William Wyse Funding

The William Wyse Fund

The Department of Social Anthropology is deeply grateful to Trinity College, Cambridge for its generosity in making available for the support of our field in general and our students in particular the substantial resources of the William Wyse Fund. The College administers the Fund under the terms of a bequest from one of our discipline's pioneering intellectual precursors: Professor William Wyse (1860-1929). Wyse was an eminent classical scholar, a Fellow and Honorary Fellow of Trinity, and a close friend and associate of another of the great Victorian forerunners of modern anthropology: Sir James Frazer. Wyse's will instructed Trinity to use the Fund for 'the promotion of study and research in the Science of Social Anthropology'. The College agreed that the first use of Wyse's endowment would be the creation of a substantial social anthropology studentship open to all members of the University. In 1932 a further critical move was made, of equal importance for the development of anthropology in Cambridge: in addition to student support, the Fund's resources were committed to the creation of the University's first Professorship of Social Anthropology. The William Wyse Chair of Social Anthropology is now one of our Department's two endowed Professorships, and has been occupied by a very long line of distinguished contributors to our field. The Wyse Fund is managed by a Committee composed of members of the Department and of Trinity College, and contributes to student needs in a variety of important ways, as noted below.

Wyse Studentship in Social Anthropology

Studentships will be awarded by competition and shall be tenable at any College at the University of Cambridge.  Upon making an application to the Department of Social Anthropology PhD course by the main funding deadline you will automatically be considered for this fund.

The Studentship shall normally be tenable for three and a half years, and will not be renewable thereafter, but the Electors have discretion to award it for a shorter period.

The emoluments of the Studentship will cover University and College fees and maintenance. It will not include fieldwork expenses. The Student will be able to apply for maintenance cover while on fieldwork but will be expected to meet additional field expenses, including travel, from other sources.

William Wyse Bursary

This Bursary is intended for students who wish to pursue the MPhil in Social Anthropology or MPhil in Social Anthropological Research programme in Social Anthropology. The Bursary is tenable for the duration of the course and covers fees and maintenance at the minimum rate set by the Student Registry. Upon making an application to the Department of Social Anthropology for the MPhil in Social Anthropology or the MPhil in Social Anthropological Research by the main funding deadline you will automatically be considered for this fund.

Wyse Fund Fieldwork Grants

Applications are invited from research students working towards a PhD Degree under the supervision of the Department of Social Anthropology for grants towards fieldwork expenses.