Competition for outside funding can be fierce, but graduate students in our department have received research grants from several highly competitive programs. Remember that a smaller pool of candidates can increase your chances of success. Searching for smaller fellowships, including fellowships offered by local organizations such as Rotary Clubs, can be well worth the trouble. The UCSB Graduate Division 
offers more general guides to funding as well as campus resources, while the selected external grants listed below contains descriptions and links for several of the major fellowships in art and architectural history. For more ideas, look at the list of our graduate students who have won awards recently or ask at our office.
Internal Grants and Fellowships
Graduate Division Continuing Fellowships
Except for a selection of continuing fellowships (listed below; visit Graduate Academic Forms and Petitions for information and applications), graduate students do not apply directly for Central Campus Fellowships .
- Broida-Hirschfelder Dissertation Award
- Brython Davis Graduate Fellowship
- Olivia Long Converse Graduate Fellowship
- James D. Kline Fund for International Studies Award
- Humanities / Social Science Research Grant
Central fellowship awards are based on nomination by departments and review by a central faculty fellowship committee. Note that under the terms and conditions of central campus fellowships, all domestic students are required to file a FAFSA 
(Free Application for Federal Student Aid) by the March 2 deadline for the upcoming year. The code for UCSB is 001320.
Campus Fellowships
Many campus centers and departments offer funding specifically for UCSB graduate students. The Division of Humanities and Fine Arts promotes research and teaching for its graduate students and students in the department have been particularly successful in securing funding from the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation European Studies Fellowship for Dissertation Research. Additionally, UCSB Graduate Division lists information about and links to relevant campus websites for full application materials and deadlines of other campus fellowships and funding.
The Interdisciplinary Humanities Center offers dissertation fellowships to support UCSB doctoral candidates whose research facilitates dialogue across the traditional disciplinary boundaries within the arts and humanities and/or between the arts and humanities, sciences, and social sciences. In addition to making a significant contribution to current scholarship and research practices, proposed projects should seek to frame their questions, methods, and modes of inquiry with reference to two or more established disciplines/fields of study and/or foster the development of new objects, areas of study, and ways of producing, presenting, and disseminating knowledge.
The Steve and Barbara Mendell Graduate Fellowship in Cultural Literacy supports one or more fellowship stipends each year for outstanding graduate students in the College of Letters and Science at UCSB (Humanities and Fine Arts, Social Sciences, Science) whose research or programs of study advance the goals of broad-based cultural literacy and high ethical standards in our participative democracy.
UCSB's Center for Taiwan Studies offers two graduate student research grants. The Graduate Student Summer Dissertation Research Grant supports dissertation research in Taiwan Studies through pre-doctoral intensive summer research or advanced language training in Taiwan. The Mainstreaming Taiwan Studies Research Grant supports graduate research that includes Taiwan Studies components that bring cultural studies of Taiwan into the mainstream of Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines. Both grants are open to all graduate students currently-enrolled in the Humanities and Social Sciences at UCSB who pursue a M.A. or Ph.D. project with a substantial Taiwan component.
The Chicano Studies Institute (CSI) at UCSB facilitates Dissertation Research Awards for Ph.D students whose research addresses social and/or environmental justice topics affecting Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x communities and who have advanced to candidacy. Additionally, the CSI distributes information about upcoming funding opportunities that align with its mission.
UC Fellowships
The University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) , a multicampus research unit, provides both short and long term funding opportunities for graduate students who participate in innovative research and projects that engage a variety of disciplines and stakeholders, including for dissertation support and The Andrew Vincent White and Florence Wales White Graduate Student Scholarship .
The Alice Ross Carey Fellowship, Environmental Design Archives, UC Berkeley is open to doctoral students in any related discipline who are currently engaged in dissertation research.
Travel Fellowships
Travel fellowships are specifically designed to assist graduate students in offsetting travel costs incurred while presenting papers at conferences. These are available through UCSB's Academic Senate and Graduate Division as well as through the department. Students must apply for travel monies from Graduate Division first before submitting a written request to the department. For details on how to apply, check the current Graduate Program Handbook 
.
Selected External Grants, By Application Due Date
NOTE: Those grants marked with an *asterisk require nomination from the Department in order to apply.
SEPTEMBER
- Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles Research Grants : Grant awarded to researchers working in the field of human sciences and projects relating to the following themes: methods of exercising power; the structure and functioning of parish institutions; practices, attitudes and male figures; representations of power; palaces and gardens, with a time frame that is broad in scope (from 16th-19th century) with a strong geographical focus on the courts of Europe.
- Edilia and François-Auguste de Montêquin Fellowship : Fellowship for advanced graduate student research focusing on Spanish, Portuguese, or Ibero-American architecture, including colonial architecture produced by the Spaniards in the Philippines and what is today the United States. The applicant must be a current member of SAH.
