PhD Scholarships and Awards

CDTPS Scholarships & Awards

Available to registered students in the PhD program years 1-6, to support conference participation throughout the year. You must provide evidence of your conference registration and, if applicable, membership fees. Eligible expenses include the conference registration/membership fees, airfare, hotel accommodation, and transportation. Funding is available annually, up to a maximum of $800. The funding period runs from September to August and students may take advantage of this grant at any time in the academic calendar year. The funds cannot be carried forward to the subsequent year.

Application: You need to provide proof of your conference registration and submit that, and all other receipts (including boarding passes & transportation tickets) for award payment to Elizabeth Sutherland at graduate.drama@utoronto.caThe application form is here

Function: This fund assists graduate students in covering their research expenses, such as study materials (books unavailable otherwise, software, theatre tickets to performances that are a subject of their research), services (transcriptions and translations of interviews, video footage of rehearsals, video editing, photocopy in archives), and professional activities (training, workshops, other activities) necessary for the dissertation. Funding is available annually, up to a maximum of $800, starting September each academic year.

Eligibility: Doctoral students year 2-6 whose thesis proposals have been accepted by the Academic Committee.

Amount: Up to $800 per calendar year.  These funds accumulate year to year if unspent.

Process: Following the university rules for reimbursements, students need to present the receipts for the research materials and services with a comprehensive description of what they are and what role they serve in their research. The costs have to be directly related to their thesis research.

Method of payment: This support fund will be paid as an expense reimbursement by the Business Officer. Please ensure your banking information is always up to date with the Department Manager application form is here

An annual fellowship with a value of up to $2,000, intended primarily to assist doctoral candidates in conducting thesis-related research in Europe. In exceptional cases, other non-North American destinations may be considered. To apply, submit a letter of application with an attached budget to the Director of the Centre (at any time during the year). 

Application: Please submit a letter of application with a CV and a budget. Applications will be reviewed by the awards committee. Submit your applications to Elizabeth Sutherland.

Valued up to $4,000, this fellowship is awarded annually to a PhD student(s) in the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies actively engaged in collecting and studying primary source documents related to work in the field of theatre history. The award may be used to defray travel and related expenses incurred in the process of research. The fellowship is open to both domestic and international students, and is awarded on the basis of demonstrated academic excellence. 

Application: Please submit a letter of application with a CV and a budget. Applications will be reviewed by the awards committee. Submit your applications to Elizabeth Sutherland.

This scholarship is awarded to a graduate or undergraduate student of the University of Toronto who demonstrates excellence in exploring connections between scholarship and theatrical performance in the field of early drama (i.e., drama before 1642). 

Dr. David Parry was a graduate of the Centre’s doctoral program, whose interest and expertise lay in the field of Medieval and English Renaissance Drama. A talented actor and experienced stage director, he was also the Artistic Director and Chief Administrator of the Poculi Ludique Societas (PLS) from 1975 to 1986. The award is adjudicated by the Director of the Centre and two members of the PLS board. 

Application: Please submit a letter of application with details regarding your research. Applications will be reviewed by the awards committee. Submit your applications to Elizabeth Sutherland.

Friends and colleagues of Professor Clifford Leech at the University of Toronto established a prize of $200 to be awarded annually for an outstanding PhD thesis on a dramatic topic completed at either the Department of English, or the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. Accordingly, the prize is adjudicated by a joint committee, to which faculty members (especially supervisors of dissertations defended successfully within the past year) may put forward nominations. 

Established in 1995 upon the retirements of Professors Ann Saddlemyer and Brian Parker, this award, valued at approx. $150, is given annually by the Graduate Student Union Student Executive for a student’s outstanding contribution to various aspects of Centre life: academic, theatrical, and social. Professors Saddlemyer and Parker both served terms as the Director of the Centre, and found time to participate in many productions at the Centre in addition to teaching, thesis supervision, service on committees and journals, as well as their own research. The CDTPS GSU Student Executive solicits nominations for the award toward the end of the spring term. Nominations for the award are solicited by the Student Executive toward the end of the spring term.

This new award is given annually to celebrate the best dissertation completed by a PhD candidate at the Centre in an academic year. An honorarium of $500 will be awarded to the recipient.

U of T Internal Scholarships and Awards

PhD students in Year 6 who are beyond the funded cohort, but within the time limit for their degree, are eligible for the one-time only Doctoral Completion Award (DCA) from SGS. Its value is determined by the unit and depends on the size of the cohort and the total amount of funding allocated by SGS. This award is meant to assist students in finalizing their thesis project and preparing for the final oral exam. The unit’s criteria for DCA include academic good standing, academic merit and quality of research, the availability of alternative funding, and, if appropriate, special features of the research program that require more time than usual. 

An Emergency Grant program, provided by SGS, is available to students who have experienced a delay in their program due to unforeseen personal circumstances. 

Every year the Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) allocates fellowship grants to the humanities departments. These grants come with the responsibility for Junior Fellows to actively participate in JHI’s activities during the academic year. This is a wonderful opportunity for one student per year (over a total of four years, pending academic evaluation) to engage with a research driven community of scholars across disciplines while also becoming a member of an important academic network and infrastructure. JHI fellowships are paid in addition to base funding. 

The SGS Conference Grant provides modest financial support to eligible students who will be actively presenting their research at an academic conference.

Two application cycles occur every year (Winter/Spring and Fall).

Please visit the SGS Sponsorship Fund on the School of Graduate Studies website.

Government External Scholarships and Awards 

Each year we encourage our students to apply for Ontario Graduate Scholarships (OGS), or The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) funding. This is a competitive procedure. We strike a committee for each decision-making process, which is based on the application pool for each grant and our departmental expectations for academic excellence. SSHRC level funding includes a three-tier decision-making process, which also involves SGS and national SSHRC committees. We have been very successful with our domestic applications for both OGS and SSHRC. These opportunities are very limited, however, and more competitive for international students. We inform our students on a regular basis about application deadlines for a wide variety of grants that are listed on the SGS websites and provide support, advice, and departmental letters when required. 

These are competitive positions, which are advertised as they become available. They can be held for a maximum of two years, and can be renewed after one year.