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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Florida

Graduate Summer Research Scholarship

The Department of Philosophy has established a summer research scholarship for doctoral students who are at the stage of preparing a dissertation proposal or later. Each scholarship will provide $3000 for student support over the summer, and each summer there will be a maximum of two such scholarships. The goal is to enable students to devote themselves to a period of research over the summer and incentivize their using the work done at that time to produce a conference-ready paper.

Eligibility. Eligible students are limited to those enrolled in the PhD program, who are in good academic standing, and who are continuing on in the program through the fall semester following the summer during which the scholarship is to be bestowed. Students who are assigned to teaching during that summer are eligible to receive the scholarship independently of compensation from their teaching assignment.

Obligations. Students who received a Graduate Summer Research Scholarship are obligated to provide two documents by the end of the first week of the fall semester following the summer for which they received the scholarship:

  • (1) Research activity summary . This should be a relatively brief (under 1000 words) summary of the research activity that includes such information as: questions pursued, material read, works produced, relevance of the material to the student’s expected specialization, and the like. These need not be extremely detailed but should provide a realistic overview of how the student actually spent the time.
  • (2) Conference-ready paper. Any student receiving a scholarship must also provide a completed conference-ready paper based on their research activity. By a “conference-ready paper” we mean a paper between 3000 and 4500 words that presents an argument for a specific thesis that would be of interest to participants at a professional philosophy conference and which has been polished to the point where submitting it for such a conference would be a reasonable thing to do. While it is likely that the conference-ready paper will be part of or closely related to the student’s dissertation research, it is not necessary that it be so related. Papers produced as part of these scholarships are eligible for submission for the Kirk Ludwig Prize.
  • Papers are not graded but are reviewed by the Graduate Studies Committee to ensure they meet the standard of being a conference-ready paper. Whether or not they meet that standard, students will be provided comments on what they submit from the Graduate Coordinator or their designee. Any student who fails to hand in a paper or whose paper is deemed inadequate to meet the conference-ready standard is rendered ineligible for future Graduate Summer Research Scholarships.
  • Those students whose submitted paper is deemed to meet the conference-ready standard are invited to present the paper to the faculty for feedback and practice. Students may decline this invitation if they so wish.

Rules. Scholarship winners are decided by the Department Chair in consultation with the Graduate Coordinator upon review of applications. Scholarships are contingent on the availability of sufficient funds. Process. To apply, students must complete an application with the elements described below and submit it by the date announced for that summer’s scholarship competition. Applications must be submitted by email to both the Graduate Coordinator and the Department Chair simultaneously. Winners will be announced no later than one month after the submission deadline.