Einaudi Dissertation Proposal Development Program

Einaudi-SSRC 2019 cohort at spring 2019 workshop

Application Deadline: November 14, 2022

Develop your dissertation on global issues with a toolkit of resources. Over the course of the year, you’ll participate in seminars, workshops, and mentoring sessions and receive up to $5,000 for summer research.

The Einaudi Dissertation Proposal Development Program (DPD) supports 12 PhD students annually. Applicants’ research projects must focus on global issues, but the proposed research setting may be international or domestic. In addition to six weeks of summer research, the program includes these community-building and mentoring events:

Seminars: Up to three sessions on topics including proposal writing, research methods, and interdisciplinary international studies.
Spring workshop: Three-day workshop in May to help you refine your proposal and plan your summer pre-dissertation research.
Fall workshop: Three-day workshop in September to support you as you finalize your dissertation proposal.

Applicants must commit to attending the entire spring and fall workshops and agree to conduct at least six weeks of summer research away from Cornell between the workshops.

DPD Alum: "Feedback from My Peers"

Who leads Einaudi DPD?

Wendy Wolford and Durba Ghosh are DPD's lead faculty. Sarah Besky and Raymond Craib are the current faculty facilitators. Rick Lee is the program coordinator.

How is the program connected to the Social Science Research Council (SSRC)?

In 2020, the Einaudi-SSRC program became fully funded by Cornell under a new name: the Einaudi Dissertation Proposal Development Program.

SSRC developed the original program and offered it at a national level with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In 2016, SSRC selected Cornell as one of five host universities, with the goal of transferring the program to local campuses. The Einaudi Center led Cornell’s program with financial support from CAS, CALS, CIS, ILR, and the Graduate School.

Einaudi’s DPD helped students apply to external funding opportunities, including SSRC’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF) competition. Although SSRC has discontinued the IDRF program, DPD will continue to be a vital resource for students applying for a diverse range of external funding opportunities, including the Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant program, the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program, the NSF’s Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Awards (DDRI) program, and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

Amount

Up to $5,000 for summer research. The award can cover the following research expenses:

International travel (economy airfare, visa fees)
Local travel
Accommodation and living expenses
Research expenses (permits, translation costs, internet, archive access, etc.)

We encourage you to apply for other Cornell grants and external grants to complement your DPD funding. You must apply for the Graduate School's research travel grants; you are not eligible to apply for Einaudi's travel grants.

Please note that you may only bill for a research expense once. If an expense is already covered by your DPD award or Graduate School travel grant, you may not use other Cornell or external grants to pay the same expense.

Eligibility

Students who are currently enrolled full-time in PhD programs at Cornell University are eligible.
Both U.S. citizens and noncitizens are eligible.
Progress within graduate program:
- Applicants must have completed at least two full years of graduate study (MA and/or PhD) by the end of the spring workshop. First-year graduate students who have completed master’s degrees and fourth-year students who have not yet undertaken dissertation research may be eligible.
- Applicants must be on track to obtain approval of their dissertation proposals after the fall workshop but before the end of the upcoming academic year.
Students who have already submitted dissertation research proposals to their departments for approval or to funding agencies for dissertation research support are not eligible to apply.