CLAS Distinguished Fellowship Program

The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) is pleased to announce the second year of its Distinguished Fellowship Program. This program enables top graduate students with a primary focus on Latin America or the Caribbean to receive a tuition waiver and a full graduate stipend ($20,000) while providing support to the Center's activities. Distinguished fellowships will be offered to incoming Ph.D. students or students already enrolled in Ph.D. Programs in any department in the College of Arts and Sciences. Students must be fluent in Spanish, Portuguese or Haitian Creole and demonstrate a substantial research interest in Latin America and/or the Caribbean. CLAS will award three fellowships for the academic year 2012-2013.

The purpose of this Fellowship Program is to collaborate with Ph.D.-granting departments in attracting top students to the University of Miami and to offer the best continuing students an opportunity to gain valuable experience by engaging in the wealth of activities advanced by CLAS. The Center for Latin American Studies has been named a National Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Education, effectively designating it as one of the top area studies centers in the United States. We believe that the Center’s new programs and activities as well as its growing visibility should be appealing to the best candidates in Ph.D. programs at CAS.

Applications are by departmental nomination only and should include:

- A departmental letter of nomination signed by the Chair

- Two letters of recommendation

- An updated C.V.

- A statement of purpose from the student (two double-space pages maximum)

- An up-to-date University of Miami transcript, when appropriate

In order to make this process as smooth as possible, we are requesting that you inform us of your intention to nominate students for this fellowship by January 15, 2012 or earlier, indicating the name of the student and her/his standing in your program. Upon receipt of this information, we will establish an appropriate deadline for submitting complete applications and we will make an expedite decision. If this timeline is not appropriate for your department, please let us know as

soon as possible.

Please email nominations and applications to Israel Alonso, CLAS Associate Director, at i.alonsochavez@miami.edu, with the subject heading “Distinguished Fellowship Program.” If you have any questions about this program, please do not hesitate to contact me at armony@miami.edu.