The Department of Linguistics offers two basic types of financial aid to its graduate students: Achievement Scholarships and Graduate Assistantships.
Achievement Scholarships consist of full or partial tuition waivers. No work commitment is associated with these awards.
Graduate Assistantships includes both a full tuition waiver and a 9-month stipend of at least $23,952 (step 14) for PhD students, depending on hiring step. MA students, if awarded a graduate assistantship, typically receive slightly less. Graduate assistantships include the option of enrolling in the employee medical insurance plan. More information about GA compensation can be found at the Graduate Division.
Please refer to our Financial Aid Policy for more details.
- Ph.D. Program
The Department of Linguistics provides all Ph.D. students with full support (a Graduate Assistantship that includes a stipend and a full tuition waiver) for eight semesters. Students may apply for up to two additional semesters of Graduate Assistantship support on a competitive basis, subject to the availability of funds.Eligible doctoral students in the Department of Linguistics may apply for the Bilinski Fellowship in Linguistics.
- MA Program
A variety of financial aid, including Graduate Assistantship and tuition waivers, is available on a competitive basis to MA students.
Bilinski Fellowship
The Bilinski Fellowship supports top doctoral students through both dissertation fellowships and pre-dissertation research awards.
Drechsel-Hubbard Endowed Fellowship
The Drechsel-Hubbard Endowed Fellowship for Indigenous Language-Culture Research supports students working on their native or heritage Indigenous languages, especially those of the Pacific and North America. The award provides $10,000 annually and can supplement a Graduate Assistantship.
Thompson Fund for Research and Publication
The Laurence C. and M. Terry Thompson Fund for Research and Publication in Linguistics and Oral Literature supports field research and publication, with a special focus on languages of the US Pacific Northwest and Mainland Southeast Asian. More information will be forthcoming in early 2024.
External Funding
Students are encouraged to apply for external funding during their first few years in residence, and many of our students are highly successful at procuring external grants from agencies such as the NSF and other private foundations. The following is a list of potential sources:
- American Association of University Women (Includes dissertation year fellowships and fellowships for international students)
- American Educational Research Association (Includes pre-dissertation fellowships for research related to education)
- Cornell University Grants and Fellowships Database
- Educational Testing Service Jacqueline A. Ross Dissertation Award
- Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP)
- Endangered Language Fund
- Ford Foundation: Predoctoral, Dissertation, and Postdoctoral Fellowships for Minorities
- Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program (For non-U.S. citizens from an eligible IFP country)
- Foundation for Endangered Languages
- Founder Region Fellowship (For women; funding for last year of Ph.D.)
- Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program
- Japan Foundation: Fellowships for Doctoral Candidates
- Korean-American Scholarship Foundation (Undergraduate and Graduate support)
- Lucent Technologies (Bell Labs Innovations): Cooperative Research Fellowship Program
- Mellon Fellowships
- Michigan State University Grants and Related Resources Page
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) (Especially NRSA Postdoctoral Awards)
- NRC Research Associateship Programs
- NSF Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL)
- NSF – SBE – BCS – Linguistics
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
- NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants (Open to non-U.S. citizens enrolled at a U.S. institution.)
- Spencer Foundation (A range of support for scholarship on education, broadly conceived.)
- UH Mānoa Asian Studies Program Scholarships
- UH Mānoa Fellowships, Grants, and Scholarships Database
- UH Mānoa Graduate Division Financial Information
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of Linguistics
1890 East West Road, Moore Hall 569 [map]
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96822 USA
Office Hours M-F 8 AM – 4:30 PM
+1(808) 956-8602 / linguist@hawaii.edu