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Marco Graduate Student Fellowships & Assistantships

The Marco Institute offers several fellowships/assistantships for Marco-affiliated graduate students. Information about each of these positions is available below.

  • Anne Marie Van Hook Memorial Travel Fellowship
  • Jimmy & Dee Haslam Dissertation Fellowship
  • Jimmy & Dee Haslam Fellowship in Public Humanities
  • Medieval & Renaissance Studies (MRST) Graduate Teaching Assistantship

2024-25 Application Deadline (for all awards): April 1, 2024.

Review of applications will be undertaken by the Institute’s standing Awards Committee and the results will be announced in mid-April 2023.

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Anne Marie Van Hook Memorial Travel Fellowship:

An image of a ship from a medieval manuscriptThe Van Hook Travel Fellowship provides one graduate student per year with an award of $5,000 to fund archival, library, or archaeological research abroad or, in exceptional cases, within North America. The recipient will be an ABD graduate student working in a Marco field.


  • 2023
    Matthew Baker (History),”The World of Lérins: Ontology and the Late Antique Monastery, 400–529 CE”
    2022
    Harley Campbell (English), “Fallen Flesh: Experiencing the Body in the Middle English Lives of Adam and Eve”
    2021
    Caroline Jansen (English),“Begone Thought: Temptation To Despair in Late-Medieval Religious Literature”
    2020
    Jordan Amspacher (History), “Troya Victa: Empire, Identity, and Apocalypse in the Frankish Chronicles of the Fourth Crusade”
    2019
    Caitlin Branum (English), “Books of Feminine Devotion: Female Continental Mystics, Lives of Christ, Gender, and Readers in Late Medieval England”
    2018
    Alexandra Garnhart-Bushakra (History), “If Life Were Verse: Rhetoric and Remembrance of the First Crusaders”
    2017
    Brittany Poe (History), “Beyond Paris: Alan of Lille and the Reception of Scholasticism in Iberia and Occitania”
    2016
    Bradley Phillis (History), “Crusade, Reform, and the Counts of Flanders, 1071-1204”
    2015
    Jeremy Pearson (History), “William of Tripoli and his Middle-Eastern Context”
    2014
    Katie Hodges-Kluck (History), “The Matter of Jerusalem: The Holy Land in Angevin Court Culture and Identity, c. 1154-1216”
    2013
    Scott Bevill (English), “The Lost Books of Antiquity: Antiquarianism and Identity in Early Modern England”
    2012
    Geoff Martin (History), “Mozarab Readers of the Bible, 10th-12th Centuries”
    2011
    Leah Giamalva (History), “Christian Responses to the Historico-Theological Problem of Islam’s Ascendancy and Christendom’s Dejection, 1291-1460″
    2010
    Gina Cash (History), Scottish history, women in the law courts of 16th-century Scotland
    2009
    Miguel Gomez (History), “The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: The Culture and Practice of Crusading in Medieval Iberia”

How to apply

To apply for the Van Hook Fellowship, please submit the following materials electronically to marco@utk.edu:

  • Curriculum vitae
  • Research plan of no more than 1,200 words explaining how the proposed travel enhances the applicant’s research project.
  • Detailed budget indicating the rough percentage of costs associated with different aspects of the research plan. Due to UT financial aid requirements, the applicant should also indicate whether they have any student loans.
  • Two letters of support, including one from the applicant’s dissertation supervisor. Letters should be addressed to Marco’s Riggsby Director and submitted electronically to marco@utk.edu.

Haslam Dissertation Fellowship:

A painting of a woman with a book.The Jimmy & Dee Haslam Dissertation Fellowship is a non-service fellowship, tenurable during the academic year (August 1 to July 31), at the standard College rate of $19,401, as well as fee waiver and benefits. The recipient will be an ABD graduate student working in a Marco field. The recipient will be expected to devote the full academic year to research on his or her doctoral dissertation, either in residence in Knoxville or on research-related travel approved by the recipient’s dissertation supervisor.

