The Department of History and Art History offers teaching and research assistantships for qualified full-time doctoral students; the department is currrently unable to offer graduate assistantships to MA students. All assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis.
Persons applying for admissions to the PhD program at George Mason may indicate their interest in being considered for a graduate assistantship by checking the appropriate box on their Graduate Admissions Application.
The State of Virginia also has financial assistance for students who enter graduate school to prepare to teach at the college level. The Governor and the General Assembly allocate the funds for these fellowships to the State Council of Higher Education.
Three state-supported fellowships are available for non-Caucasian U.S. citizens through the Stephen J. Wright Scholars Program: the Dean’s Graduate Award, the Commonwealth Graduate Award, and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Doctoral Scholars Award. Annual awards range from $5,000-$12,000 and are renewable with satisfactory academic progress. The university further assists students with tuition and fees. Each of these awards is intended to assist students who plan to teach at the university level. For deadline information and applications for these programs, contact the scholarship administrator in the Office of Student Financial Aid.
In addition to the above financial aid, the History Department also has a few competitive financial awards for students. These include: Charles and Polly Webber Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Josephine F. Pacheco Best Graduate Paper Prize, Evelyn Pugh Tuition Scholarship, George Mason Graduate School Fellowship, and the Finley Fellowship. Students are nominated by faculty members and awards are given on a yearly basis.
In the upcoming admissions cycle, for students entering the program in Fall 2019, the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University will be offering Digital History Fellowships to two incoming Ph.D. students. These five-year funding packages will offer unique training and work experience at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, one of the world’s leading centers for digital historical scholarship.
The Digital History Fellows program builds on the strengths of our Ph.D. program by offering select students the opportunity to take a specialized one-semester Practicum in Digital History, which provides on-the-ground experience in the daily work of a digital history center, as well as an understanding of how collaborative projects are conceived, proposed, and delivered – special attention is paid to project management skills. Fellows will then be guaranteed 3 semesters of work as Research Assistants at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, where they will gain valuable experience with some of the Center’s many ongoing projects developing online teaching resources, digital collections and exhibits, open-source software, and training in digital literacy and skills.
Applications for the Ph.D. Program are due on January 15. All eligible applicants will be considered for the Digital History Fellowships, though you are welcome to express a particular interest in the fellowship in your cover letter.
Our websites provide more information about George Mason’s Ph.D. Program and about the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. If you have any questions about the Ph.D. Program, or the Digital History Fellowship, please feel free to email the Ph.D. Director, Dr. Sam Lebovic – slebovic@gmu.edu.
The Office of Graduate Academic Affairs of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences has an extensive list of potential sources of funding to support graduate students.
The university Office of Student Financial Aid has more information on funding sources including student loans or work-study positions.
Mason's Federal School Code: 003749
