for Jewish Research, and the Paul S. Nadler Family Charitable Trust.