Support for Students

Research Fellowships and Travel Grants

Students interested in applying for research fellowships and travel grants for this summer and the 2024-25 academic year should keep in mind the following deadlines.

Marguerite Fellowship Program

Overview: The Marguerite Program provides opportunities for UChicago Ph.D. students to spend one-month in Paris conducting research under the mentorship of one of the 46 tenured Collège de France faculty members while making use of Collège de France laboratories, facilities, and/or archives to advance their doctoral research.

Number of Awards: Up to 3 fellowships will be awarded this application cycle.

Funding Levels: Each Marguerite Fellow will receive: 1) a $2,500 travel grant from UChicago, as well as 2) a stipend of up to 1,200€ from the Collège de France. The travel grant will be disbursed prior to departure. The amount of the stipend, to be disbursed at the edn fo the fellowship residency, will be based on actual living expenses occured and will be paid out at levels consistent with supporting documentation (receipts) submitted.

Application Deadline: December 2, 2024 (11:59 pm CT).

Click the “Marguerite Fellowship Program” button below to find more information and apply.

François Furet Travel Grant

Amount of Award: $3,000
Number of Awards: At least eight (8)
Eligibility: Students in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Professional Schools, or the College who wish to conduct research or pursue intensive language study in France
Deadline: For travel to France during the summer or fall of 2025. This application cycle, the deadline is April 14, 2025.

Acknowledgment: These awards are made possible through the generous support of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

Deadline: April 14, 2025.

Click the “application” button below to apply.

EHESS Exchange Fellowship

Amount of Award: Airfare, Registration Fees, Stipend of up to the euro equivalent of $12,000 for a stay of up to six months. For shorter stays of no less than three months, the stipend will be prorated.
Housing: Possible access to subsidized housing through CROUS.
Number of Awards: One per year.
Eligibility: Open to PhD candidates in the Division of the Social Sciences whose dissertation projects require study and research in Paris and who would benefit substantially from the resources of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
Deadline: April 14, 2025 — for fellowship tenure in AY 2025-26

Click the “application” button below to apply.

Sciences Po Exchange Fellowship

Amount of Award: Airfare (up to $2000), a stipend paid in euros equivalent to $12,000 for 2 or 3 academic quarters. and an opportunity to teach a course in English based on PhD research.
Number of Awards: One per year.
Eligibility: Open to PhD candidates with a research project in an academic discipline represented at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).
Application Deadline: April 14, 2025 — for fellowship tenure in AY 2025-26

Click the “application” button below to apply.

Exchange Fellowships and Travel Grant Information & Application

Marguerite Fellowship Program Information & Application

Internship Support

The France Chicago Center works with various University partners to help make it possible for UChicago students to conduct summer internships through the following programs.

Summer Internships for Students at the Harris School of Public Policy

FCC provides $5000 awards to up to two (2) Harris School students who are accepted into summer internship positions in France. Contact Allison Foley, Senior Associate Director of Employer Partnerships at the Harris School of Public Policy, for more information.

Summer Internships for Students at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

FCC provides $5000 awards to at least one (1) Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice student who is accepted into a summer internship position in France, one of her oversees departments or terretories, or in a French-speaking country. Contact Cristina Gros, Assistant Director for International Programs at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.

Summer Internships for Students in the College

FCC provides supplemental support in the amount of $1000—above and beyond the amount ($5000) provided by the University—to up to three (3) students in the College who secure summer internships in France through the IOP/Metcalf Program. For more information, contact Karnika Iyengar, Associate Director of Internship Programs at the Institute of Politics.

Interdisciplinary Workshop on France and the Francophone World

The Interdisciplinary Workshop on France and the Francophone World provides a forum for faculty and students from various departments in the social sciences and the humanities who share a common interest in France and the francophone world from the mid-seventeenth century to the present. By regularly bringing together different disciplinary perspectives and research horizons, we encourage participants to enrich the intellectual and methodological range of their own work. Presenters reflect the diversity of the group and include representatives from the fields of history, anthropology, literature, art history, music, sociology, political science, etc. Participants from all disciplines are welcome.

Learn More

2023-2024 Fellowship and Travel Grants Recipients Reports

Since its inception in 1993, the France Chicago Center has provided travel grant and fellowship support totaling over $2 million to more than 400 UChicago students who pursued France-based research opportunities, engaged in intensive immersion language study, and conducted summer internships in France or in a Francophone country.

What follows are excerpts from reports submitted by students in our 2023-24 cohort. Their full reports are available on pages 33-88 of our latest annual report.

Angelika Lewis

Crown Family School student
July 15 – Sept. 2, 2023

La Savane des Esclaves, Martinique

“I gained not only a better historical and contextual understanding of the people currently inhabiting the island, but also learned about the ways neighboring islands like St. Vincent (where my maternal grandmother is from) were involved in enslaved and ingenious peoples’ struggles for liberation. Additionally, witnessing, and experiencing firsthand the transformational act of slowing down and connecting with nature expanded the way that I think about a decolonized view of social work.”

