The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of History teaches students to locate evidence, evaluate it, and then organize these disparate pieces of information gleaned from documents, photographs, and other kinds of materials, into an objective narrative with the aim of telling a true and compelling story about the human past. The study of history prepares students not only for diverse workplaces such as education, business, law, finance, policy-making, government service, entertainment, and more, but also for a life of engaged citizenship in an increasingly complicated and connected world.
The Briscoe Center supports the “cause of history” by funding doctoral research by a UT Austin graduate student of American history with a research fellowship. The Briscoe Center Fellow is selected by the Chair of UT Austin’s Department of History. Receiving this competitive award acknowledges the student’s scholarly achievement and helps position them for future success in their academic careers. The stipend accompanying the award helps alleviate financial concerns so the student can concentrate on spending significant time in the center’s archives completing substantial research for their dissertations.
The inaugural Briscoe Center Fellow, Kyle Shelton, Ph.D., now Deputy Director for the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University said about his experience at the center, “I have constantly been in awe of the breadth and depth of the collections. It seemed that each time I researched at the Briscoe Center I found something new and important for my work.”
Ava Purkiss, Ph.D., now an assistant professor of history at the University of Michigan, describes her work at the center while she held the 2013-2014 Briscoe Center Fellowship as “vital to my graduate career” and the fellowship as “crucial to getting my dissertation off the ground.”
Support for graduate student research at the Briscoe Center is vital to fostering historical inquiry, advancing academic careers and disseminating evidence-based accounts of American history. You can help by establishing a named research fellowship at the Briscoe Center. Learn more.
Past Briscoe Center Graduate Research Fellows include:
BROOKS RILEY WINFREE
2019-2020 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2021
MARIA HAMMACK
2018-2019 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2021
SIGNE P. FOURMY, J.D.
2017-2018 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2020
NAKIA PARKER
2016-2017 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2019
HENRY A. WEINCEK
2014-2015 and 2015-2016 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2017
NICHOLAS K. ROLAND
2014-2015 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2017
AVA PURKISS
2013-2014 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2016
ALLISON E. SCHOTTENSTEIN
2012-2013 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2017
KYLE K. SHELTON
2011-2012 Briscoe Center Fellow
The University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., 2014
