Financial Support

Students admitted to the Department of Classical Studies are awarded competitive financial support for five years; this includes full tuition, fees, health coverage, and twelve months of guaranteed, generous stipend support. Students beyond the fifth year are regularly successful in applying for additional funding including competitive graduate school fellowships as well as a range of internal and external funding opportunities. As of this year, our fellowship packages rank among the top in the nation for humanities Ph.D. students.

There are a number of sources of funding, internal to Duke and external, to which graduate students may apply for funding in support of study beyond the fifth year. All funding is contingent on satisfactory progress within the program. 

Additional sources of funding within the Department include:

  1. Research assistantships, often connected with individual professor's grants
  2. Summer teaching in the Department: Intensive Beginning Greek and Latin are often offered and are entrusted to advanced graduate students, and certain Classical Studies courses may be as well.

Additional sources of funding outside the Department (by competitive application):

  • Teaching through the Bass Fellowship program as Instructor or as TA
  • Teaching in the Thompson Writing Program
  • Fellowships sponsored by the Graduate School at Duke, particularly for dissertation research and writing
  • Internships offered by Duke’s Graduate School and other offices
  • Fellowships offered by a number of external institutions and foundations, including the American School for Classical Studies at Athens and at the American Academy of Rome.

Smaller sums of money in support of graduate student participation in academic conferences, meetings of professional associations, programs abroad, participation in archaeological fieldwork, and/or foreign language acquisition are available by application to the Graduate School and to the Department. 

The Director of Graduate Studies, will share information about available resources within and outside the Department, and the Graduate School provides a wealth of information on funding opportunities as well as generous mentoring programs related to applying for competitive grants and fellowships.