Application Information for Academic Year 2025-26
Each year the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics hosts two UO graduate students as Graduate Research Fellows. The work of Graduate Research Fellows is designed to enrich the intellectual and scholarly environment of the Wayne Morse Center, and to advance research by UO faculty on that enlightens public understanding about significant issues and problems confronting society.
During 2025-26 academic year, the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics will support two Graduate Research Fellows with awards of $5000 each. The application deadline is April 4, 2025 at 8 p.m.
Priorities and Criteria for Selection
The Wayne Morse Center welcomes Graduate Research Fellow applications from a rich variety of UO graduate students across numerous academic disciplines. As a center founded with a focus on law and politics, this program supports projects that address significant and enduring problems in public affairs affecting Oregon, the nation, and/or the world.
Applications are evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Significance of the research contribution and relevance to the Center’s mission
- Quality of the proposal
- Evidence of research progress
- Strength of recommendation and applicant promise
Proposals also are welcome for contributions to the Wayne Morse Monograph Series. This series focuses on some aspect of the career of Senator Wayne Morse and the issues that concerned him. Topics could, for example, include his work on education, civil rights, foreign policy, or labor. Projects may also take up public issues that have emerged since Wayne Morse’s death in 1974 but that are in the Wayne Morse tradition.
Eligibility
The Wayne Morse Graduate Research Fellows program is open to all UO graduate students, in any discipline or profession. The award is intended to help with expenses for students writing master’s theses or dissertations at the UO and to commission research on Wayne Morse. Applicants must be students during the fellowship year.
Duties and Conditions
- Wayne Morse Graduate Research Fellows will engage in scholarly research and writing as proposed during the 2025-26 academic year.
- Wayne Morse Graduate Research Fellows will participate in the intellectual life of the Wayne Morse Center in appropriate and feasible ways. For example, fellows might participate in a Wayne Morse Center event and attend special lunches for undergraduate Wayne Morse Scholars and graduate Fellows of the center.
Application Process
Applications will be accepted via an online form and include the following:
- Abstract (not to exceed 100 words)
- Project description (not to exceed 1500 words), including:
- Conception and definition of the project: An explanation of the core research ideas, problems or questions being addressed in the project.
- Significance of the project: Importance of the research for addressing issues or problems confronting Oregon, the nation, and/or the world. Situate the scholarly contribution you plan to make within the larger scholarly literature (including references or bibliography).
- Plan of work and expected results: Be as precise as possible about the plan of work and your research and writing objectives during a proposed year as Graduate Research Fellow.
- Two-page summary of the curriculum vitae.
- Contact information for your faculty advisor, for a letter of recommendation
Deadline
Applications are due April 4, 2025 at 8 p.m. Awards will be announced in late May of 2025.
Please direct questions to Daniel Tichenor, Wayne Morse Center Codirector, tichenor@uoregon.edu.