Funding Opportunities for Graduate Students

Table of Contents:

Department Financial Aid via TA & GAships

The Sociology Department offers graduate students Graduate Assistantships (GA's - assisting a professor or another graduate student with a class) and Teaching Assistantships (TA's - instructing one's own class; must have a MA and have completed the Teaching Practicum). Assignments are 10 to 20 hours a week. Tuition waivers are included with assistantships.

Guidelines

Graduate Assistantships and Teaching Assistantships are awarded and evaluated each semester. Therefore, a GA/TA should not be assumed to be ongoing, but rather contingent on performance and availability of funding.

GA/TA awards are granted according to the following criteria:

  1. Evidence of adequate progress towards the degree. Students are expected to complete their coursework and requirements in a timely fashion. Although the exact pace varies and each student’s progress will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, the following guidelines should be kept in mind: two years to complete the M.A., two additional years to complete comprehensive exams, and 2-3 additional years to complete the dissertation.
  2. Performance in the program. Performance is assessed according to the student’s grades and performance in courses, number and duration of incompletes, quality of thesis, performance on qualifying exams, colloquium presentation, and other relevant criteria.
  3. Prior performance as a GA/TA (if relevant). Performance is assessed according to formal and informal evaluation by the supervising faculty member or instructor, and/or evaluations of teaching (ICES scores, faculty evaluations of teaching), if applicable. Graduate Assistants and graders for undergraduate courses are expected to attend the classes for which they are grading or GAing. Performance assessment for GAs is based on more than the completion of grading duties.

Clarifications of GA and TA roles are available here, or in the UNM catalog here under 'Types of Assistantships.'

Graduate Studies (GS) Fellowship and Scholarship Listing

The office of UNM Graduate Studies (GS) maintains a list of external (i.e. outside UNM) fellowships and scholarships here.

UNM GS also offers internal (i.e. UNM institutional awards) fellowship list here.

In-progress graduate students can also benefit from the GS grants available here.

American Sociological Association (ASA) Grants & Fellowships

ASA detailed list is available here.

American Society of Criminology Graduate Minority Fellowship

The fellowships are designed to encourage students of color, especially those from ethnic minority groups underrepresented in the field, including but not limited to, Asians, Blacks, Indigenous peoples, and Hispanics, to enter the field of criminology and criminal justice.  Applicants need not be members of the American Society of Criminology.  Individuals studying criminology or criminal justice issues are encouraged to apply.  The recipients of the fellowships must be accepted into a program of doctoral studies.

Application material and further details available here.

UNM Health Policy Doctoral Fellowship Program -- Due 2/12/16

The University of New Mexico will award up to four Health Policy Doctoral Fellowships for students in the social sciences this cycle depending upon the availability of funding. The Health Policy Doctoral Fellowship is a doctoral fellowship program for Ph.D. students with educational and research interests that include health and health policy analysis and research. The University New Mexico seeks to increase the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., Hispanic, Native American, African American, etc.) in the nation in the development, implementation, and analysis of health policy. At the core of the University's mission is the education of a new generation of leaders in health and health policy research, leaders whose backgrounds represent the full diversity of the U.S. population. Fellows will receive up to four years of funding support including paid in-state tuition, a stipend of up to a $24,000 awarded through an annual research assistantship, and student health insurance. Fellows will also have access to limited travel funds for research or conferences as well as statistical and writing support staff, office space, and integration into a unique curriculum focused on health policy and racial equity with other cohorts of existing graduate fellows.

Further details available UNM Health Policy Doctoral Fellowship Program.

Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Dissertation Proposal Development Student Fellowship

The Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) Program helps early-stage doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences formulate innovative dissertation research proposals through workshops, exploratory summer research, and writing guided by peer review and faculty mentorship. The program seeks young scholars who are interested in strengthening their dissertation research plans through exposure to the theories, literatures, methods, and intellectual traditions of disciplines outside their own. By the end of the fellowship, participating students will complete a draft proposal that can be reviewed with academic advisors and adapted for submission to an academic department and/or research funding agencies.

Contact information is available here or from Program Director: dpdf@ssrc.org

Latin American Iberian Institute Graduate Fellowships & Awards

The Latin American and Iberian Institute (LAII) awards various types of funding to students, faculty, departments, and organizations to promote study, research, curriculum, and outreach related to Latin America and Iberia. Five categories of funding are available: faculty funding, undergraduate student funding, graduate student funding, event funding, and visitor funding. 

The LAII comprehensive list of available funding opportunities here.

Mellon Fellowships

Andrew F. Mellon Foundation Fellowship Information

Contact information is available from UNM-Mellon Program Coordinator: ardap@comcast.net

Grants

All Sociology graduate students are strongly encouraged to learn the grant seeking process. UNM offers a comprehensive series of workshops to train young researchers in the process of grant writing. Workshops, known as the Graduate Student Funding Initiative, are scheduled here.

The Office of the Vice President for Research provides recommended support and funding lists at Faculty Research Support Services (FRSS),  a unit of the Office of the Vice President for Research, can help faculty, students, administrators, and staff with efforts to obtain external funding.  Faculty Research Support Officers (FRSOs) can offer assistance in:

  • Finding funding sources matching research interests and project development
  • Proposal development (including budget) and preparation
  • Navigating UNM's proposal process
  • Planning, coordinating, and supporting large and complex proposal efforts requiring numerous partnerships and multidisciplinary collaborations.