- Meadows Museum Center for Spain in America (CSA) Curatorial Fellowship : One-year position to support research into all periods of Spanish art and offer scholars unique opportunities to examine art of the Hispanic world, both in the museum's world-renowned collection and with partner institutions around the globe, and gain professional skills as a part of the curatorial team.
OCTOBER
- Berlin Program Dissertation Fellowship, Freie Universität : Ten- to twelve-month fellowship for dissertation research and participation in Program events and colloquia.
- Getty Pre- and Postdoctoral Fellowships : Nine-month Getty residency to complete dissertations related to the annual research theme, either at the Research Institute or Getty Villa, the The African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI) program, and work with the Getty collections.
- Craft Research Fund Project Grant, The Center for Craft : Grant created to encourage, expand, and support scholarly craft research in the United States.
- Fulbright Fellowships : Travel and long-term fellowships (including language training, book and research allowances, and living expenses).
NOTE: All current graduate students applying to the Fulbright Program must participate in the internal campus selection process.
See Graduate Division for UCSB Fulbright information and program binder. - Getty Library Research Grants : Provides partial, short-term support for researchers requiring the use of specific collections housed in the Getty Research Institute (GRI).
- Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships : One year of support, plus project and mentorship stipends, for doctoral students preparing to embark on bold and innovative research in the humanities and interpretive social sciences that expand the range of research methodologies, formats, and areas of inquiry traditionally considered suitable for the dissertation, with a particular focus on supporting scholars who can build a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable academy.
- Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art : One-year fellowships for graduate students in any stage of Ph.D. dissertation research or writing focused on a topic in the history of the visual arts of the United States.
NOVEMBER
- Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program : Ten-week pre-ABD graduate student fellowships or three- to twelve-month post-ABD predoctoral student fellowships to conduct independent study and research related to Smithsonian Institution collections, experts, or facilities in cooperation with at least one on-site advisor.
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Fellowships : A number of fellowships in the art, craft, and visual culture of the United States through the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP) as well as its own named fellowships.
- The Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin : Dissertation fellowships for projects that require substantial on-site use of its collections, which support research in all areas of the humanities, including literature, photography, film, art, the performing arts, music, and cultural history.
- Getty Graduate Internship Program : Provides training and work experience in areas such as curatorial, education, conservation, research, publications, web and new media, public programs, digital projects, and grantmaking.
- Dumbarton Oaks Fellowships : Academic year-long Junior Fellowships for for ABD doctoral candidates who will work on a dissertation or final project at Dumbarton Oaks and eight-week Summer Fellowships for Byzantine nd Pre-Columbian graduate students beyond the first year of graduate study.
- The Met Leonard A. Lauder Fellowship in Modern Art : A 24-month predoctoral fellowship in The Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art for scholars of modernism to conduct focused research on a dissertation, to encourage new directions in the broader field of modern art, architecture, design, and visual culture around the world, while contributing to the activities and programs of the Research Center.
- The Met Fellowship in History of Art and Visual Culture : Twelve month fellowships in various subcategories included within the Fellowship in History of Art and Visual Culture, as determined by the Museum’s Grants Committee depending on the applicant’s specific, independent research project that makes use of the Museum's collection and resources.
- DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Grants : Both short- and long-term research grants for highly qualified students to conduct research or complete a program of additional studies at a German institute of higher education.
- *Carter Manny Awards, Graham Foundation : Two doctoral dissertation awards — a research award for a student at the research stage and a writing award for a student at the writing stage — for projects devoted to architecture.
- Collage Art Association (CAA) Professional Development Fellowships In Art History : Supports graduate students in art, architecture, and/or design who are conducting research in their final year to complete their Ph.D. The awards will be given to multicultural art historians and art historians from underrepresented groups and from culturally diverse communities.
- The Huntington Short-Term Fellowships : Up to five months of support to advanced doctoral candidates for dissertation research in their archival and rare book collections.
- RBS-Mellon SoFCB Fellow : Two-year non-residential fellowship for Ph.D. candidates including tuition waivers for two Rare Book School courses, funding to attend the Society's Annual Meeting and Orientation, funds to organize symposia at home institutions, and an option to attend a bibliographical field school to visit libraries, archives, and collections in New York City.
- *CASVA (Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts) Predoctoral Fellowships : Pre-doctoral fellowships, ranging from one year of support to combinations of two and three years of support, usually including one year in residence at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. Fellowships cover Western and Non-Western fields.
- *Samuel H. Kress Foundation Institutional Fellowship : Two-year research appointment in association with one of six foreign host institutions for pre-doctoral students in the history of European art with an interest in art museum education and curating.
