Graduate Funding and Awards

Financial Support


All students entering the Rice PhD program in English receive a five-year fellowship package, which includes an annual stipend and a tuition waiver. Continued support is contingent upon satisfactory progress in the program. Students still enrolled in the program after the fifth year pay reduced tuition, which can continue to be waived if a student secures additional fellowship funding, or a research or teaching assistantship.

Students also have a variety of opportunities for competitive sixth-year funding, based on teaching and research interests. Additionally, funding is available for travel to conferences and for summer research. Our students are regularly selected to receive additional support from interdisciplinary centers and programs.

Department of English Funding for Research and Travel

  • Conference travel, summer research, and summer experience funding - available annually to graduate students in the English PhD program. For more information, please see Support for Research & Travel.
Department of English Fellowships and Awards
  • Chair's Prize for Best Dissertation - Departmental prize for best dissertation in an academic year
  • Hobby Fellowship, Studies in English Literature
  • The Shirley Bard Rapoport Graduate Essay Prize - Established by Morris Rapoport, this endowed prize as a memorial to honor his beloved wife and lifetime partner, Shirley Bard Rapoport, and her love of writing and literature. The Rapoport Prize is awarded every year for the best essay by a graduate student in the English Department. It recognizes graduate student excellence in scholarship, writing, and publication before completion of the dissertation. The Rapoport essay competition is open to students at all levels in the Ph.D. program and invites essays that are one or more of the following: seminar papers that have been revised for publication, or are in circulation, in press, or published. A call for submissions is sent out annually in Spring of each year.
  • Walter Isle Memorial Endowment - This endowment awards grants to graduate students in support of research on projects addressing environmental and/or ecological topics
  • Clancy Taylor Summer Public Humanities Internship - This fund was established in memory of Clancy Taylor whose impact on the English department graduate program was as deep as their commitment to research, scholarship, and activism that would improve the lives of a diverse and inclusive public. This fund honors Clancy Taylor’s commitment by funding summer internships that would support the ongoing work of Rice faculty-led public humanities projects, public facing research projects in the city of Houston, or non-profit organizations whose missions serve a diverse and inclusive public. This fund will award a stipend of $4,000 for up to 200 hours of work. Any timeline for completion before the fall semester begins is suitable for this internship as long as a student’s academic goals for the summer are taken into account. This stipend is to encourage students to seek non-paid internships with faculty, activists, or organizations where their efforts will be valued and recognized.
University and School-wide Fellowships and Awards
Affiliates
  • The Dickens Project - Each year the department accepts applications from graduate students enrolled in the English program at Rice who wish to attend the Dickens Project. Two students are selected to attend both the Summer and Winter conferences. The Dean's office funds the cost of transportation in the Summer and the English departments funds the Winter conference costs. Graduate students will have their flights pre-paid, and can be reimbursed for travel expenses if they submit receipts. Miscellaneous costs incurred are not reimbursed