The University's Miller Center of Public Affairs is sponsoring a new national fellowship program that will fund up to 10 fellowships per year for Ph.D. candidates and other scholars throughout the country.
"We're trying to foster scholarship specifically on important questions of public policy," Miller Center Spokeswoman Margaret Edwards said.
Starting next year, fellowships will be offered to scholars who are completing books on 20th century U.S. politics and government. The Center also will encourage applicants from a variety of disciplines to apply, including history, political science, policy studies, law, political economy and sociology.
Each fellow is expected to complete their dissertation or a book during their fellowship year with the help of a $15,000 stipend.
Funding for the fellowships will be partially provided for by the Thompson Fund, created in honor of Kenneth W. Thompson, former director of the Miller Center. Thompson is a government and foreign affairs resident scholar.
"I think the opportunities for scholars to continue their work in some way, and gain the recognition that they deserve would be a wonderful thing," Thompson said.
The fellowships will be awarded to scholars who are completing influential new work.
Thompson said that he would like to see the fellowships go to "somebody that would have the goals and objectives that would contribute to international relations."
The fellows will be provided with the opportunity to share their research and findings with the academic community during an annual conference. The first of these forums will take place in the spring of 2001.
Applications will be judged on the basis of scholarly quality and on their potential to contribute to the knowledge base of the academic community.
Fellows also will be required to share their research publicly using electronic media, op-ed pieces and short journal articles.
"The pipeline of trained people asked to make a contribution to international relations runs the risk of drying up. This program allows you to bring people forward who will be able to make a contribution to the nation, without allowing the well to dry up," Thompson said.
Edwards said the program has the potential to expand in the future.
"Right now, we foresee doing up to 10 [fellowships]. It is possible it could grow," she said.
The Miller Center is a nonpartisan research institute that sponsors studies in national policy and the American presidency.
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