Dissertation Completion Fellowships

Sudarshana Chanda (Ph.D. in History, Harvard University)

Sherah Bloor (Ph.D. in the Study of Religion, Harvard University)

Dissertation Completion Fellowships support Harvard doctoral students in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and MIT doctoral students in the social sciences as they complete their dissertations. The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) considers applications by doctoral students in law, design, government, and education in exceptional circumstances, and proposals must have the support of a CES Resident Faculty member or Faculty Associate.

Application Overview

Applications for the 2025-2026 academic year are now open. The application deadline is February 3, 2025.

The fellowship allows students to spend a final year dedicated to writing. The dissertation must focus on modern or contemporary Europe (1750 – present).
Students must have completed two draft dissertation chapters and submitted them to the dissertation advisor at the time of application (or for students in fields where the dissertation consists of three articles, the existence of one article in draft).
Applications will be judged by their overall merit, the importance of the topic, the clarity of the proposal, the potential for scholarly contribution, and the likelihood of timely completion.
CES matches its stipend levels to the GSAS standard annual Dissertation Completion Fellowship stipend. The fellowship cannot be deferred and must be used within the ten-month period for which it is awarded. During the Dissertation Completion Fellowship, recipients are expected not to teach, hold other employment, or pursue other projects during this time, as students are expected to complete their dissertations during the period of the award. Students who have previously received writing/completion grants from other sources are not eligible.
The fellowship also covers Harvard facilities fees and individual health insurance (HUSHP Basic and Supplemental) fees; MIT students will be issued the equivalent funds and may apply them to their institutional tuition and fees.

Grant Recipients

Four graduate students from Harvard University were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship for the 2024-2025 academic year. For a list of recipients, see here.

Past Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients (2013-2023)

2023 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients

Four graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2023-2024 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard and MIT. See here for a listing of recipients.
2022 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients

Four graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2022-2023 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University. See here for a listing of recipients.

In addition, 14 graduate students were recipients of a new grant introduced by CES to help them resume travel and access important resources when their research plans were disrupted during the pandemic. See here for a listing of the 2022 Disrupted Dissertation Grant recipients.
2021 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients

Four graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2020-2021 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University. See here for a listing of recipients.
2020 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients

Five graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2019-2020 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University. See here for a listing of recipients.
2019 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients
Four graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2019-2020 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University.
1. Hayley Fenn (Music) – "Breath, Gravity, Giants, and Death: Towards a Theory of Puppetry and Music"
2. Ben Goossen (History) – "The Year of the Earth (1957-1958): Cold War Science and the Making of Planetary Consciousness"
3. Ian Kumekawa (History) – "The Imperialization of the British State, 1914-1948"
4. Joseph LaHausse de Lalouviere (History) – "Enslavement and Empire in the French Caribbean, 1793-1851"
2018 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients
Four graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2018-2019 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University.
- Stefan Beljean (Sociology) – “Social Reproduction, College Admissions, and the Schooling Experiences of Upper-Middle-Class Adolescents in Germany and the United States”
- Elissa Berwick (Political Science, MIT) – “Sub-state Nationalism in the United Kingdom and Spain”
- Charles Clavey (History) – “Of Happiness and Despair We Have No Measure: Quantifying Alienation in German Thought, 1920-1970”
- Dominika Kruszewska (Government) – “Dissident Successor Parties: Pro-democracy Movements and Party Formation in New Democracies”
2017 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients
Four graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2017-2018 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University.
- Brandon Bloch (History) – “Faith for This World: Protestantism and the Reconstruction of Constitutional Democracy in Germany, 1933-1968”
- Lulie El-Ashry (Religion) – “Crossing Continents: A European Sufi Muslim Convert Communities Journey of Geographic Relocation and Identity Renegotiation”
- James McSpadden (History) – “In League with Rivals: Parliamentary Networks and Backroom Politics in Interwar Europe”
- Liat Spiro (History) – “Drawing Capital: Depiction, Machine Tools, and the Political Economy of Industrial Knowledge, 1824-1914”
2016 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients
Four graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2016-2017 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University.
1. Elizabeth Cross (History) – “The French East India Company and the Politics of Commerce in the Revolutionary Era”
2. James Conran (Political Science, MIT) – “The Comparative Political Economy of Working Time and Inequality”
3. Tomasz Blusiewicz (History) – “Return of the Hanseatic League of how the Baltic Sea Trade Washed Away the Iron Curtain”
4. Jessica Tollette (Sociology) – “Noticeably Invisible: A Study of Race, Policy and Immigrant Incorporation in Present-Day Spain”
2015 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients
Five graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2015-2016 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University.
- James Martin (History; honorary) – “Governing the World Economy: Economic Expertise and the Reshaping of Global Order, 1914-1948”
- Aline-Florence Manent (History) – “The Intellectual Origins of the German Model: Rethinking Democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany”
- Noam Gidron (Government) – “The Transformation of the European Center-Right, 1980-2015”
- Jasmine Samara (Anthropology) – “The Social Afterlife of an International Treaty: Debating Law, Coercion and Violence in a Greek Borderland”
- Carolin Roeder (History) – “Horizontal Networks and Vertical Pursuits: A Transnational History of Mountaineering, 1865-1974”
2014 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients
Five graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2014-2015 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University.
- Dzavid Dzanic (History) – “The Civilizing Sea: Indigenous Networks, Napoleanic Offers, and the Origins of the French Mediterranean Empire, 1792-1848”
- Megan Formato (History of Science) – “Writing the Atom: Niels Bohr and the Communication of Quantum Theory, 1911-1927”
- Seth Peabody (Germanic Languages and Literatures) – “Environmental Fantasies: Mountains, Cities, and Heimat in German Cinema”
- Sarah Shortall (History) – “Soldiers of God in a Secular World: French Catholic Political Theologies, 1905-1962”
- Jacob Stulberg (English) – “The Unstaging of the Air: BBC Radio and Modern British Drama”
2013 Dissertation Completion Fellowship Recipients
Four graduate students were awarded a Dissertation Completion Fellowship by CES for the 2013-2014 academic year. Unless otherwise noted, students are enrolled at Harvard University.
- Hannah Callaway (History) – Liberty, Equality, Property: The Seizure of Private Property in Paris during the French Revolution
- Charlotte Cavaille (Social Policy/Government) – The Demand for Government Provided Income Protection in the Age of Permanent Austerity (1970s-2012)
- Yascha Mounk (Government) – Luck, Choice and Responsibility in Philosophy and the Popular Imagination
- Stephen Walsh (History) – Austria on Ice: Polar Exploration, Liberalism & Habsburg Central Europe, 1865-1948