THE HARRY FRANK GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION
Guidelines for Submitting Applications for Dissertation Fellowships
The foundation welcomes proposals from any of the natural and social sciences and the humanities that promise to increase understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence, aggression, and dominance. Highest priority is given to research that can increase understanding and amelioration of urgent problems of violence, aggression, and dominance in the modern world.
In addition to our program of support for postdoctoral research, ten or more dissertation fellowships are awarded each year to individuals who will complete the writing of the dissertation within the award year. These fellowships of $15,000 each are designed to contribute to the support of the doctoral candidate to enable him or her to complete the thesis in a timely manner, and it is only appropriate to apply for support for the final year of Ph.D. work. Applications are evaluated in comparison with each other and not in competition with the postdoctoral research proposals. Applicants may be citizens of any country and studying at colleges or universities in any country.
Particular questions that interest the foundation concern violence, aggression, and dominance in relation to social change, the socialization of children, intergroup conflict, interstate warfare, crime, family relationships, and investigations of the control of aggression and violence. Research with no useful relevance to understanding and attempting to cope with problems of human violence and aggression will not be supported, nor will proposals to investigate urgent social problems where the foundation cannot be assured that useful, sound research can be done. Priority will also be given to areas and methodologies not receiving adequate attention and support from other funding sources.
Timing
Applications for dissertation fellowships must be received by February 1 for a decision in June. Applications are reviewed during the spring term and final decisions are made by the Board of Directors at its meeting in June. Applicants will be informed promptly by letter of the Board's decision. Awards ordinarily commence on September 1, but other starting dates (after July 1) may be requested if the nature of the project makes this appropriate.
Taxation
A recipient of a dissertation fellowship may be liable for income taxes on funds awarded, depending on whether the funds are used to pay tuition and certain other related expenses, the amount of the recipient's other income, the law of the recipient's domicile, and other factors. The foundation will not provide advice on tax matters. Applicants should consult their own tax advisors to determine the tax consequences to them of receiving a dissertation fellowship.
Final Report
A final report to the foundation is mandatory. Recipients of dissertation fellowships must submit a copy of the dissertation, approved and accepted by the home university or college, within six months after the end of the award year. Any papers, books, articles, or other publications based on the research should also be sent to the foundation.
Application Procedure
Submit THREE copies of a typewritten application in English to The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, 25 West 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10019-5401. The deadline for receipt by the foundation is February 1 each year, for support to begin September 1 of that calendar year. Late or incomplete applications will not be processed. Applications may not be submitted by fax. Attend to the following items, including them in each of the three copies.
Please note: The forms for items A and B (below) must be either downloaded from the foundation website or requested from the foundation. (These forms are in Acrobat format.)
A. Title Page
This form may be copied or imitated on a computer. It must be signed by the student and by the dissertation advisor.
B. Abstract
Enter an abstract on this form describing the dissertation research in plain English and a statement specifying its relevance to human dominance, aggression, or violence. Do not exceed the space allotted. The abstract and statement of relevance should be self-contained and sufficient to serve as a succinct and accurate description of the application. The name of the applicant should appear on the upper right corner of the abstract form and on all succeeding pages of the application.
C. Advisor's Letter
Include a letter from the dissertation advisor evaluating the significance of the research and affirming that all requirements for the Ph.D. except the dissertation will have been satisfactorily completed at the commencement of the award and that preparation for the dissertation is such that it will be completed within the academic year for which the dissertation fellowship is requested. If this is not true, the advisor is doing the applicant no favor by saying so nevertheless. It would be better to encourage the advisee to wait until the appropriate time to apply. As with all parts of the application, three copies are needed. Should the advisor prefer to preserve confidentiality, three copies of this letter may be sent in a sealed envelope but must be submitted with the application. Please also attach copies of the advisor's c.v. (abbreviated to two pages if possible).
D. Applicant's Background
Include applicant's curriculum vitae and a list of any relevant publications. One copy of a transcript detailing the applicant's career in graduate school should be sent by the school directly to the foundation. If your Ph.D. program does not involve graded coursework, please include an explanation of your university's requirements. You must request a transcript from the registrar's office early enough so that it will reach us by the application deadline.
