21st Century Fellowship

About this program

The Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) awards two annual 21st Century Fellowships—an Open Fellowship and a Specialized Fellowship—each providing $7,500 to support Ph.D. dissertation fieldwork in ethnomusicology. Applicants must be current SEM members and ABD or equivalent doctoral candidates by August 1 of the application year, and must undertake at least six months of full‑time dissertation research, with some or all fieldwork occurring after the fall SEM Annual Meeting; onsite fieldwork is preferred but virtual research is acceptable. The Specialized Fellowship is limited to students in U.S. or Canadian graduate programs who have received less than $5,000 for dissertation fieldwork and prioritizes applicants from programs that do not fund research, those researching in their country of origin, multi‑sited projects, and candidates from marginalized groups. Applications are due April 1 annually; awardees must submit a report on funded research within twelve months and acknowledge the fellowship in their dissertation.