Renate Voris Fellowship
RENATE VORIS FELLOWSHIP: An annual fellowship awarded by the Voris Foundation to a PhD student in German or Jewish studies or related fields in the arts and humanities at the University of Virginia or elsewhere. The fellowship, open to those in their first or second year of dissertation work, provides financial support to a doctoral candidate. The candidate’s research must include the intellectual and artistic products of women thinkers, writers, and artists—in philosophy, including Jewish studies; literature, including the dramatic arts; cinema; art; architecture; or music. The fellowship award shall be based on merit and not on financial need and shall not replace but be in addition to the financial support the qualifying student receives during the first or second year of dissertation work from the graduate school and department of the respective university. The award, between $10,000 and $15,000, shall be used for travel, archival research, and other needs of a doctoral candidate. One or two doctoral students shall be selected as recipients each year. The selection shall be made by the foundation’s advisory committee, and the exact amount of each of the fellowships shall be determined by Robert Huff, the president of the foundation. The fellowship was founded in 2011 by Renate Voris, professor of German and comparative studies at the University of Virginia. Through it, she wanted to support an outstanding researcher and writer, a student and (future) colleague, in an age when the arts and humanities appear under threat of extinction in American universities; and to “correct,” in a small way, the continued and widespread denigration of women’s intellectual and artistic achievements by not including them in curricula, especially—or so it seemed to her—in the field of Germanistik in America. It does not, however, imply that she wished to encourage a “feminist” approach to literature, philosophy, or the theatrical arts. On the contrary, she preferred that the candidate would not talk about gender but talk instead about the problem central to the dissertation and simply include the work of one or more women in the deliberations (without reference to her anatomy) as if it were “normal.” Applicants must submit materials online at www.rvoris.org. Applications should consist of a letter of application (up to 800 words or two pages in length) explaining why the dissertation is deserving of the fellowship; a dissertation prospectus (up to 1,300 words, three pages); a writing sample (up to 4,800 words, twelve pages); a CV; a brief status statement by the respective department chair or director of graduate studies attesting to the continued financial assistance of the candidate during his or her first or second year of doctoral work. Applications are due by 15 March; the decision will be announced by 30 April. At the end of the fellowship year, the recipient shall be required to submit to the advisory committee a summary report of the research and writing completed, in accordance with the criteria for which the fellowship was awarded. Questions about the fellowship should be addressed to the advisory committee, whose current members are listed on the Voris Foundation Web site (www.rvoris.org).