Student Financial Support and Employment:
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The Department of Film & Media provides a comprehensive fully funded five-year package to all admitted students that encompasses full coverage of tuition, fees, and health insurance. Our funding offers include semesters of student financial support via stipend and semesters of employment via Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) positions during the fall and spring semesters. In addition, our funding offers provide financial support via stipend during the summer.
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Since June 1, 2000, GSI employment has been governed by a union contract.
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We provide GSI appointments (50%, 20 hours/week) within the Department’s undergraduate program, where responsibilities include leading discussion sections for lower-division courses and larger, mandatory upper-division lecture courses. Furthermore, we offer GSI positions specifically for Reading and Composition (R1A and R1B) courses. Each semester, we typically teach approximately four sections of this undergraduate requirement.
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Film & Media graduate students have historically supported themselves by working as Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) for a maximum of four years.
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Note that the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) limits GSI appointments to 12 semesters; however, due to COVID-19 the limit is increased to 14 semesters. There are NO exceptions beyond the 14th semester.
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Additionally, we offer Reader positions (20% appointments, 8 hours/week) within the Department’s undergraduate program, where responsibilities will normally include the grading of student papers and examinations.
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Each semester Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) positions may become available. These positions are established through arrangements between faculty members with research grants and students who express interest.
- For more information, please review the Graduate Division's Graduate Student Academic Appointments Handbook
- Finally, the Department encourages students to apply for individual funding in the following categories: presentation and research travel grants (fall, spring, summer), dissertation completion grant (summer only), language study grant (summer only), and academic materials grant (summer only).
External Students:
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We typically have several GSI positions open for instruction in our Reading & Composition (R&C) courses. Interested GSI candidates who meet the eligibility requirements may submit an application to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer at rfahgradadvising@berkeley.edu
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Please email the following items as a single PDF attachment: Cover letter that includes information on your previous teaching experience and CV/Resume.
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For first round consideration, please submit your materials according to the deadlines: Fall Application Deadline: April 1; Spring Application Deadline: October 1; Summer Application Deadline: February 1.
University Fellowship Resources:
- Berkeley Graduate Fellowships, Grants and Awards: University Fellowships at Berkeley include a variety of grants and awards, both from Berkeley itself and external sources. Detailed information, including deadlines and application procedures, can be found on this website. Please note that certain fellowships, such as the Mentored Research Award and the University of California Dissertation-Year Fellowship, require nomination from your department.
- Pivot Database (Berkeley Access): The University of California, Berkeley community now has the option to search the Pivot Database. Pivot is an easy-to-use searchable database that provides information on funding opportunities from federal, non-federal, foundation, corporate, and other private sponsors across all disciplines. Pivot also identifies researcher expertise within or outside the University to help connect with potential collaborators.
- International Students are encouraged to explore the valuable resources available on the Berkeley International Office (BIO)'s Financial Assistance & Scholarship Resource page
University Fellowships of Particular Interest to our Students:
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Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowship: The Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowships are to be awarded only to candidates who have outstanding undergraduate records, have demonstrated a need for financial assistance, are citizens of the United States of America, are enrolled in accredited colleges and universities in the United States and have received baccalaureate degrees. Applicants must be enrolled UC Berkeley graduate students. Eligible students include not only those in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, but also those in professional programs like law, medicine, engineering, and architecture. Students with the potential to utilize three years of funding will be given priority over students who would only use one year of funding. The amount of each Fellowship will cover the cost of tuition only (no fees) and a stipend to be allocated towards room, board, living expenses, and income taxes. The Trustee has set the stipend at $18,000 for this year.
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Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships: Provides funding to students to encourage the study of critical and less commonly taught foreign languages in combination with area studies, international studies or international aspects of professional studies. These fellowships are funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Education under Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, and the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. The purpose of the FLAS program is to promote the training of students who intend to make their careers in college or university teaching, government service, or other employment where knowledge of foreign languages and cultures is essential.
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Global, International & Area Studies (GIAS): GIAS provides several fellowships to support graduate students conducting research in international and area studies. This page lists grants administered by GIAS itself. For fellowships administered by individual GIAS units, please click here.
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Mabelle McLeod Lewis Fellowships: The Mabelle McLeod Lewis Memorial Fund provides dissertation write-up grants to PhD candidates in humanities. Grants are awarded to bring about the completion of the dissertation. Grants are available only to applicants who are in financial need as determined by the Trustees upon review of the applications. Lewis Fellows are awarded to students who are completing a dissertation whose focus is humanistic.
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Townsend Dissertation Fellowships: Awarded to graduate students writing Ph.D. dissertations whose research projects significantly involve humanistic material or problems that have a significant bearing on the humanities. The competition is open to graduate students who are advanced to candidacy, or who will be advanced to candidacy by the June preceding the academic year of their fellowship.
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UC President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship: The UC President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship is part of the UC-Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative (UC-HSI DDI), which aims to enhance faculty diversity and pathways to the professoriate for historically underrepresented students from California Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), particularly Chicanx/Latinx, African Americans, American Indians/Native Americans, Filipinx, and Pacific Islanders in all disciplines; women in STEM; and Asian Americans in the humanities and social sciences. Fellows receive a $37,000 stipend and California resident tuition and fees and $10,000 professional development grant that will expose, prepare, and inspire the fellow to pursue the professoriate.
External Databases and Lists (non-exhaustive):
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(Database) Carnegie Mellon University – Department of English - External Funding Database
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(Database) UCLA - GRAPES - Search engine for postdocs and graduate funding
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(List) ProFellow: 40 Humanities Fellowships for Research and Study
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(List) USC Graduate School: Top 15 Funding Opportunities for Humanists
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(List) Boston University Arts & Sciences: Humanities Fellowships and Grants