The Weatherhead Center runs an annual competition to award 15 to 20 travel grants to support the summer field research of Harvard undergraduates. These grants are designed to help finance travel in connection with senior thesis research on international affairs. All grant recipients become Undergraduate Associates of the Weatherhead Center for the year following their summer research and present their research findings at a conference organized by the Center in the spring of their senior year.

Preference is given to projects related to the core research areas of the Center, broadly defined to encompass international, global, transnational, and comparative topics (both contemporary and historical), including rigorous policy analysis, as well as the study of countries and regions other than the United States.

Applicants must clarify how their research relates to the interests of the Center. Projects that are exclusively domestic (relating merely to characteristics internal to any single country) and that lack broader international implications will not be funded.

Student program funds come from the Williams/Lodge International Government and Public Affairs Research Fund, the Hartley R. Rogers family, the Weatherhead Foundation, the Maurice and Sarah Samuels family, Weatherhead Center Advisory Committee member Adele S. Simmons, and Advisory Committee Chair Kenneth I. Juster. Rogers Family Research Grants provide funds for students who plan to conduct thesis research in Africa and the poorer countries of South and Southeast Asia. In addition to providing funds for the expenses of thesis research, Rogers Family Research Grant recipients who are on financial aid receive funds that substitute for the requirement of summer work earnings.

New grants for thesis research in global history: The Weatherhead Initiative for Global History will award up to two summer fellowships for senior-thesis research on topics in global history. Each carries a maximum stipend of $3,500 to defray research and travel-related expenses. The Global History fellowships seek to facilitate investigations that link two or more regions of the world in a shared historical development. The objective of the Weatherhead Initiative and the fellowships is to encourage research that focuses less on international relations as traditionally conceived than on economic and cultural exchange, comparative institutional or ecological development, topics involving demography, health, migration, religious or social movements, and the communication of goods and ideas across world regions are all eligible.

(For those focusing on Canadian topics, please see the page on the Center's grants for thesis research in Canada.)

Undergraduate Associates

All summer travel grant recipients become Undergraduate Associates of the Weatherhead Center for the academic year following their research abroad. The Center sponsors a series of undergraduate research workshops that focus on different stages of the thesis, from choosing a topic to carrying out field research and writing. Throughout the year, the Center hopes to engage Undergraduate Associates both formally at dinners with guest speakers and informally through contact with graduate students, Faculty Associates, and Fellows of the Center.

Awards and Benefits

Grants range from $1,500 to $6,000.

Who is Eligible?

Harvard College students, generally juniors, are eligible to seek summer funding for senior thesis research in international affairs. Most grants have been awarded to students in the social sciences (anthropology, economics, government, history, social studies, and sociology), but the Center has supported applications from students in other fields that meet the criteria outlined here.

Terms

Summer travel grants are designed to help finance foreign travel in connection with senior thesis research. Undergraduate Associates are expected to present their thesis research at a conference in the spring following their return.

The Weatherhead Center strongly discourages students from holding summer internships or jobs that could have a negative impact on the duration or quality of their field research. Those who wish to take on summer obligations other than their field research must tell the Center of their plans and may need to sacrifice one opportunity for another. All research experiences that the Center supports are meant both to be of significant length and to hold serious scholarly meaning.

How to Apply

The Weatherhead Center uses a common application form also used by many other centers. You must carefully read the application instructions before beginning your application in CARAT. Please note we require two letters of recommendation for this category of grant.

Deadline

February 17, 2012