Georgetown graduate students received 10 of 26 grants awarded to students in the Washington, D.C. region to go toward graduate research projects.

The Cosmos Scholars grants are awarded by the Cosmos Club Foundation, an organization for advancing science, literature and humanities through awards for charitable and educational purposes, and range up to $5,000. They cover the costs of travel, special supplies and other expenses that would enhance the scholarship for recipients in various academic fields, including literature, biomedical sciences, regional studies and engineering. 

In addition to the 10 award winners this year, the Cosmos Scholars grant program has awarded 120 Georgetown graduate students with research grants since its founding in 1998. 

The Cosmos Club Foundation and Cosmos Club members learn about research in their field during the annual presentations by award winners, according to John Lange, a Cosmos Club Foundation fellow. 

“It’s a way to foster new scholarship; it’s really a source of funds, rather than an accolade,” Lange wrote in an email to The Hoya. “It’s so enjoyable if you’re one of the foundation members to learn what’s going on in your field at the universities in the metropolitan area and to support new generations of scholarship.”

Erica Lally (GRD ’24), a 2022 Cosmos scholar whose research project addresses the history of a volunteer organization that surveilled private citizens in the United States during the First World War, will use her grant to cover the costs of a research trip to Stanford University to examine rare archival materials central to her dissertation.

“Without the Cosmos funding to help cover the costs, it is unlikely that I would have been able to take this research trip,” Lally wrote in an email to The Hoya. “My research trip isn’t until August, but the content that I expect to review with this funding will help me to add an important set of perspectives to my dissertation research.”

Tianna Mobley (GRD ’22), a 2022 Cosmos scholar whose research project will address African history in the Spanish Atlantic, will use the grant to visit archives in Madrid and Seville this year. 

“I decided to apply for the Cosmos Club grant because of its emphasis on scholarly research and because it would provide funding for me to conduct research internationally,” Mobley wrote in an email to The Hoya. “I received the 2022 Cosmos Scholars grant in support of my research proposal entitled, ‘Legal Personalities of Early Modern Afro-Colombians in the Spanish Atlantic.’” 

Scholars from each field review the proposals first, then the entire committee reviews finalists, ranks them and provides comments, according to Lange.

“We read submissions explaining the scholar’s dissertation or master’s thesis, which these grants help fund,” Lange wrote. “If the proposal is a well-presented piece of scholarship and the budget is reasonable, it’s a fairly easy decision to give them the grant.”

The Cosmos Club Foundation hosts an annual event to celebrate the grant winners and to give them the opportunity to present their research with their academic advisor present, according to Lange.

Charles E. Kiamie, III (GRD ’04, ’08), a 2003 Cosmos Scholar, said that it was exciting to go from a graduate student presenting to the room of Cosmos Club members to being in the audience listening to proposals himself.

“It’s actually very humbling to be in the presence of some really famous people in the audience among the membership of the club, who were showing interest in the limited research of a graduate student at the time,” Kiamie said in an interview with The Hoya. “Then I was in the audience to honor those who came after me and it was really lovely.”

The success of Georgetown graduate students who receive Cosmos Scholars grants demonstrate that Georgetown emphasizes individualized research in the graduate experience, according to Kiamie.

“Georgetown is a campus that really inculcates from the earliest days of the graduate experience, the importance of looking outward,” Kiamie said. “It’s baked in the DNA of the school itself.”