CMH Fellowships & Awards

In keeping with its mission, the Center of Military History seeks to stimulate interest in military history both in the Army and among the public by sponsoring a variety of professional appointments, fellowships, and awards.

Fellowship Programs: To encourage and support the production of dissertations in military history by qualified graduate students, the Center offers up to two Fellowships each academic year: the Dissertation Year Fellowship and the Colonel Charles Young Fellowship. These fellowships carry a $15,000 and $60,000-80,000, stipend, respectively.

The CMH Dissertation Fellowship: General Information

Purpose

To support scholarly research and writing among qualified civilian graduate students preparing dissertations in the history of warfare, the Center offers two or more Dissertation Fellowships each year. They are designed to support dissertations that explore the material culture of the Army or the more general areas of military history in all its many aspects. In your application, please specify if you wish to compete for the general fellowship or for the museum fellowship. These fellowships carry a $15,000 stipend and access to the Center's facilities and technical expertise.

Area and Topics of Study

For purposes of this program, the history of war on land is broadly defined, including such areas as biography, military campaigns, military organization and administration, policy, strategy, tactics, weaponry, technology, training, logistics, and the evolution of civil-military relations. In the selection of proposals for funding, preference is given to topics on the history of the U.S. Army. Topics submitted should complement rather than duplicate the Center's existing projects.

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants who wish to become Fellows must be civilian citizens of the United States unaffiliated with the U.S. government; that is, they must not be military personnel, not in federal service as civilian employees, and not under contract to the U.S. government. They must demonstrate their professional potential by submitting the following: (1) official transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate schools attended; (2) a proposed plan of research; (3) a letter of recommendation from their academic director that includes a statement approving the dissertation topic; and (4) writing sample of approximately 25 pages. (Please submit an entire piece rather than a fragment.) Applicants must have completed by September all requirements for the Ph.D. degree, except for the dissertation.

Requirements During the Fellowship Year

Fellows are required to visit the Center at the beginning and end of their fellowship period. On the first visit, the Fellow meets the Chief of Military History, the Chief Historian, and the Executive Secretary of the Dissertation Fellowship Program and is consulted on ways in which the Center can aid him or her. On the second visit, the Fellow presents, in an appropriate form and forum, an oral report on his/her work in progress. The Fellow also prepares a brief written report at the conclusion of his or her fellowship year.

The Center requires deposit in its library of one copy of the complete bound dissertation.

Stipends and Payments

The stipend of $15,000 for the fellowship is provided in one payment at the start of the academic year. From this sum, the recipient must meet travel and all other expenses in connection with the fellowship. The payment of the stipend is made directly to the Fellow upon receipt of certification from the parent academic institution that he or she is a candidate for the Ph.D. degree and is authorized to become a Visiting Research Fellow.

Role of CMH

The Center of Military History also undertakes to support the Fellow's scholarly activities in the Washington area by making its collections accessible and its specialists available, insofar as official duties permit. Fellows receive desk space at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, if available, and are assisted in gaining access to archival and library sources within the Washington area as well as at the U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Review of the dissertation by the Center is at the discretion of the Center and the candidate's sponsoring institution, but responsibility for the control and approval of the dissertation remains with the academic institution and its faculty.

Applications

Application can be downloaded here.(PDF download - 116KB)

Our email

usarmy.mcnair.cmh.mbx.dissfellow@mail.mil

Applications and all supporting documents for the Dissertation Fellowships must be postmarked no later than?31 March each year; applications will not be accepted when mailed after that date. The applicant is responsible for ensuring that all required documentation is mailed before the closing date. Completed applications should be mailed to:

Evaluation and Selection

The Center of Military History conducts its evaluation of applicants on the basis of academic achievement, faculty recommendations, demonstrated writing ability, the relevance of the topic to U.S. Army history, and the nature and location of the proposed research. The awards are made on merit without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicapping condition, marital status, or political affiliation. The Center notifies all applicants of the competition's outcome by a short notice or letter not later than 1 April.

