Funding opportunities for students & alumni

  • Boren Awards – Scholarships (for undergraduate students) & Fellowships (for graduate students) – provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests, and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. For undergraduate & graduate students.
  • Critical Language Scholarship – Summer study abroad opportunity for American college and university students to learn languages essential to America’s engagement with the world. For undergraduate & graduate students.
  • Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships: U.S. Department of Education fellowships available through IRIS’s area studies centers. For undergraduate & graduate students.
  • Fulbright U.S. Student Program (FUSP): Don’t let the name fool you!! The Fulbright U.S. Student Program (FUSP) is designed to give soon-to-be & recent B.S./B.A. graduates, master’s and doctoral candidates, as well as young professionals, artists, and others, opportunities for personal development and international experience. For undergraduate & graduate students and alumni.
  • Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA): Administered by the U.S. Department of Education, Fulbright-Hays DDRA provides opportunities to doctoral candidates to engage in full-time dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies. For graduate students.
  • Gaither Junior Fellows Program: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace offers approximately 12-14 one-year fellowships to uniquely qualified graduating seniors and individuals who have graduated during the past academic year. James C. Gaither Junior Fellows work as research assistants to Carnegie’s senior scholars. Positions are paid, full-time positions for one year. Requires institutional nomination. For graduating seniors and recent graduates.
  • IRIS Graduate Student Summer Fieldwork Awards: The IRIS Summer Fieldwork Awards are one-time awards of $3,000 to be used in support of 6 or more weeks of summer fieldwork conducted outside the United States. For graduate students.
  • Luce Scholars Program: This program is designed to provide an extended period of exposure to an Asian country for highly qualified young Americans who lack extensive knowledge of Asian affairs and who would not gain this knowledge through their normal career trajectories. Any professional field will be considered, except Asian Affairs/Asian Studies. For graduating seniors, recent alumni, graduate students, and junior faculty.
  • Schwarzman Scholars: Post-graduate scholarship funding leading to a one year Masters degree as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. For graduating seniors and recent alumni.

Additional Online Resources

A number of centers in IRIS offer additional opportunities and resources; see their respective websites:

Our colleagues at the Undergraduate Academic Awards Office manage a number of competitions and work with UW-Madison undergraduates & recent grads interested in pursuing an array of nationally competitive scholarships including the Gates Cambridge, Marshall, Rhodes, and many others! Visit the UAA website to learn more.