Department of Comparative Literature: Grad Student Funding Opportunities

Funding Opportunities and Awards for Graduate Students

Graduate Students in the Department of Comparative Literature at Penn State are eligible for a number of financial aid opportunities. For financial aid available through Penn State Programs please also see Graduate Financial Aid information. In addition, we encourage you to apply for grants and awards.

What types of Grants and Awards are there?

Grants and awards come in two main categories: Internal (funded by the university) and external (funded by other granting institutions).

Grants tend to be further broken down into main categories that correspond to the stages of your graduate career.

You can apply for grants:

to support your graduate study at Penn State
to support study abroad
to support pre-dissertation and dissertation research (this generally means travel)
to support the writing of the dissertation
to support post-doctoral research (Graduate students at this stage may also want to pursue Fellowships.)

You may also be eligible for a number of awards that are granted for publications and dissertations.

Getting Started

Find your funding Sources

Receiving grants and awards will greatly enhance your success as graduate students and scholars. In order for you to be able to take full advantage of these resources, you will need to become familiar with granting institutions that support your fields of study. Because comparatists work in all languages, in all parts of the world, and across all time periods, we are eligible for a broad range of grants. While we have tried to identify the major funding sources that may be of interest to our students, we encourage students to research funding opportunities by conducting searches at one or more of these databases:

It is also helpful to become a member of the Community of Science. After creating a scholarly profile you can have grant information emailed directly to you.

Consult with Your Advisors

Please remember to consult with your advisor and with the Graduate Directors for advise and support. Your advisor should be consulted prior to applying for any grants. Recommendation letters from your advisor are a key component of most grant applications.

Learn how to Write a Grant Proposal

Grant writing is a learned skill. It requires that you use jargon-free writing intended for an audience that may not specialize in your field. This type of writing is quite similar to that used for book proposals, job application letters, and other forms of writing essential to your success. We have created a Proposal Writing Resource Page to help you.

Please consult the following pages for more information:

Internal funding opportunities

External Funding opportunities

to pursue graduate study at Penn State

to study abroad

to conduct research

to write the dissertation

to support post-doctoral research