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Ofer Bar-Yosef Scholarship

The Ofer Bar-Yosef Scholarship
Now accepting applications. The deadline to apply is January 31.

Ofer-Bar Yosef Online Scholarship Application

If you have any questions about the application process, please email natalie.munro@uconn.edu.

The Ofer Bar-Yosef Scholarship for Advanced Doctoral Students in Old World Prehistory

The Bar-Yosef family created the Ofer Bar-Yosef Scholarship to honor and celebrate the life and remarkable archaeological career of Professor Ofer Bar-Yosef. Professor Bar-Yosef's research made foundational contributions to our understanding of human evolution and cultural development from the Lower Paleolithic to the development of Neolithic farming economies and sedentary villages and geographically spanned the entire Old World from Western Europe to China. 

The Ofer Bar-Yosef Scholarship acknowledges and supports excellence among advanced graduate students pursuing a doctoral degree on some facet of prehistoric archaeology in the Old World. The scholarship is intended for students who have already completed their coursework and all other requirements for the doctoral degree except the dissertation itself (research and/or writing). The Ofer Bar-Yosef Scholarship is given specifically to facilitate completion of the applicant's doctoral degree. The scholarship is open to students whose research focuses on Paleolithic, Mesolithic, or Neolithic archaeology (or their broadly equivalent temporal or cultural manifestations) in Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia. The goal is to help promising advanced students to produce superlative dissertations in these fields.

Eligibility and Who Can Apply: 

● Any advanced graduate student enrolled and in good standing in a PhD-granting program, regardless of home country and nationality of the applicant. 

● The applicant must be a student of prehistoric archaeology or a closely related discipline who is conducting research in Eurasia, Africa, or Australia on archaeological sites/materials dating to the Pleistocene or early Holocene. 

● At the time of applying for the scholarship the student must have: (1) already completed all coursework and other requirements (e.g., languages, statistics, etc.) for the doctoral degree except the dissertation itself; (2) a designated principal advisor or supervisor; and (3) an approved dissertation proposal or prospectus.

What the Scholarship Can Be Used to Cover:

The Scholarship is a one-time only award of $5,000 that can be used to cover field and/or laboratory expenses, as well as basic living expenses while writing the dissertation. The funds must not be used for purchases of permanent equipment, or for the main stages of excavation and data collection.

Required Application Materials (updated October 1, 2025):

● A completed application.

● Dissertation Description

a) Dissertation title

b)  Student's university, and PhD degree-granting department or program in which student is enrolled

c) Anticipated date for completion of dissertation (month & year)

d) Brief summary of dissertation research (limit 250 words)

e) Detailed description of dissertation research (limit 1500 words)

● A current CV.

● Most recent transcript (a copy will suffice). A transcript is an official record of the achievements for your degree so far. This might include grades (when relevant) or requirements that have been completed (i.e. submission of the dissertation prospectus, enrollment dates, etc.). There is no need to submit an official copy, an unofficial electronic copy will be sufficient.

● A letter of recommendation from the student's principal advisor or supervisor. Among other things, this letter should attest to (1) the importance, quality, and feasibility of the student's dissertation research, and (2) their progress toward completion of the degree. The recommendation letter should be mailed separately by the supervisor. The letter of recommendation should be emailed to Amy Rutledge, amy_rutledge@saa.org. Please ask your supervisor to put your name in the subject line. 

Post-Award Acknowledgment:

● The Ofer Bar-Yosef Scholarship must be acknowledged in the completed dissertation and in any subsequent publication that is a direct outgrowth of the dissertation research.

● Upon completion of the dissertation, awardees will be asked to provide: 1) a brief (100 word max.) statement outlining how the Scholarship funding was used to support her/his research and/or writing; 2) a brief (100 word max.) impact statement outlining how the funding advanced their understanding of their major research question(s); and 3) two photographs of the awardee engaged in some aspect(s) of the research that can be used by the Society for American Archaeology for development and/or administrative purposes.

Recipients

2025 Vasilije Marojević
2024 Fatma Kalkan