Funding and Financial Aid Basics

The History Department strives to provide every admitted student with the financial support necessary to complete their studies. Students admitted to the PhD program are normally offered 5 years of funding in the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships. Students applying for the MA program may be eligible for funding; this depends on availability of funds each year.

In addition to these multi-year assistantships, there a number of competitive fellowships and grants available to support graduate student research, conference travel, and dissertation-writing.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

Departmental funding takes the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships that include a monthly stipend, 90% coverage of health insurance premiums, and a tuition scholarship covering the costs of full-time tuition in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and 50% of mandatory student fees.  Stipend levels for TAships are negotiated between the University and the graduate employee union, COGS (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, Local 896). Full employment terms for the current year can be found on the Graduate College website.

Graduate Instructors normally serve first as section leaders for faculty-taught courses with discussion sections. Experienced Graduate Instructors then have the opportunity to design and teach their own, General Education seminars under the guidance of a faculty supervisor. Teaching assignments may be supplemented by work as a grader for a faculty-led course or as a tutor in the History Writing Center.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) requires graduate students for whom English is not a first language to pass the English Speaking Proficiency Assessment before they can be assigned teaching responsibilities. Foreign students should be aware of this expectation and be prepared to do intensive language work if necessary. Full details are available on the CLAS ESL website.

Online Application for Departmental Aid, must be completed by all students wishing to be considered for teaching assignments regardless of eligibility status. In addition, please ask your advisor to send a short email to the DGS regarding your academic progress. The deadline for 2023-24 aid is January 31, 2023.

Fellowships for Graduate Research

Current doctoral candidates who have passed their Comprehensive Exams are eligible for grants and fellowships that support specific research projects (travel to archives and libraries, protected time to write), language study, or other research-related work from the History Department, the Graduate College, and International Programs.

Departmental Aid & Fellowship information is usually posted late in the fall semester, with applications due in mid-February. You will find details, including application instructions for each year here.

Graduate College
Especially strong applicants may be nominated for Graduate College fellowships that provide additional support above departmental funding.  Information about all forms of funding for graduate study from the Graduate College can be found online.  The 

• Fellowship Webinars introduce some major external fellowships and the application components, helping to prepare graduate students for the application process
• Graduate College Fellowships, for information and application procedures for internal fellowships which may or may not require departmental nomination
• External Fellowships - resources are available from the Graduate College, including fellowship communities and individual application help
• Fellowship Incentive Program - offers a financial reward to graduate students who apply for nationally competitive external grants and fellowships
• Recruitment Fellowships - a few select incoming history students may be nominated for an Iowa Recruitment Fellowship or a Lulu Merle Johnson Fellowship

Other Resources

• Graduate Student Senate provides Travel Funds for conference and workshop travel. Their rather convoluted schedule of partly retroactive, partly anticipatory deadlines is available here.
• UE Local 896/COGS is the union that represents graduate employees in collective bargaining at the University of Iowa.
• Graduate and Professional Student Government provides grants to University of Iowa graduate and professional students to travel, conduct research, or engage in a service project
• Department of History has limited funds for research travel for pre-comp students. To apply, talk to your advisor and when ready to request funds, fill out this form (Grad Student Travel Funding Request) and submit to the department administrator.