We are pleased to announce the establishment of two new graduate scholarships for which all Berkeley admitted incoming and current graduate students are eligible. Each fellowship is in the amount of $7500. The focus of all fellowships is the country and region of Bangladesh. Any student whose program of training and research significantly involves the study of contemporary Bangladesh, or historical work in the regions of India and Pakistan that would later become Bangladesh, is eligible, as is any student who does comparative or transnational work in which Bangladesh and its region form a central component.
The three fellowships offered are:
The Subir Chowdhury Undergraduate Scholarship
This fellowship is awarded to students concentrating in South and Southeast Asian Studies at Berkeley and is matched by the Ford Challenge, a fund provided by a Berkeley donor to match undergraduate scholarship gifts.
HOW TO APPLY: UC Berkeley's Financial Aid and Scholarship Office makes the award for the Subir Chowdhury Undergraduate Scholarship. Please contact them for further instructions on the application process.
The Subir Chowdhury Fellowship on Quality of Life in Bangladesh
This fellowship is for all graduate students whose training or research includes a significant focus on the quality of life in Bangladesh. It is matched by the University’s Graduate Fellowship Matching Program.
The Malini Chowdhury Fellowship on Bangladesh Studies
This fellowship is for all graduate students in any field concentrating on Bangladesh studies. It is also matched by the University’s Graduate Fellowship Matching Program.
PLEASE NOTE: Applications for these fellowships should be submitted by a program or a department’s Graduate Advisor or Graduate Student Affairs Officer. A program can submit as many applications per funding cycle as it has competitive students who are eligible to apply. Students may be nominated for both fellowships: the committee will assume that applications are being submitted for both fellowships unless notified that the application is specifically for only the Subir Chowdhury Fellowship or the Malini Chowdhury Fellowship.
HOW TO APPLY FOR THE GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS
The application process will open in Spring 2024. Join our maiing list to receive notification of when the appication opens.
Applications should be emailed to Program Director, Puneeta Kala, at pkala@berkeley.edu and must arrive by 5 pm on April 1, 2024. Late applications cannot be accepted, so to avoid last-minute problems, we encourage early submission.
Each application must include four required components:
- A 1-2 page nomination letter from the faculty Graduate Advisor of the graduate program and/or from the student’s primary Advisor detailing the student’s program of study and qualifications.
- Either [for current graduate students] a one-page statement from the student, detailing the relevance of his or her training or research toone or both of the fellowships, or [for newly admitted graduate students] a copy of the student’s statement of purpose along with any other relevant material (at the discretion of the graduate advisor) from his or her graduate application to Berkeley.
- A transcript, either [for current graduate students] a current Berkeley transcript, or [for newly admitted graduate students] a copy of the student’s transcript(s) from his or her admissions file.
- A 1-2 page curriculum vitae from the student. In the case of newly admitted students, if a CV was not submitted as part of the graduate application this component is not required.
PLEASE NOTE:
- All fellows should acknowledge the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies in all papers and articles published or presented
- During their fellowship year, fellows are required to send a working paper or a published paper or an op-ed style write up about their research