2023-2024
Matthew Baker (History), “The World of Lérins: Ontology and the Late Antique Monastery, 400–529 CE”
2022-2023
Thomas Maurer (History), “‘In That Day, the Dragon Will Approach the City’: Italy and the Apocalyptic Dream”
2021-2022
Michael Lovell (History), “A Dark-Age Enlightenment: Reason, Faith, and Social Intolerance in Frankish Culture, 380-754 CE”
2020-2021
Kelsey Blake (History),“The Body Restored: Illness, Disability, and Healing in Early Medieval Miracle Narratives”
2019-2020
Alexandra Garnhart-Bushakra (History), “If Life Were Verse: Masculinity and Memories of Violence in the First Crusade Narratives”
2018-19
Brittany Poe (History), “Beyond Paris: Alan of Lille and the Reception of Scholasticism in Iberia and Occitania”
2017-18
Katie Kleinkopf (History), “Second Skin: Ascetics as Body-Places in Late Antique Christianity”
2016-17
James Stewart (English), “Middle English Romance and the Nobleman in Need”
2015-16
Stefan Hodges-Kluck (History), “Paideia, the Body, and the Forging of Religious Identity in Late Antiquity”
2014-15
Thomas Lecaque (History), “The Count of Saint-Gilles and the Saints of the Apocalypse: Occitanian Culture and Piety in the Time of the First Crusade”
2013-14
Katie Hodges-Kluck (History), “The Matter of Jerusalem: The Holy Land in Angevin Court Culture and Identity, ca. 1154-1216”
2012-13
Leah Giamalva (History), “Islam and Sacred History in Latin Manuscript Culture, 1291-1460”
2011-12
Megan Holmes Worth (History), “’To Write about Kings’: The Creation of Kingship in Outremer”
2010-11
Miguel Gomez (History), “The Battle of Las Navas: Religious Pluralism, Practice, and the Culture of Crusading in Medieval Spain”
2009-10
Christopher Lawrence (History), “The Circle of Aetius and the Fall of the Western Roman Empire”

How to apply

To apply for the Haslam Dissertation Fellowship, please submit the following materials electronically to marco@utk.edu:

  • Curriculum vitae
  • A dissertation abstract, up to and no more than 3 pages
  • Research plan of no more than 1,200 words, addressing precisely where in the process of researching and writing the dissertation the applicant is, the expected date of completion, and how the project fits into or challenges current scholarship in the field.
  • Two letters of support, including one from the applicant’s dissertation supervisor.

Haslam Fellowship in Public Humanities:

A 17th-century image of men surrounded by paintings in a gallery.

David Teniers the Younger: Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his gallery in Brussels (1650-52)

The Public Humanities GRA will work part-time in the Marco Institute’s research, teaching, outreach, and educational programming for the public.

The Public Humanities GRAship provides a 9-month stipend at the standard College rate of $19,401 tenurable during the academic year (August 1 to July 31). The recipient will be a PhD student working in a Marco field who has completed at least two years of their degree program, with preference given to more advanced applicants.

2022-2023
Joshua Mangle (English)
2022-2023
Matthew Baker (History)
2021-2022
Jordan Amspacher (History)
2020-2021
Jason Stubblefield (History)
2019-2020
Kelsey Blake (History)
2018-19
Katie Kleinkopf (History)
2017-18
Kyrie Miranda (Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures – Spanish)
2017 Spring
Martha Valenzuela (English)

How to apply

To apply for the Haslam Public Humanities GRAship, please submit the following materials electronically to Marco’s Program Coordinator at marco@utk.edu:

  • A curriculum vitae
  • A description (no more than 500 words) of your knowledge of and interest in the Marco Institute and its programs, and any skills you have that might be relevant to assisting with those programs.
  • Two letters of support. Letters should be addressed to Marco’s Riggsby Director and submitted electronically to marco@utk.edu.

Medieval & Renaissance Studies (MRST) Graduate Teaching Assistantship

The GTA works in support of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies lecturer in the MRST 201/202 survey course, which fulfills the university’s Cultures and Civilizations general education requirement. The survey covers the periods from 350-1500 C.E. The undergraduate catalogue describes this course as an “introduction to basic themes in the medieval experience approached from interdisciplinary points of view and including philosophy and religion, art and architecture, language and literature, and social and political history. Writing-emphasis course.”

The GTA is expected to attend all lectures, grade written work, hold weekly office hours for consultation with students, and lecture once a semester. The GTA will receive a stipend at the standard College rate of $19,401 for the academic year, along with a tuition waiver and the usual graduate student benefits.

How to apply

To apply for the Medieval & Renaissance Studies GTAship, submit the following to marco@utk.edu:

  • A letter of intent describing concisely (no more than 500 words) the applicant’s interest in the position; their qualifications as both a scholar and teacher of the period; their experience with the material covered in MRST 201 and 202; and their pedagogical methods. Applicants should also make clear the nature of their experience in historical disciplines and methods.
  • A curriculum vitae
  • One letter of recommendation (preferably from the applicant’s advisor). The letter should be addressed to Marco’s Riggsby Director and submitted electronically to marco@utk.edu.