DECEMBER
- The Betsy James Wyeth Fellowship in Native American Art : Twelve month predoctoral fellowship for topics that focus on historic or contemporary Native American artists, designers, and makers, that are centered in Indigenous methodologies, knowledges, and communities within their research practices, and draw on the resources of the SAAM and NMAI.
- Morgan Drawing Institute Predoctoral Research Fellowship : A nine month fellowship to an advanced-level graduate student carrying out research leading to the completion of a doctoral dissertation with a significant component of which pertains to the history, theory, collecting, function, or interpretation of drawings.
- Council of American Overseas Research Centers Multi-Country Research Fellowship : CAORC Fellowships enable U.S. doctoral candidates, who are ABD, to carry out trans-regional and comparative research in two or more countries outside the U.S. across the network of Overseas Research Centers as well as other countries.
- The Center for Italian Modern Art Winter-Spring Fellowships : Fellowships support the study of Italian modern and contemporary art by scholars of all nationalities, with the intention of bringing together emerging scholars from diverse academic backgrounds in an interactive and collaborative environment at CIMA’s New York location. Scholars will pursue their own research and study as well as work on a “study topic” related to CIMA’s installations.
- Tyson Scholars of American Art Program, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art : A six-week to nine-month fellowship for Ph.D. candidates who are researching American art, architecture, craft, material culture, performance art, and new media, or who are approaching US art transregionally and looking at the broader geographical context of the Americas, especially including Latinx and Indigenous art.
- Morgan-Menil Research Fellowship : Three to nine-month fellowship to support independent projects on some aspect of the history, theory, interpretation, or cultural meaning of drawing throughout the history of art. Preference will be given to projects that would benefit from the resources of the Morgan Library & Museum and the Menil Collection.
- Forsyth Visiting Graduate Student Fellowship : Academic year fellowships for Master's and PhD students to work with the faculty and resources in the Department of History of Art at the University of Michigan.
- Middlebury Language Schools Kress Fellowships : Five merit-based fellowships offered for graduate students in art history with a proposed focus on European art history or graduate students studying art conservation.
- Menil Drawing Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellowship : Nine-month fellowship for Ph.D. candidates who are pursuing a doctorate in art history whose work pertains to the study of modern and contemporary drawing practices.
- Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World Travel Grant : Travel awards to scholars interested in research within the Arab Heritage and Gulf Crossroads collections along with the relevant thematic holdings of the NYUAD Library.
- The Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies Doctoral Grant : Annual grant for Ph.D. candidates to support overseas travel and advanced dissertation research and scholarship of the arts of East Asia.
- Charles E. Peterson Fellowship of SAH Archipedia and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia : An annual fellowship to support graduate student participation in the research and writing of content for SAH Archipedia. Proposed content must be related to some aspect of American architecture and/or urbanism prior to 1860, which may include Indigenous, Spanish Colonial, and/or African American topics.
- International Fellowship Program, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin : For international researchers, especially early career scholars, to conduct research at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin for up to three months. The program supports projects that are directly related with the institutions and collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and allows researchers to establish professional contacts at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
JANUARY
- Havner Curatorial Summer Internship, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art : Eight- to ten-week internship in one of several museum departments, to assist with exhibition projects and develop interpretation for and research on objects in the collection.
- Terra Foundation for American Art Research Travel Grants : Grants for doctoral students who research topics dedicated to the art and visual culture of the United States prior to 1980 and engage in transforming or complicating how the story of American art is told.
- Yale Center for British Art Residential Awards : Short-term residential awards to doctoral candidates to access the YCBA's collections and library.
- The Rijksmuseum Fellowship Programme : One-year fellowships to train a new generation of museum professionals to become inquisitive object-based specialists who will further develop understanding of art and history. The focus of a candidate's research should relate to the varied holdings of the Rijksmuseum’s collection.
- Center for Netherlandish Art Fellowships, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston : CNA fellowships provide opportunities, through mentorship and access to the MFA’s rich collections, resources, and research facilities, to further their professional development and be a part of an active learning community.
- Winterthur Research Fellowship Program : Residential research fellowships include 1–2 semester dissertation fellowships and 1–3 month short-term fellowships in a broad range of scholarly topics and academic disciplines covering global topics from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
- Italian Art Society Dissertation Research Grant : The grant funds or subsidizes dissertation research (including travel) on any aspect of Italian art and architecture from prehistory to the present. Ph.D. Candidates of any nationality are eligible.
- American School of Classical Studies at Athens Gennadius Library Fellowships : Short-term and full academic year fellowships for projects and research at the Gennadius Library. Longer fellowships include stipend, room and board at Loring Hall, and waiver of School fees.
- The Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History Predoctoral Fellowships : A six or twelve-month appointment to the Max Planck Research Group “Visualizing Science in Media Revolutions”, led by Dr. Sietske Fransen, the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome (Italy).
