Philip Brett Fund for LGBT Research

Topic

Funding Opportunities

Date

September 21, 2017

Written By

Graduate Division

Each year, the Philip Brett LGBT Fellowship Fund makes an award to a UC Berkeley graduate student who is pursuing research related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer studies in any field or discipline.

The Fund honors an eminent music scholar who taught at Berkeley from 1966 to 1991, Professor Philip Brett, who is considered a pioneer of lesbian and gay musicology. The Fellowship is unique in two ways: it is the only award open to all UCB graduate students who conduct LGBT-related research in any field, and it is the only fellowship endowment established by a grassroots initiative of faculty, staff, students, and friends of UC Berkeley.

Open to all UC Berkeley graduate students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, applicants are selected on a competitive basis by a faculty review committee that evaluates the merits of each year’s applications. Applicants must provide brief summaries of their overall research interests and aims; questions they are pursuing or plan to pursue that are related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender issues; and contributions they hope to make to LGBT-related studies.

Brett Fellows to date:

2017: Brandon Callender (English), for his work on “History and its Kind: A Sense of the Other in Black Queer Literature,” examining the tension between embracing and interrogating constructions of queer ancestry and interpretations of a black gay lineage of writers.

2016: Emily Marie Yette (Public Health/ Epidemiology), for her study of the health of Black sexual minority women, the intersection of minority status and physical health, and how Black women may experience particular forms of stress due to a blend of racism, heterosexism, and sexism at multiple levels.

2015: Shakthi Natharaj (Anthropology), for her examination of how speaking and writing practices interact with local histories in the creation of sexual identity in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

2014: Robert A. Alford (Film and Media), for his work towards his dissertation “To Know the Words to the Music: Circulation, Discourse, Sexuality.”

2013: Darren Arquero (Ethnic Studies), for his Interdisciplinary study of race, sexuality, and faith within national and transnational contexts, and how Filipino and American religious values and practices contribute to the way individuals affirm both their Filipino and LGBT identities, within and outside the United States.

2012: Chris Atwood (Italian Studies), for work relating to his thesis “Wanting Home: Italy, Same-Sex Desire, Narrative.”

To make a gift to the fellowship or (for UC employees) to contribute via automatic payroll deduction, please visit the Philip Brett LGBT fund page.