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APPLYING FOR A RESEARCH APPRENTICE

Work Collaboratively with a Student Research Fellow


The Humanities Institute invites faculty to apply to involve student apprentices in their research.

Supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Research Apprenticeship Program allows faculty to work closely with undergraduates in a mutually beneficial way.  Faculty advance their research with the assistance of a student research fellow.  Students learn research methods, gain insight into the challenges of independent scholarship, and acquire valuable credentials for their future.

Faculty interested in working with an apprentice should send a 1- to 2-page application describing 1) an ongoing or planned research project; 2) a description of how the student apprentice will contribute to, and gain from, the experience;  3) any qualifications the student fellow should have; 4) all prior years in which the faculty member has received funding for this program. Faculty applicants should give careful consideration to both the capabilities and limitations of student research fellows. In past years, student fellows have worked with faculty to develop the following skills:

Projects selected for funding will be widely advertised to students by the Humanities Institute. Interested students will write directly to the faculty project mentor. After a period of two weeks, faculty will select one or more students for a fellowship. After review, the institute will appoint qualified students as research fellows. Fellows must agree to submit a two-page report describing their experience and explaining what they have learned, how it has supplemented their academic experience, and how it may apply to their own proposed research. Faculty mentors receives research support funding of $1000 for supervising the student;  student research fellows receive a scholarship of $450 after the Humanities Institute approves the fellow’s written project report.  

Examples of past Research Apprentices and Projects can be found in the Research Apprentice Archive.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis beginning early in the fall semester. Applications should be emailed to humanitiesgrants@miamioh.edu. . Faculty may apply at any time, but once funding is exhausted, no more projects will be funded this academic year. Please consult the Faculty Opportunities page for deadline information and updates about program funding.

The Student Research Fellowship program is part of a suite of Humanities Institute programs that stimulate faculty-student collaboration. These include an Undergraduate Methods Workshop, the Geoffrion Undergraduate Fellows Program, and the Humanities Labs. These programs aim not only to cultivate advanced student learning but also to educate students about faculty research projects by fostering student contributions. Aligning student and faculty research is expected to make student-teacher partnerships more productive and mutually beneficial.