Tips for Writing Grant & Fellowship Applications

I am a big proponent of shedding light on the ‘hidden curriculum’ of academia. Because of that, I am always happy to help other marginalized PhD students or candidates with fellowship or grant applications. Below, you will find my old application materials for various fellowships and grants I applied to during graduate school. If you would like to see examples from more specified grants/fellowships, please reach out!

A few important notes:

  • These are OLD application statements (and much of my research has changed since submitting these applications and that is OK and usually happens!).

  • Receiving a grant or fellowship does not speak to your quality as a scholar (I always say ‘shoot your shot’ because you never know! I have been rejected from everything I’ve now received at least once. It’s a very random and idiosyncratic process, but applying strengthens your research and application materials, and helps prepare you for the next opportunity!!!)

  • The socio-political world around us is always changing. Therefore, it is important to stay up-to-date on current events and be able to effectively communicate the real-world implications of your research findings. 

American Political Science Association Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section Small Grants Program (2023) Application

The Empirical Study of Gender Research Network Prize (2023) Application

Harvard Kennedy School Women and Public Policy Program Research Fellowship (2023) Application

UC San Diego Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies Predoctoral Fellowship (2022) Letter of Intent

United States Institute of Peace Fellowship (2022) Application

American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship (2022) Application

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2020) Application

Gender and Political Participation Working Group

GPP, the Gender and Political Participation Working Group, is a space for graduate students and post-docs to present their work that meets bi-monthly.

This working group was founded during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic for early-career graduate students to learn how to present work and get feedback on topics related to gender and politics. After helpful conversations with Elizabeth L. Brannon, the working group began with its first presentation in Spring 2021. In this working group, we also led several workshops related to co-authoring, publishing, and writing academic reviews. At the time of its founding, there was a total of 80 members with over 95 percent identifying as women. It is now under the leadership of Daniela Osorio Michel (German Insitute for Global and Area Studies), Kamya Yadav (University of California, Berkeley), and Ingvild Zinober (European University Institute).

At APSA’s annual meeting in 2021, I shared our experience of organizing the GPP Working Group at the ‘Organizing & Supporting Junior Scholar Virtual Workshops,’ workshop at the Teaching and Learning Conference.