For scholars, historians, writers, and artists working on cultural and historical projects, library research fellowships provide funding and access to the collections and archives of universities and institutions. Collections can include literature, art, artifacts, photography, films, maps, letters and historical documents. Fellowships include both short-term and long-term residential opportunities.
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Harry Ransom Center Research Fellowships
The Ransom Center awards dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships for projects that require the substantial on-site use of its collections. The collections support research in all areas of the humanities, including literature, photography, film, art, the performing arts, music, and cultural history. There are 1 to 3-month fellowships for independent and postdoctoral scholars, travel stipends for short-term visits, and dissertation fellowships available at the center. Applicants from any nation are eligible and visa support will be given to international applicants.
American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship
The Visiting Fellowship offers writers and researchers an opportunity to pursue a creative project in Paris for a month or longer while participating actively in the life of the American Library. Fellowship applicants should be working on a book project, fiction or non-fiction, or a feature-length documentary film. The fellowship includes a stipend of $5,000 to cover travel, accommodation, and other expenses. The Library offers networking opportunities and the fellowship is open to English speakers of any nationality.
American Antiquarian Society Fellowships
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) maintains a major research library in American history, literature, and culture through 1876 in Worcester, MA. The AAS-NEH fellows are part of a community that includes the AAS staff, area college and university faculty, and the recipients of AAS short-term fellowships (including scholars from all over the U.S. and abroad, Ph.D. candidates, and creative artists and writers producing work for the general public) and other long-term fellows. Twenty-eight months of AAS-NEH fellowship support are available.
David B. Larson Fellowship in Health and Spirituality
The fellowship seeks to encourage the pursuit of scholarly excellence in the scientific study of the relation of religiousness and spirituality to physical, mental, and social health. The fellowship provides an opportunity for a period of 6-12 months of concentrated use of the collections of the Library of Congress, through full-time residency in the Library’s John W. Kluge Center in Washington, DC. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and must possess a doctoral degree awarded by the deadline date. The fellowship provides a stipend of $4,200/month.
David Center for the American Revolution Short-Term Resident Research Fellowships
The David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society Library & Museum invites applications for short-term resident research fellowships. These funding opportunities provide one month of support for researchers in residence and are open to scholars in all fields who show a demonstrated need to use the collections for their projects. Successful applicants are awarded a stipend of $3,000. Fellows are required to be in residence for four consecutive weeks. Applicants may be Ph.D. holders, Ph.D. candidates, or independent scholars.
Digital Humanities Fellowships
The Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) at the American Philosophical Society Library invites applications for Digital Humanities Fellowships at the American Philosophical Society Library & Museum. These short-term residential research fellowships, for up to 2 months, are open to scholars at all stages of their careers, including graduate students, who are developing digital projects. Successful applicants will receive a stipend of $3,000 for a minimum of one month and a maximum of two months.
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers
The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers is an international fellowship program open to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building—including academics, independent scholars, and creative writers (novelists, playwrights, poets). The Center appoints 15 Fellows a year for a nine-month term at the Library, from September through May. In addition to working on their own projects, the Fellows engage in an ongoing exchange of ideas within the Center and in public forums throughout the Library.
Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship
Folger’s extraordinary collections are essential to understanding the humanities and their continued resonance and importance in our world. Through increased digital access and partnerships with Folger librarians, the program puts fellows into direct and sustained engagement with our rare and historical art, books, costumes, manuscripts, periodicals, prints, and visual resources. The Folger Institute is committed to supporting collections-based research and providing scholars with the resources they need to pursue and advance their work; they will offer non-residential research fellowships, in the amount of $3,500, to support four continuous weeks of research and writing.
History of Science Fellowships
The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Science History Institute, an independent research library in Philadelphia, accepts applications for short- and long-term fellowships in the history of science, technology, medicine, and industry. The center supports 20 fellows a year whose work is in some way tied to the history of materials and materiality, chemistry, and related sciences. Applications come from a wide range of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. Short-term fellowships are $3,000; dissertation fellowships are $26,000; and postdoctoral fellowships are $45,000.
Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Library Fellowship
The Hodson-Brown Library Fellowship supports work by academics, independent scholars, and writers working on significant projects relating to the literature, history, culture, or art of the Americas before 1830. Candidates with a U.S. history topic are strongly encouraged to concentrate on the period before 1801. The fellowship is also open to filmmakers, novelists, creative and performing artists, and others working on projects that draw on this period of history. The fellowship award supports two months of research and two months of writing. The stipend is $5,000 per month for a total of $20,000, plus housing and university privileges.
