The Mellon-CES Dissertation Completion Fellowship supports late-stage PhD candidates who have often exhausted departmental and university resources. Thus, the Council for European Studies (CES) strongly emphasizes dissertation completion during the grant term, clearly marking the fellowship year off from the rest of graduate study as the student’s “finishing” year.
However, CES also recognizes that no fellowship program can support dissertation completion without the active cooperation and engagement of a student's dissertation advisor. For this reason, CES makes every effort to remain in dialogue with advisors by contacting them at least twice during the fellowship year to receive feedback on the program and their advisee's progress.