Rackham 2025 Honors and Awards

Rackham Predoctoral Fellowships

The Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards granted by the Rackham Graduate School. Doctoral candidates who expect to graduate within six years since beginning their degrees are eligible to apply, and the strength and quality of their dissertation abstract, publications and presentations, and recommendations are all taken into consideration when granting this award.

See this year’s Predoctoral Fellowship recipients.

ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards

The ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award recognizes exceptional and unusually interesting work produced by doctoral students. Each year, Rackham invites faculty to nominate outstanding dissertations produced in their programs. The nomination dossiers submitted are then read and discussed by a review panel of faculty members who identify the finalists. Then, members of the Michigan Society of Fellows read the finalists’ dissertations, review their merits, and select the winners.

See this year’s Distinguished Dissertation Award recipients.

Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Awards

Through the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Awards, Rackham recognizes scholars who have been nominated by their program for teaching excellence. Winners of this award demonstrate superb skill in teaching, mentoring, and advising. They bring creativity, inspirational commitment, and intellectual excitement to the classroom, discussion section, or teaching lab, and communicate this passion with their undergraduate students.

See this year’s Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award recipients.

Faculty Mentoring Awards

Supporting effective faculty mentoring of graduate students is one of Rackham’s top priorities. Outstanding mentors guide students throughout their professional training with respect and concern, serving as advisor, teacher, advocate, sponsor, and role model. To recognize excellence in mentorship, Rackham asks graduate students and faculty for nominations for three awards: the Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, the Rackham Master’s Mentoring Award, and the John H. D’Arms Faculty Award for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring in the Humanities.

See this year’s Faculty Mentoring Award recipients.

Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Inductees

The Bouchet Graduate Honor Society is a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, foster environments of support, and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy. Bouchet inductees representing the Rackham Graduate School’s society chapter have all demonstrated significant achievement in these five areas.

See this year’s Bouchet Graduate Honor Society inductees.