awards & funding
Click here for the requirements for submitting a book for the ASEH George Perkins Marsh Prize, an article for the ASEH Alice Hamilton Prize, and a dissertation for the ASEH Rachel Carson Prize.
Samuel P. Hays research fellowship
ASEH created this fellowship to recognize the contributions of Samuel P. Hays, the inaugural recipient of the society's Distinguished Scholar Award, and to advance the field of environmental history, broadly conceived. The fellowship provides a single payment of $1,000 to help fund travel to and use of an archive or manuscript repository, or to collect related research material. It is open to practicing historians (either academic, public, or independent). Graduate students are ineligible. A Ph.D. is not required.
Submissions will be accepted between September 1 and November 20, 2020, and the recipient will be selected and notified in January 2021 for funding in 2021.
To apply, please submit the following items:
- A two-page statement (500 words) explaining your project and how you intend to use the research funds.
- A c.v. no more than two pages in length.
The application period begins September 1. All items for the Samuel P. Hays Research Fellowship must be submitted electronically by November 20, 2020.
PLEASE SUBMIT ALL MATERIALS IN A SINGLE DOCUMENT THROUGH THIS FORM.
The 2021 recipient of the Samuel Hays Fellowship is Caroline Grego for her project "Hurricane of the New South: How the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 Shaped the Jim Crow Lowcountry"
The 2020 recipient of the Samuel Hays Fellowship is Timothy Lorek for the project “Making the Green Revolution: Agriculture and Conflicted Landscapes in Colombia.”
The 2019 recipient of the Samuel Hays Fellowship was Michael Weeks for the project “Colorado and the Making of the Modern Cattle Feedlot: An Oral History.”
The 2018 recipient of the Samuel Hays Fellowship was Jamie Miller for the project “Energy Dependence: Electricity, Modernity, and Development in Twentieth Century South Africa.”
The 2017 recipient of the Samuel Hays Fellowship was Monika Bilka, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, Arizona for her project “Remaking a People, Restoring a Watershed: Klamath Tribal Empowerment through Natural Resource Activism, 1960-2015.”
Hal Rothman dissertation fellowship
The Hal Rothman Research Fellowship was created to recognize graduate student achievements in environmental history research in honor of Hal Rothman, recipient of ASEH's Distinguished Service award in 2006 and editor of Environmental History for many years. The fellowship provides a single payment of $1,000 for Ph.D. graduate student research and travel in the field of environmental history, without geographical restriction. The funds must be used to support research and travel during 2021.
Students enrolled in any Ph.D. program worldwide are eligible to apply.
Applications will be accepted from September 1 through November 20, 2020, and the recipient will be selected and notified in January 2021 for funding in 2021.
To apply, please submit the following three items:
- Two-page statement (500 words) explaining your project and how you intend to use the research funds.
- A c.v. no more than two pages in length.
- A letter of recommendation from your graduate advisor (can be sent separately by your graduate advisor)
The application period begins September 1. All items for the Hal Rothman Research Fellowship must be submitted electronically by November 20, 2020.
PLEASE SUBMIT ALL MATERIALS THROUGH THIS FORM. (Same form for Rothman and Hughes fellowships)
Submitting a recommendation letter? Submit here.
The 2021 Hal Rothman Fellowship recipient is Terrell Orr for his project "The Roots of Global Citrus in “Nuevo South” Florida and Rural São Paulo, 1965-1995"
The 2020 Hal Rothman Fellowship recipient is Elizabeth Hargrett for the project “Carceral Landscapes: An Environmental History of Three American Prisons.”
The 2019 Hal Rothman Fellowship recipient is Kyuhhun Han for her project “Seeing the Forest Like a State: Forest Management, Wildlife Conservation, and Center-Periphery Relations in Northeast China, 1949 – 1988.”
The 2018 Hal Rothman Fellowship recipient was Trish Kahle for her project “The Graveyard Shift: Mining Democracy in an Age of Energy Crisis, 1963-1981.”