E. Research Plan
Applications that arrive without three copies of a research plan cannot be evaluated. Although in most cases you will have already completed your research, you must describe guiding theories, methods, study populations, etc. Here is where you tell us how your work fits into the body of knowledge of your field and what you will contribute to the field. This is your chance to convince us that your project is worth funding. Be concise, but give sufficient detail for a proper evaluation. This part of the application is typically about 15 double-spaced typed pages. Supplementary supporting material is not necessary but may be submitted. However, the foundation cannot be responsible for the return of such material.
F. Protection of Subjects
If your subjects are living humans, or people with living relatives or associates whose lives may be affected by your research, tell us what you have done to protect their safety or privacy. If your subjects are non-human animals, we want to be sure that you have avoided all unnecessary discomfort or harm to them in the course of your work. If your thesis involves documentary work concerning people long dead or otherwise incapable of being harmed by what you say, please so state in this section of the application.
G. Other Support
Describe facilities and resources already available for the proposed research. A Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation dissertation fellowship may be accepted in conjunction with other awards, fellowships, or employment. A $15,000 fellowship will only contribute to the support of an individual during an entire dissertation year. Have you other sources of support? Will you be working? Have you applied for other fellowships? Alternatively, it may be that our $15,000 award will support you for intense full-time work for a few months, which will enable you to finish the dissertation. We would like to see that you have thought about these practical matters.
A Special Note to Applicants for the Dissertation Fellowship
Since many of you have not applied for grants before, the following is meant to guide you through the process. Applications for the fellowship have in past years arrived in such a disorganized or incomplete state as to add to the work of the foundation's staff and seriously diminish the applicant's chances of funding.
Eligibility: These grants are made to Ph.D. candidates who are in the writing stage of the dissertation. Usually, this means that fieldwork or other research is complete and writing has begun. Both you and your advisor are asked to assure us that the thesis will be complete within the grant year, which may commence in July, August, or September of the year you apply and ends twelve months later. In some disciplines, particularly experimental fields, research and writing can reasonably be expected to be completed within one year, and in that case it is appropriate to apply. In all other cases, do not apply for support for your dissertation research. And if your analysis and writing are not far enough along for you to be confident that you will complete the dissertation within the year, do not apply. The application will not be competitive with those that comply with our timetable, it will not have a chance of funding, and your poor judgement will taint your chances of receiving a fellowship in the following year, when you are truly eligible.
Relevance: Foundation funding is offered to projects related to violence, aggression, or dominance, with priority given to research that can increase understanding and amelioration of urgent problems in the modern world related to those topics. Do not apply to us if your project is not relevant or only tangentially relevant to our program—however interesting your research may be, you will only be wasting our time and yours. If there is uncertainty about relevance, call and discuss the question with one of our program officers.
Deadline: The applications are due in our offices on February 1. If that falls on a weekend, the deadline is the following Monday. We do not accept any application materials by fax, and we do not extend the deadline for any reason. Please do not ask for an extension; it is not fair to applicants who submit proposals in time to accept late submissions. We will always say no, despite your reason. If your application involves long distances and complicated coordination with advisor, registrar, etc., you should begin the process earlier than applicants with simpler schedules.
In summary, the mistakes made most often in the past are these:
* Applicant will not finish the dissertation in the grant year.
* Project is not directly relevant to violence, aggression, or dominance.
* Only one copy arrives.
* Three copies arrive but are not collated.
* Application arrives in our office after the due date.
* Advisor's letter and c.v. arrive separately, and/or late, and/or in only one
copy.
* No research plan.
* No title page, no abstract, or no protection-of-subjects statement.
* No note on other support.
Please avoid these careless errors and omissions. They will seriously diminish your chances of receiving a fellowship.
Further Information
Requests for further information should be directed to The Harry Frank Guggenheim
Foundation, 25 West 53rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10019-5401, or by telephone to (646)
428-0971, or fax to (646) 428-0981. To discuss an application in detail, call
or write to our program officers.