A strong proposal will demonstrate why the project requires intellectual and disciplinary resources beyond those available within the parameters of the home discipline and additional time for training and research.  Because candidates accepted to the program receive a year of fellowship support, a strong proposal will also outline a program of study to be undertaken in the fourth year through which these additional resources will be accessed and activated (e.g., through course work, at Princeton or elsewhere; independent research; or other kinds of training, for example, in one of the arts or sciences).  We recognize that while some projects may benefit from training within the boundaries of another traditional discipline, others may require a tailored mix of new methodologies and research areas.  We encourage applicants to devise a fourth-year plan that will be maximally responsive to the problem at the heart of their dissertation, while recognizing that interdisciplinary training will extend over the dissertation-writing process.  We are also especially interested in projects that find a way of addressing questions of theory and practice.  We take seriously the contribution to understanding of doing what you write about—whether that it philosophy, or music, or biology—and welcome proposals that demonstrate an engagement with form as well as with content.

IHUM works with an expansive notion of interdisciplinarity.  If you work between two or more disciplines or between an academic field and a creative practice (filmmaking, art, creative writing, music, theater, etc.), you should apply to the program.  The best way to get a sense of its scope is to enroll in a program seminar and/or to attend IHUM events or speak with current IHUM students.  We also hold an open house each December to provide information about the program, answer questions, and give interested students the opportunity to talk to our faculty and students.

The writing sample should ideally reflect your interdisciplinary interests, but most important is that you show us your best work. If you submit a course paper, for example, in which those interests are latent, your application essay should help us see how they will develop. We also accept more journalistic or creative pieces, as long as they give us a sense of you as a thinker and writer. We would rather not receive dissertation proposals as writing samples.  

The program is open to students already pursuing the PhD in one of the eligible departments or programs, but all enrolled graduate students at the University are very welcome to take our seminars, attend our events, and initiate reading groups. We also encourage faculty members across the university to participate in our events. 

The purpose of the fellowship year is to provide time for exploration, which is best undertaken early in the dissertation process. The fellowship technically supports the fourth year of study, but students may want to begin their interdisciplinary research as early as the summer following the third year. For students in Anthropology and Sociology, the fellowship year may fall in the third year, prior to and/or concurrent with fieldwork.  After presenting a detailed plan for their IHUM fellowship year to the Director, ordinarily in the spring of the third year, students spend their fourth year on research and exploration in areas beyond the boundaries of their fundamental disciplinary training. Students then receive an additional year of university fellowship support to be used in their sixth year as a DCE1 student. Enrollment into a DCE1 year is not guaranteed to IHUM students; central Graduate School eligibility rules for entering DCE status apply here as they do for all doctoral students.”

Students in IHUM remain eligible for the University’s Honorific Fellowships (Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, Harold W. Dodds Fellowships, and Charlotte Elizabeth Proctor Fellowships), as well as the Hyde Fellowships.  But because an IHUM Fellowship requires a commitment to participate in workshops and events, it generally precludes holding fellowships awarded by other programs and centers at Princeton.

In addition to another year of fellowship support, IHUM also provides a small research and travel stipend in each of the three years students are enrolled in the degree program.

We co-sponsor a range of conferences (organized by students and/or faculty), lectures, performances, exhibits, and other events across campus, particularly those that foster interdisciplinarity. We also offer a range of graduate courses co-taught by members of the IHUM Executive Committee and IHUM Faculty Affiliates.

The IHUM adviser is typically a member of the IHUM Executive Committee or an IHUM Associate Faculty member and is NOT a member of the student’s home department. Students choose their IHUM adviser in their fourth or fifth year. The level of involvement in the dissertation-writing process will be agreed upon by the IHUM adviser and the student. The student may ask the IHUM adviser to be very involved in their project (reading drafts, offering feedback, meeting regularly to discuss progress) or may check in on a more informal basis with the adviser as the research and writing unfold. 

The IHUM adviser’s only official duty is to write a reader report of the dissertation once it has been submitted. This detailed report, the length of typical departmental reader reports for dissertations, will emphasize the interdisciplinary aspects of the project and will certify that the student’s project is interdisciplinary enough to satisfy the requirements of the IHUM joint degree. The IHUM adviser may attend the student’s Final Public Oral Exam but is not required to and has no formal role in that exam.  

The IHUM adviser is typically NOT a member of the student’s dissertation committee (which consists of an adviser, a second reader, and examiners). In exceptional cases and with approval from both the IHUM director and the student’s home department, the IHUM adviser may also be the student’s second reader for the dissertation, still writing a reader report emphasizing the interdisciplinary aspects of the student’s dissertation and participating in the student’s Final Public Oral Exam.