The Colonel Charles Young Fellowship: General Information

This fellowship commemorates the service of Col. Charles Young to the nation and the Army. Born to enslaved parents in 1864, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1889, becoming just the third African American to do so. During his career he served in the cavalry, led the military science program (a forerunner of ROTC) at Wilberforce College, was superintendent of a national park, served as military attache to Haiti and later Liberia, and commanded a cavalry squadron in the Philippines and another during the 1916 Punitive Expedition in Mexico. He was a torchbearer and trailblazer, becoming the first African American officer to achieve the ranks of major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel in the Regular Army. Through his selfless service Colonel Young demonstrated that African Americans could lead at any level and serve fully as soldiers in the U.S. Army. By doing so he helped open doors for African Americans in the Armed Forces and made the Army more representative of the nation it serves.? In 2022, the Army bestowed on him an honorary promotion to the rank of brigadier general.

The U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) sponsors this fellowship with the objective of increasing diversity in its historian workforce and in the history it produces. Fellows will acquire additional knowledge in the fields of U.S. Army history and general military history, gain firsthand experience in the federal government history community, and obtain a security clearance. Fellows thus will be better prepared for possible future opportunities with the federal government as a civil service employee or contractor. Fellows with a PhD will receive $80,000 in return for working at the Center of Military History for one year. Fellows who have not yet completed their PhD degree and are in all-but-dissertation (ABD) status will receive $60,000. The fellowship does not include any paid benefits, other than 11 paid national holidays and 26 days of paid leave. By mutual agreement, the fellowship may be extended for a second year. Fellows will work a standard 40-hour week but are eligible for flexible work schedules that may permit occasional weekdays off in addition to holidays and paid leave. Fellows are eligible for partial telework, but should anticipate spending part of each week at CMH offices in Washington, D.C.

Fellows will be part of the Historical Programs Directorate within CMH. The directorate researches, writes, and publishes historical books and monographs; provides historical support to the Headquarters, Department of the Army; manages the Army's lineage and honors program; and oversees the field history program throughout the Army. Fellows will perform one or more of the following duties in furtherance of those CMH missions: conduct archival research in support of a major official history book project, research and write short monographs, assist with preparation for and conduct of oral histories, research and write information papers intended for senior leaders, assist in guiding battlefield staff rides, and answer historical inquiries. Fellow duties also include researching and writing historical content for Army History magazine and the CMH website and providing support to commemorative programs. CMH will assign specific duties based on the experience and interests of the fellow and the needs of the directorate. The Fellows also will participate in a mentorship program with CMH senior historians and in a professional development program that introduces them to most of the larger government history organizations in the Washington, D.C. area.

The fellowship is open to individuals who are citizens of the United States and who have graduated within the past two years with a doctoral degree in history from an accredited university or who have completed their general exams and are in the dissertation phase of a doctoral degree program in history at an accredited university. Preference is given to those who have focused their education in the field of military history, but historians from any field are encouraged to apply. Fellows must be eligible to obtain a secret security clearance, so they should have no issues such as a history of criminal convictions or illegal substance use that will unreasonably delay processing for a clearance. A security clearance will provide many opportunities for employment throughout the federal government and industry at the completion of the fellowship.

Applications must be submitted by 28 February 2024. Applicants possessing a PhD should have graduated from that degree program no earlier than 1 May 2022. The exact start date of the fellowship is negotiable but should begin around 1 August 2024. A complete application package includes the following items:

1)Letter from the applicant explaining why they are seeking the fellowship (no more than two pages in single-space, 12-point, Times New Roman font). Applicants are invited, but not required, to explain how their background contributes to the diversity of the military history profession or to their approach to study in the field of military history.

2)A curriculum vitae or resume (in 12-point Times New Roman font) listing education completed or in progress, a brief description of the completed or in-progress dissertation, recent employment history, publications, presentations at academic conferences, and awards or recognitions (highlighting those relevant to the field of history).

3)A transcript covering academic work at the masters (if applicable) and doctoral level.

4)A letter of recommendation from at least one professor at the student's graduate school, and preferably two.

5)A writing sample of 15-25 pages in the form of a published article or a paper submitted for course credit. This can be submitted in Word or PDF format.

Applications must be submitted digitally to usarmy.mcnair.cmh.mbx.opportunities@army.mil. Applicants can submit any questions they may have to the same address.