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Graduate Fellowships

Breen and Quinn Fellowships

Each year the Center awards full graduate fellowships to advanced students in the Department of History. The Center provides the stipend, while The Graduate School provides the tuition.  A faculty committee within the department selects these scholars. Recipients are ordinarily excused from normal teaching duties and are expected to engage with Center activities (see 1 below). For past graduate Fellows, please scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Summer Public History Fellowships

In addition, the Center provides History graduate students with paid summer Public History Fellowships  at organizations in the Chicago area and beyond (see 2 below).

1. CCHS GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS

 To view the current Call for Applications, please go to Graduate Fellowship Application.

Center Graduate Fellows are known as the T.H. BREEN Graduate Fellows, in honor of the founding Director of the Center and eminent colonial American historian, Timothy Hall Breen. The Center also co-sponsors one QUINN Fellowship in conjunction with the Doris G. Quinn Foundation.The Breen Fellowships have been recently updated to better reflect the work and needs of the Center.

For more details and how to apply—see Graduate Fellowship Application.

Please note that graduate fellowships cannot be awarded to students in their 8th year or later.  Therefore, applicants must be in their 6th year or earlier at the time of applying.

2024-25 T.H. Breen Fellows
2024-25 Quinn Fellow
2023-24 T.H. Breen Fellows
2023-24 Quinn Fellow

Scroll down to see past Graduate Fellows.


 2. Summer Public History fellowships

The CCHS is able to support summer research for graduate students working in non-profit organizations, such as museums, history centers, theatres, etc. We have had summer research projects affiliated with the Chicago History Museum, the Evanston History Center, Chicago Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and Chicago theatres. We encourage Chicago/Evanston projects, but are open to projects in areas other than Chicago, as well as remote work on digital projects. If you have identified an organization for which you would like to work on a specific research project and need financial support, please contact us as soon as possible.

The months suitable for the summer fellowship are June, July, August, and the first weeks of September. The Center can offer several fellowships and will pay up to $3,000  as a non-taxable STIPEND (if the student is supported by Northwestern in the summer) or as taxable SPECIAL PAY (if without summer support from the university). The CCHS summer fellowship funds available would presume work @ $30 per hour, so a maximum of 100 hours over the course of the summer, i.e. some 25 hours/week for 4 weeks or 10 hours/week for 10 weeks. If you wish to do summer research for a non-profit public service organization and need support, let us know. Please send inquiries to Assistant Director Elzbieta Foeller-Pituch at efp@northwestern.edu as soon as possible. Summer fellowships are accepted on a rolling basis, with a deadline of Wednesday, MAY 15 by 4 p.m.

For the application, please provide the following:

  1. Current resume with contact information (email and phone #)
  2. Short letter (1-2 pp) describing the organization and the type of work, as well as the reasons for your wishing to work there and information on when you are available (planned dates of work)
  3. Short email statement of approval from your primary advisor
  4. Email message to efp@northwestern.edu from your planned supervisor at your designated organization, stating what work you will be conducting. 
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For additional Summer Public History Fellowships information, visit this webpage.


PAST GRADUATE FELLOWS

2022-23: Breen Fellows: Claire ARNOLD, Emily LYONS/Quinn Fellow: Matthew Wong FOREMAN

2021-22 Breen Fellows: Chernoh BAH, Guangshuo YANG, Gil ENGELSTEIN/Quinn Fellow: Lois HAO

2020-21 BREEN Fellows: Ruby DAILY, Sian OLSON DOWIS, Gil ENGELSTEIN / QUINN Fellow: Lura NOBOA

2019-20 BREEN Fellows: Sean HARVEY, Laura McCOY, Katya  MASLAKOWSKI /QUINN Fellow: William FITZSIMONS

2018-19 BREEN Fellows: Kevin BAKER, Jessica BIDDLESTONE, and Aram SARKISIAN / QUINN Fellow: Keith Allan CLARK II;

2017-2018 BREEN Fellows: Ryan Burns, Bonnie Ernst, and Emily Curtis Walters / QUINN Fellow: Alexandra Thomas;

2016-2017 BREEN Fellows: Michael Falcone, Mariah Hepworth, and Matt June / QUINN Fellow: Yanqiu Zheng;

Grad Fellows 206-17 with Dirtector

2015-2016 BREEN Fellows: Alexandra Lindgren-Gibson, Nathaniel Mathews, and Sam Kling (digital and social media) / QUINN Fellow: Teng Li ;

2014-2015 BREEN Fellows: Alex Hobson, Charles Keenan, and Keith Rathbone;

2013-2014: Andrea Felber Seligman and Jesse Nasta;

2012-2013: Neal T. Dugre and Michael Martoccio;

2011-2012: Teri Chettiar and Peter Thilly;

2010-2011: Theresa (Terri) Keeley and Andrew Wehrman;

2009-2010: Fernando Carbajal and Andreana Prichard;

2008-2009: Anne Koenig and Marygrace Tyrrell;

2007-2008: Laurence (Lonnie) Robbins and Strother Roberts;

2006-2007: Bettina Hessler.