Admissions and Funding
Any PhD student at Brown can participate in GPD activities, including courses, workshops and specialized training modules. Students who fulfill the core requirements (see below) are considered "trainees" and become eligible for summer research grants and have opportunities to participate in research projects sponsored by GPD faculty and our partner institutions in the global south.
All PhD students at Brown receive a multi-year guarantee of support from the graduate school. In most cases support is for five years, and includes a combination of fellowships, assistantships and proctorships. Some GPD trainees are however awarded NSF IGERT fellowships as part of their multi-year guarantee of financial support. The IGERT fellowships provide full support for two years as well as summer research funds and exempt the fellow from teaching assistantships and regular research assistantships. The IGERT fellowships provide generous stipends of $30,000 a year.
GPD is a training program, not a degree-granting program. All GPD trainees must first be admitted as PhD candidates in Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, or Sociology. When applying to Brown, prospective PhD candidates can indicate their interest in GPD. Some applicants may be conditionally offered IGERT fellowships upon admission. 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 be nominated by their departments for a two-year NSF IGERT.
Students accepting IGERT fellowships are committed to meeting the requirements listed below. In most cases, IGERT Fellows will fulfill their GPD course requirements in their second year of graduate training. The GPD program has been designed to integrate into existing PhD programs and requirements.
Interested in being a GPD trainee?
- Students applying for admission to the PhD programs in Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, or Sociology should indicate their interest in GPD. For information about the application process to PhD programs at Brown go to Graduate School
- Students already in a PhD program at Brown should begin by contacting their department GPD representative: Andrew Foster (Economics); Daniel Smith (Anthropology), Richard Snyder (Political Science); Patrick Heller (Sociology).
For more details about the program in general, contact co-directors Patrick Heller or Barbara Stallings.