The 2017 Hal Rothman Fellowship was awarded to Jonathan Coulis, Emory University, for his project "Marshalling Monoculture: Economists, agronomists, and farmers, and the cultivation of modernity in Brazil’s coffee fields, 1954-1989.”
J. Donald Hughes graduate research fellowships
The J. Donald Hughes Research Fellowships were created to recognize graduate student achievements in environmental history research in honor of J. Donald Hughes, recipient of ASEH's Distinguished Service award in 2000 and editor of Environmental History from 1983 to 1985. The fellowships provide a single payment of $1,000 for graduate student research and travel in the field of environmental history, without geographical restriction. The funds must be used to support primary research and travel during 2021.
Students enrolled in any graduate program worldwide are eligible to apply.
Applications will be accepted from September 1 through November 20, 2020, and the recipient will be selected and notified in January 2021 for funding in 2021.
To apply, please submit the following three items:
- Two-page statement (500 words) explaining your project and how you intend to use the research funds.
- A c.v. no more than two pages in length.
- A letter of recommendation from your graduate advisor (can be sent separately by your graduate advisor)
The application period begins September 1. All items for the J. Donald Hughes graduate research fellowship must be submitted electronically by November 20, 2020.
PLEASE SUBMIT ALL MATERIALS THROUGH THIS FORM. (Same form for Rothman and Hughes fellowships)
Submitting a recommendation letter? Submit here.
The 2021 J. Donald Hughes graduate research fellowship recipients are Alyssa Kreikemeier for her project "Aerial Enclosures: From Commons to Conflict in the American West"; and Matthew Plishka for his project “Battling Banana Blight: Panama Disease, Smallholders, and Jamaica’s Agroecosystem, 1870-1962.”
The 2020 J. Donald Hughes graduate research fellowship recipients are Du Fei to conduct research on Mir Izzatullah's travels, and human and ecological encounters, in Central Asia in the early 19th Century; and Sherri Sheu for the project "Arming the Thin Green Line: American National Parks and the Green Carceral State, 1970–1980."
equity graduate student fellowship
ASEH created this fellowship to recognize graduate students from an underrepresented group for their achievements in environmental history research, to expand ASEH membership, and to broaden the topics of study in the field. The fellowship provides a single payment of $1,000 for Ph.D. graduate student research and travel in the field of environmental history, without geographical restriction. The funds must be used to support primary research and travel during 2021.
The ASEH Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity will review the applications and select the recipient. Students enrolled in Ph.D. programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions are strongly encouraged to apply, although the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity will consider applications from students from any underrepresented group. Students must be members of ASEH at the time of their application to be eligible for this award.
The recipient will be selected and notified in January 2021 for funding in 2021.
To apply, please submit the following three items:
- Two-page statement (500 words) explaining your project and how you intend to use the research funds.
- A c.v. no more than two pages in length.
- A letter of recommendation from your graduate advisor (can be sent separately by your graduate advisor)
All items for the Equity Graduate Student Fellowship must be submitted electronically must be submitted electronically through THIS FORM by November 20, 2020.
Submitting a recommendation letter? Submit here.
The 2021 Equity Graduate Student Fellowship was awarded to Teona Williams for her project examining Black women’s intellectual and social engagement with ecology, land, and Black national ideologies across the Mississippi Delta.
The 2020 Equity Graduate Student Fellowship was awarded to Ramya Swayamprakash for research on dredging in the Detroit River as a political, technological, and territorializing process from 1865 to 1930.
The 2019 Equity Graduate Student Fellowship was awarded to Kyuhhun Han for her project “Seeing the Forest Like a State: Forest Management, Wildlife Conservation, and Center-Periphery Relations in Northeast China, 1949 – 1988.”
The 2018 Equity Graduate Student Fellowship was awarded to Isacar Bolañas for research on "Conquering Nature in Ottoman Iraq, 1831-1917.”
The 2017 Equity Graduate Student Fellowship was awarded to Sean Harvey, Northwestern University, for research on “Assembly Lines: Maquilas and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1932-1992.”
other funding
To submit info on funding opportunities related to environmental history, contact david.spatz@aseh.org
