With the exception of the Commonwealth Incentive Award, the Graduate Committee of the Department examines the eligible candidate pool and selects or nominates the recipients of these fellowships:

• Multi-Year Fellowships - The University of Kentucky offers a limited number of non-service fellowships with stipends of $15,000 per academic year (awarded for a total of two years for master’s students and three years for doctoral students, contingent upon satisfactory academic progress).  These fellowships are available to entering students, and free the recipients from any responsibilities as a teaching assistant.  To be eligible, an applicant must have achieved the 90th percentile or above on at least two of the three sections of the Graduate Record Examination.
• Kentucky Opportunity Fellowship (KOF) - The Graduate School offers 12-month $15,000 stipends, full tuition scholarships, and student health insurance to recruit and retain outstanding students.  The department must nominate qualified applicants for the KOF award.
• Lyman T. Johnson Teaching Fellowships - The award is jointly funded by the Department of History and the Graduate School’s Office of Cultural Diversity.  Those eligible include Native Americans, African-Americans, and other minorities. This award covers in-state or out-of-state tuition and includes a total stipend of about $10,000.  The recipient will serve one semester as a TA and one semester as an RA (research assistant for faculty members).
• Commonwealth Incentive Awards - Offered through the Graduate School’s Office of Cultural Diversity, these awards provide full tuition and a maximum of $450.00 per semester for educational expenses. Kentucky-resident women and all minorities in under-represented fields of academia are eligible to apply for this award.
• Graduate Student Development Award - This award is designed to recruit new graduate students of the highest academic merit to the University of Kentucky.  It provides ‘start-up’ support of $500-$1,500 during the first year of graduate study to supplement a teaching assistantship or fellowship award.
• Quality Achievement Awards - The Quality Achievement Award from the Graduate School provides a $3,000 per-year supplement to a Teaching Assistant stipend or Fellowship for a maximum of three years.  The Department of History has met with considerable success in this award competition.
• Dissertation Year Fellowship - The department may nominate two candidates each year for this non-teaching fellowship that pays full tuition and carries a stipend of $12,000.  Recipients may also apply for grants of up to $1,000 for research expenses related to the dissertation. Candidates must already have passed their qualifying examinations and completed a dissertation prospectus that has been formally accepted by the candidate’s committee.
• Presidential Fellowships. - Candidates for this competitive, non-teaching fellowship that pays tuition plus $15,000 for a single academic year will be nominated by the DGS in consultation with the Graduate Committee. Eligible candidates must have achieved the 81st percentile or higher on two of the three sections of the GRE, must already be enrolled in a degree program, must have a GPA of 3.7 or above on all previous graduate work, and a 3.5 or above on all undergraduate work.
• James Still Fellowship - One fellowship (tuition plus $15,000, renewable for a second year) is available for graduate study in the humanities or social sciences for an entering student who is a graduate of a privately supported college in central Appalachia and is a resident of the region.
• Dissertation Enhancement Award - This award grants up to $3,000 to support doctoral research at a site distant from the campus.  Recipients must have already passed their qualifying examination.
• Departmental Fellowships - The Department of History offers some fellowships, and these include the Charles P. Roland Fellowship, the Dorothy Leathers Fellowship, and the Albisetti Dissertation Research Fellowship. These awards may be used to supplement other offers of assistance or to support dissertation research.
• Commonwealth Research Award - This award provides $500-$1,500 to graduate students as a means of defraying the expenses related to the presentation of research findings at major scholarly conferences.  Students who apply for, but do not receive, the Commonwealth Research Award will automatically be considered for a student support award not to exceed $350.