Funding for Ph.D. Students

Expressing Interest in Funding

Applicants to the PhD program indicate their interest in being considered for funding as part of the online admissions application.

Graduate Assistantships

Eligibility

The Department of History and Art History offers teaching and research assistantships for qualified full-time doctoral students. The department is unable to offer graduate assistantships to part-time doctoral students or master's students. 

All assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis.

Terms of Service

Students work up to 20 hours per week during the school year (August to May). Assistantships do not run over the summer.

Benefits

Full-time assistantships provide a stipend of $23,000 - $25,000 per year, subsidized graduate student health insurance, a payroll deduction for campus parking, and a tuition waiver up to 17 credits per academic year (Fall and Spring only).

Assistantships do not cover books.

Health insurance and payroll deduction for campus parking are optional and must be renewed by the student each year in August. Stipend and tuition waiver renewals require no action taken by the student for processing and disbursement. 

Types of Assistantships

There are two types of assistantships:

Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) participate directly in research or research support activities under faculty supervision. The Department provides GRAs in the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, the Center for Mason Legacies and other University Libraries initiatives, or the Journal of Social History, which is edited at Mason. The Chair of the Department of History & Art History makes these assignments. 

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) participate directly in instructional activities under faculty supervision. History teaching assistants help with grading and/or leading discussion sections in undergraduate courses. GTAs attend the professor’s lectures, hold office hours, and lead discussions and tutoring sessions. 

Scholarships and Awards

The Department of History and Art History offers several small scholarships and awards for graduate students. These include the Charles and Polly Webber Outstanding Graduate Student Award, the Josephine F. Pacheco Best Graduate Paper Prize, the Evelyn Pugh Tuition Scholarship, the George Mason Graduate School Fellowship, and the Finley Fellowship. Students are nominated by faculty members, and awards are given annually in the Spring.

Learn more about these awards and recent winners here.

Fellowships

The Commonwealth’s State Council of Higher Education for Virginia offers some financial assistance in the form of fellowships for students who enter graduate school to prepare to teach at the college level. You can find more information here.

Other Sources of Graduate Funding

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences provides a list of potential sources of funding for graduate students.

The University’s Financial Aid Services has more information on funding sources, including student loans or work-study positions.

Mason's Federal School Code: 003749