Telugu at Berkeley imageThe Telugu Society of America (TELSA) Summer Studies Research Award is an annual award established with a generous contribution from the Telugu Society of America (TELSA), a non-profit organization based in Claremont, California dedicated to the promotion of development of Telugu people, their culture and material conditions. The goal of the TELSA Award is to promote quality interdisciplinary undergraduate or graduate research on topics pertaining to the people, their language, region, culture, political economy, rural and urban planning, and such.

Award Amount

The award provides for one grant of $2500 towards Telugu studies or research in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The successful applicant will fall into one or more of the following:

  • A student who has taken the courses offered by University of California’s Telugu studies 
  • Students whose parent(s), or who themselves, are Telugu language speakers 

Priority will be given to: 

  • Mid-career graduate students conducting research toward a masters thesis or dissertation proposal.
  • Undergraduates at the junior and higher levels. 
  • Students at UC Berkeley and other University of California campuses.

Successful applicants will be expected to submit a scholarly report detailing the findings of the research and possibly make a formal presentation to the TELSA membership.

Application: Please click HERE to apply

The application process will begin on February 1, 2024 with the deadline for submission of application materials for travel to take place during the summer of 2024 (i.e., May through August 2024) or the 2024-25 academic year (i.e. August 2024 through May 2025), is April 1, 2024 by 5 pm

Join our mailing list to receive notification of when the application opens.

Submission deadline is April 1, 2024 by 5 PM.

Please make sure to have all your documentation ready before applying.

In your application please include the following:

  1. A 1-page cover letter
  2. A 2-page project proposal
  3. A budget
  4. CV 
  5. One letter of support from your advisor

For any questions, please email: Puneeta Kala @ pkala@berkeley.edu