Admissions and Funding
Any PhD student at Brown can participate in GPD activities, including courses, workshops and specialized training modules. Students who become trainees are eligible for summer research grants and have opportunities to participate in research projects sponsored by GPD faculty and our program partners in the global south. Trainees are expected to fulfill program requirements.
GPD is a training program, not a degree-granting program. All GPD trainees must first be admitted as PhD candidates in Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, or Sociology. When applying to Brown, prospective PhD candidates can indicate their interest in GPD. Students admitted to these PhD programs can become trainees at any time during their first three years of study at Brown. At the end of their first year, students can also apply for a GPD fellowship.
GPD fellowships provide a full year of support (stipend, health fees, and tuition). During the fellowship year students cannot accept Teaching Assistant or Research Assistant positions. Fellowship support can be in the second or third year of PhD training. In most cases, GPD Fellows will fulfill their GPD course requirements during their year of fellowship support. The GPD program has been designed to integrate into existing PhD programs and requirements.
How to become a GPD Trainee:
To become a GPD Trainee, please email the following items to Hayden Reiss at GPD@brown.edu and Prerna Singh at Prerna_Singh@brown.edu:
1) a short bio
2) a photo
In the spring, GPD trainees can apply for our summer funds and for a GPD fellowship.
How to apply for a GPD fellowship:
Eligibility: all PhD students who are currently in their first or second year of PhD training in Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, or Sociology are eligible. All candidates must meet the following criteria: 1) a research interest in development broadly defined, 2) an interest in acquiring and using interdisciplinary skills and knowledge, and 3) a commitment to dissertation research that includes field-based research in developing regions.
Requirements: in addition to completing the requirements for normal progress in their home department, Fellows are expected to complete all the requirements of the GPD program. The requirements are as follows:
All fellows must fulfill the following:
§ DEVL 2000, the foundational interdisciplinary course
§ One module (short methods courses specifically designed for GPD)
§ Attend the weekly Development and Governance Seminar (DGS)
All fellows must also fulfill ONE of the following:
§ One course outside their home department (not including DEVL 2000). These should be methods courses or substantive courses related to development.
§ One additional module (short methods courses specifically designed for GPD)
§ Traineeship: Working with a faculty member on a research project (roughly understood to be 10 hrs a week)
Fellows must take DEVL 2000 in their fellowship year (unless they have already taken it). Other requirements need not be completed during the fellowship year though they must be completed before dissertation work begins. All Fellows receive funding equivalent to standard department support and are eligible for two summers of field research support (see a separate call). Work space in the Watson Institute is available to all Fellows. During the course of the fellowship year, Fellows cannot accept RA or TA assignments and should be taking courses that advance their disciplinary or interdisciplinary training.
GPD offers 3-4 modules a year. These are short, non-credit courses offered at non-regular times that are designed to introduce trainees to different methods (spatial analysis, experiments, survey techniques and ethnography). For more information about the program, go to http://watson.brown.edu/gpd/
Application: In order to apply, please submit the following items to the GPD administration by email to GPD@brown.edu by 5pm on Monday, April 6, 2022:
1) A recent CV.
2) A statement of no more than 750 words explaining your interest in the program (including your current participation in GPD/DGS activities, if any) and how your research would benefit from the program.
3) A letter of recommendation, preferably from a GPD faculty member. For a full list of affiliated faculty, please go to http://watson.brown.edu/gpd/
4) A copy of your internal Brown transcript.
Applicants with questions should contact Hayden Reiss at GPD@brown.edu or the GPD director, Prerna Singh at Prerna_Singh@brown.edu
Decisions will be made in late April.
How to apply for summer funding (REVISED and FINAL):
All PhD students who are GPD trainees are eligible. The grants can cover either fieldwork (including language training) or other planned research-related work (in case travel is forbidden). Preference will be given to students who are active in the GPD program. The maximum grant award is $3,000.
To apply, please send the following items to GPD@brown.edu.
(1a) Travel plans. A one-page summary of the purpose of your trip and how it relates to your graduate studies at Brown and to your dissertation project
(1b) On a separate page, a budget showing travel and other expenses.
(2) Stay-at-home plans. A one-page summary of the research goal(s) you have for the summer and the product(s) you plan to have by the end of the summer. (These can include, for example, a paper you submitted to a journal, a dissertation proposal, research that does not require travels, etc. – please make sure to offer a summary of the substance of the project including the (“desk”) research that you will conduct. So don’t only write that you are planning to write a paper, but also what it will be about and what empirical research will be involved).
(3) Existing sources of funding (ongoing). On a separate paper, please let us know what (internal or external) sources of funding you have already received. Please notify us if this changes after you submitted your application. To repeat, feel free to share with us particular financial challenges that you incurred that are associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
Deadline for submitting the application: April 6 at 5pm
All students who receive awards will be expected to participate in a yet-to-be-determined-type-of workshop that will take place in fall 2022.
For questions regarding the applications, please contact the GPD director, Prerna Singh at Prerna_Singh@brown.edu.