James Madison Graduate Fellowships

Who Can Apply?

Fellowship applicants compete only against other applicants from the state of their legal residence. To be eligible to apply for a fellowship, you must:

• Be a US citizen
• Be a teacher, or plan to become a teacher, of American history, American government, or civics classes where you will teach topics on the Constitution at the secondary school level (grades 7–12)
• Possess a bachelor’s degree or plan to receive a bachelor’s degree no later than August 31 of the year in which you are applying

Teaching Obligations for Fellowship Recipients

After receiving the master’s degree, each Fellow must teach American history, American government, or civics where you will teach topics on the Constitution in grades 7–12 for one full year for each academic year of funding received under a fellowship, preferably in the state from which you were awarded the fellowship.

Eligibility and Expectations for Junior Fellows

Junior Fellowships are awarded to outstanding college seniors and college graduates without teaching experience who intend to become secondary school teachers of American history, American government, or civics classes where you will teach topics on the Constitution in grades 7–12. Junior Fellows are expected to complete graduate study within two academic years of full-time study.

Eligibility and Expectations for Senior Fellows

Senior Fellowships are awarded to outstanding current teachers who are required to complete graduate study within five calendar years of part-time study.

Eligibility for the Frederick Douglass-James Madison Fellowship

Frederick Douglass-James Madison Fellowship is a privately funded graduate fellowship offered to a person of color who is a United States citizen and a secondary-level teacher or prospective teacher of American history, American government, or civics to earn a master’s degree studying the Constitution.

Constitutional Coursework Requirements

The Fellow’s proposed plan of graduate study should contain substantial constitutional coursework. Fellows are encouraged to choose institutions that offer courses that closely examine the origins and development of the US Constitution, the evolution of political theory and constitutional law, the effects of the Constitution on society and culture in the United States, or other such topics directly related to the Constitution. Whatever institution and whichever degree a Fellow selects, at least 12 semester credits (or 18 quarter credits) of constitutional study must be part of the Fellow’s program. Six of these semester credits are earned by the Fellow at the Foundation’s Summer Institute on the Constitution in Washington, DC.

Fulfilling the Constitutional Coursework Requirement in our MA Program

Some examples of recent courses that Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman MA students have used to satisfy this requirement include:

• The American Enlightenment with Prof. Caroline Winterer
• Women in the American Revolution with Prof. Carol Berkin
• The American Revolution with Prof. Denver Brunsman
• Democracy in the Early Republic with Prof. Andrew Robertson

For those students applying to the James Madison Fellowship, please contact onlinecourses@gilderlehrman.org for inquiries about graduate constitutional courses at the Gilder Lehrman Institute in the near future.

Summer Institute on the Constitution

A major component of the James Madison Fellowship Program is successful completion of the four-week Summer Institute on the Constitution held in Washington, DC. Fellows attend the Institute after they have matriculated in a graduate program and commenced coursework.

The academic focus of the Institute is a graduate course entitled “The Foundations of American Constitutionalism.” Taught by constitutional scholars, this course is a study of the principles, framing, ratification, and implementation of constitutional government in the United States.