CSLS Frances Coles Summer Research Grants

(The application cycle is currently closed)

*Applications must be submitted via a Google Form which will be available in April 2025.

The CSLS Frances Coles Summer Research Grants are designed to assist graduate students who are pursuing independent research related to law and society. Grant funds are to support research-related expenditures, including living expenses, for graduate students who are conducting research during the summer term. Awards are intended to allow for a period of time free from other work obligations during which the student will produce a substantive research product, such as a journal article, dissertation chapter, or similar research product, and submit it for evaluation. Research products may be part of a larger dissertation. Examples include an empirical article or book chapter submitted for publication, a completed dissertation chapter that is submitted to the student’s dissertation committee, or a completed paper submitted to a conference. After completing their summer research projects, grant recipients are required to file a one-page report along with a copy of the specific research product they produced and evidence of submission before receiving the final installment of their grant.

Eligible students must submit an application that includes:

● A brief summary of their overall research interests and goals; the research they plan to pursue with the summer grant, including the project’s contribution to the field and substantive importance; and an explanation of how their project’s research questions fit into the law and society tradition, including the project’s empirical components broadly defined (e.g., ethnography, qualitative interviews, historical or archival research, survey data etc.). Summaries may be up to two pages, double-spaced, typeface no smaller than 12-point font;

● A description of the specific product that will be produced from their summer grant-supported research, including where it will be submitted (up to two pages, double-spaced, typeface no smaller than 12-point font);

● A CV (up to two pages);

● A one page budget plan indicating the amount the student is requesting and how the funds will be used (living expenses are permitted);

● A list of all other sources and amounts of financial support for the academic year (including summer);

● An unofficial UC Berkeley transcript;

● The name of one faculty member who is willing to serve as a reference, preferably the dissertation adviser or presumptive adviser.

Eligibility

Open to any full-time UC Berkeley graduate student, although the summer grant is intended to provide support to mid-career and advanced graduate students. Preference will be given to research proposals that are clearly focused on empirical work in the law and society tradition, as described here. Students from all departments are eligible. Applicants can receive a maximum of one grant during their graduate careers.

Award Amount

Up to $7,000