Stephanie Strother

Ph.D. Student, Art History

Sept. 22 – Oct. 12, 2023

“My trip to France enabled by the Francois Furet travel grant proved to be extremely productive and valuable for my dissertation research. I found materials and sources directly related to the subject of my dissertation that I did not know existed. For example, at the Archives de Paris I discovered a photographic archive that contained hundreds of photographs of Paul Poiret fashions and Atelier Martine textiles and decorative screens. I have never seen several of the Atelier Martine patterns/objects anywhere else and would not have known that they existed if I had not consulted this resource.”

Niklas Plaetzer

Ph.D. student, Political Science

April 8-Sept. 1, 2024

EHESS Exchange Fellowship

“My time in Paris has profoundly enriched my understanding of the French historiography of 19th-century republican cosmopolitanism, which will shape my research for years to come. ”

Alexis Chavez

Ph.D. Student, Anthropology

July 14, – Nov. 3, 2023

“I conducted ethnographic research during my stay in Marseille. I conducted over 20 formal and lengthy interviews (accompanied by several informal conversations) with Marseille locals… Studies of France that focus on Muslims have tended to be situated in Paris, which is often taken to be a representative of the entirety of France.”

Arwa Awan

Ph.D. Student, Political Science

Feb. 26 – March 9, 2024

“My trip to France was intellectually generative in ways that I did not imagine it to be. The conference and the archival work were critical to broadening my intellectual horizons and deepening the focus of my research. They also enabled interactions with Europe and France-based scholars working around my research interests which provided a new perspective on some of the things I work on… I also benefitted from the (dangerously) plenty opportunities to buy books in French on the topics that I work on, some of which can be hard to access here.”

Jeanne Sorin

Ph.D. student, Economics

July 28 – Aug. 13, 2023

“The intellectual and professional contribution of this trip was twofold. First, spending time at the archives and digging into policy notes, laws, reports, minutes of municipal councils, etc. was extremely insightful and shed light on aspects of my research not often discussed in the Economics discipline… Second, I was able to meet with several researchers (geographer historians) who previously digitized the data on the evolution of the French railroad during the XXth century, which is at the core of the quantitative analysis I am conducting.”

Navid Mazidabadifarahani

Undergraduate, History Major

June 2 – Sept. 17, 2023

“…This was my first opportunity to conduct ethnographic research; being situated in Paris for an entire summer allowed me to conduct ethnography in serious depth. It was also my first time conducting research in physical archives. The summer I spent in Paris has helped me realize that I want a career studying Francophonie.”

Nathalia Maya

Harris School student

July 1, 2023 – Sept. 26, 2023

OECD Internship

“I broadened my knowledge of minority groups to a more international perspective by studying countries beyond Latin America. Additionally, I acquired insights into inclusive policies across various contexts and identified best practices for antidiscrimination in European countries that could be adapted for different minority groups in this region. Furthermore, I expanded my network throughout this learning process.”

Jonas Talandis

Medical School student

June 19 – July 25, 2023

I worked at three locations: Lariboisière Hospital, St. Louis Hospital, and the Centre de Sante Richerand. Here, I interviewed patients in both primary care and infectious disease. I also rounded in the infectious disease unit. In my conversations with patients, I was able to gain insight for the purpose behind the project and offer patients the opportunity to participate in our patient survey. Although language study was not a primary goal of my stay, I certainly learned a good amount of French, and I still keep up my practice through media consumption and reading.

Nida Paracha

Ph.D. student, Anthropology

Aug. 1 – Sept. 5, 2023

“This grant was useful in helping me build a community of practitioners and interlocutors in Paris but also across Europe…. The various groups of people I met and the interdisciplinary conversations I was able to have have been very useful in helping me construct the argument for the chapter I am currently writing. Specifically, I was able to explore my dissertation’s central idea of ‘entanglement’ from across a range of disciplines and different types of practitioners – this has enriched my understanding of the subject material and has also allowed me new ways to think about how I trace and create this object.”

Jessie Alperin

Ph.D. student, Art History

June 19 – Aug 18, 2023

“The most significant ways I benefited from my time in Paris was viewing artworks closely in person and meeting with curators at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. I made significant progress on my research project due to both the generosity of the François Furet Travel Grant and the staff at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. The highlight of my experience was viewing drawings by Emile Gallé and Emile Reiber in the drawing archives at the Museum.”

Katsuki Ishimaki

Harris School
July 3 – Aug. 16, 2023

International Energy Agency

“…as one of my goals during my study at Harris is to learn a method to apply EBPM methodology to energy administration, it was very meaningful to be involved in the analytical end of the work at the IEA, which is one of the world’s top think tanks in the energy field, and learn a part of the methodology and know-how of quantitative analysis methods in the energy field. In addition, it was an irreplaceable asset to have made strong connections with colleagues of various nationalities and backgrounds.”