- Friends of the Princeton University Library Research Grants : Short-term grants to promote scholarly use of the research collections. The length of the grant will depend on the applicant’s research proposal, but is ordinarily up to one month and includes a stipend plus transportation costs.
- Chateaubriand Fellowships, Humanities & Social Sciences : Four- or eight-month fellowships for doctoral research in France.
- Paul Mellon Centre Grants and Fellowships : Funding opportunities for students in the advanced stages of their doctoral research in the field of British art and architectural history to pursue further study in the United Kingdom based at the Paul Mellon Centre.
- Predoctoral Research Residencies, Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities "La Capraia” : Residencies for PhD students in the earlier stages of their dissertations and whose projects focus on art and architectural history, music history, archaeology, the digital humanities, or related fields, in Naples and southern Italy from antiquity to the present.
- Mellon Foundation Predoctoral Awards in Women’s History : A two-year term, the Andrew W. Mellon Gender and LGBTQ+ History Fellow works as a public historian for the New-York Historical Society’s Center for Women’s History. The ideal candidate will have a strong scholarly background in LGBTQ+ and gender history, and have an interest in public history.
FEBRUARY
- The Library Company of Philadelphia Short Term Fellowships : One-month fellowships to support dissertation research in residence at the Library Company and The Historical Society of Pennsylvania on subjects relevant to its collections.
- The Library Company of Philadelphia Dissertation Fellowships : Four- or nine-month fellowships to support dissertation research in residence at the Library Company and The Historical Society of Pennsylvania on subjects relevant to its collections, or for scholars from underrepresented backgrounds and others in the field of African American history prior to 1900.
- The Salwa Mikdadi Research Award, Association for Modern + Contemporary Art of the Arab world, Iran + Turkey : A research travel grant to help graduate students at the early stages of planning for archival research realize the archival research they are not otherwise able to undertake.
- The Audrey Flack Short-Term Fellowship : A one month fellowship for scholars researching topics in American art. Projects that require access to SAAM’s collections and staff expertise are prioritized, although those that utilize other Smithsonian resources are eligible.
- UCLA Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies Graduate Fellowships : One- to three-month fellowships to support research in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
- Holt/Smithson Research Fellowships : Fellowship program open to graduate students, recent college graduates, doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, artists, early career museum professionals, and Holt and Smithson scholars working towards a specific publication, exhibition, or project.
- The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture : Lump-sum grants for both dissertation development and advanced student dissertation cost defrayal of research-related expenses.
- Bancroft Library Fellowships and Awards : Long-term awards and short-term fellowships to assist graduate students who are conducting research that would benefit from the use of source materials in the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.
- James Loeb Fellowship for the Classical Tradition in Art and Architecture : Three month fellowship, intended for doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars, to support projects related to the classical tradition in art and architecture, from the Middle Ages to the present.
MARCH
- Joan and Stanford Alexander Dissertation Award, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston : Grants of $5,000 each to two doctoral candidates who are working on dissertations that concentrate on photography.
- Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation Graduate Fellowships : One award for graduate students that funds a research residency at the Soane Museum oriented towards academic research related to any aspect of the work of Sir John Soane or Sir John Soane’s Museum and its collections.
APRIL
- The Leigh and Mary Carter Director’s Research Fellowship, Cleveland Museum of Art : Two-year Position (with an option for a third year of renewal) Research Fellow for doctoral candidates who are working on dissertations that concentrate on Contemporary Art or Photography.
MAY
- Toward Equity in Publishing, Smithsonian American Art Museum : A professional development writing program to foster excellence and diversity in the field of American art scholarship through editorial mentorship and workshops that help early-career art historians revise manuscripts for submission and publication.
JUNE
- The Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice : Eleven residential scholarships for Ph.D. students to spend two months at the Vittore Branca International Center for the Study of Italian Culture to access archives and documents held in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. Note: students must not be over 40 years old by the application submission deadline.
- The Center for Italian Modern Art Fall-Winter Fellowships : Fellowships support the study of Italian modern and contemporary art by scholars of all nationalities, with the intention of bringing together emerging scholars from diverse academic backgrounds in an interactive and collaborative environment at CIMA’s New York location. Scholars will pursue their own research and study as well as work on a “study topic” related to CIMA’s installations.
JULY
- Francis Haskell Memorial Fund Scholarships : Grants enable scholars to visit libraries or archives for research in the history of western art. Preference may be given to subjects related to the commissioning, collecting or interpretation of works of art made before 1914; and to research carried out outside the applicant’s country of residence.
AUGUST
- Association of Print Scholars Publication Grant : The grant supports the publication of innovative scholarly research about printmaking across all time periods and geographic regions and carries a maximum award of $2,000. Proposed projects should be feature-length articles, online publications or essays, exhibition catalogues, or books, which are nearing completion and publication.