Houghton Library Visiting Fellowships
In-residence fellowships at Harvard University’s Houghton Library support PhD candidates and scholars in research based on the library’s holdings of rare books, manuscripts, and archives primarily from Europe and North America, but also including holdings related to Africa, the Americas, Asia, Oceania and the histories of marginalized people. Scholars utilizing unique materials in Houghton collections are preferred. The fellow is expected to be in residence at the library for 4 weeks. A stipend of $3,600 is provided to cover travel and accommodation costs during the fellowship and both U.S. and international applicants are invited to apply.
Indigenous Community Research Fellowships
The Indigenous Community Research Fellowships support research by Indigenous community members, elders, teachers, knowledge keepers, tribal officials, traditional leaders, museum and archive professionals, scholars, and others, regardless of academic background, seeking to examine materials at the APS Library & Museum in support of Indigenous community-based priorities. We encourage any community to apply whose cultural or linguistic heritage is represented in the collections. University-based scholars and independent researchers working on projects in collaboration with Native communities are also eligible to apply. Applicants may request up to a maximum of $5,000.
John H. Daniels Fellowship
The John H. Daniels Fellowship supports researchers at the National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM), a research library and fine arts museum dedicated to preserving, promoting and sharing the literature, art and culture of equestrian, angling and field sports. University faculty, graduate students, museum professionals, librarians, independent researchers, writers, and interested others are encouraged to apply. Fellowships are awarded for two months or less. The maximum stipend award is $2,000 per month. Residence on campus is available for award recipients.
Jon B. Lovelace Fellowship for the Study of the Alan Lomax Collection
The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress invites qualified scholars to apply for a post-doctoral fellowship for advanced research based on the Alan Lomax Collection. The Lomax Collection is a major collection of ethnographic field audio recordings, motion pictures, photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, and other materials from many parts of the world. Applicants may be of any nationality and must possess a Ph.D. degree, or equivalent terminal degree. The fellowship is for a period of up to 8 months, at a stipend of $5,000 per month, for residential research at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
Kluge Fellowships
The Library of Congress invites qualified scholars to conduct research in the John W. Kluge Center using the Library of Congress collections and resources for a period of up to eleven months. Scholars who have received a terminal advanced degree within the past seven years in the humanities, social sciences, or in a professional field such as architecture or law are eligible to apply. Fellows receive a stipend of $4,200/month.
Leo Baeck Institute – DAAD Fellowship
The Leo Baeck Institute is a research, study, and lecture center whose library and archives offer comprehensive documentation for the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Fellowships are awarded for research in New York or Germany on the social, communal, and intellectual history of German-speaking Jewry. Financial assistance is provided to doctoral students for dissertation research and to young academics for the preparation of a scholarly essay or book.
Library Short-Term Resident Research Fellowships
The American Philosophical Society Library & Museum in Philadelphia invites applications for short-term residential research fellowships. These funding opportunities provide 1- to 3- months of support for researchers in residence and are open to Ph.D. candidates, holders of the Ph.D., and degreed independent scholars, in all fields who show a demonstrated need to use the Library & Museum’s collections for their project. Approximately 25-30 short-term fellowships are awarded each year. A stipend of $3,000 per month is awarded.
Linda Hall Library Fellowships
The Linda Hall Library offers funding to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and independent scholars in the history of science and related areas of science and technology studies. Scholars may apply for travel grants to support short (1-3 weeks) research visits to Kansas City or residential fellowships that provide more time (1-4 months) for in-depth engagement with the Library’s collections. Fellowships cover travel and living expenses up to $750/week for travel fellows, $3,000/month for doctoral residential fellows, and $4,200/month for postdoctoral residential fellows.
Mount Vernon Research Fellowships
The Funded Research Fellowships are available to people researching the early American period, including academics, public historians, independent scholars, curators, material culture / decorative arts professionals, preservationists, and graduate students. Spend up to 6 months as a research fellow at the George Washington Library, located at George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia. The research collections hold materials related to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The program is open to U.S. citizens and international applicants. Award recipients receive housing, stipends, and travel reimbursement.
NEH Long-Term Fellowships
National Endowment for the Humanities Long-Term Fellowships support advanced research at the Center for Research in the Humanities. Fellowships are open to scholars researching the history, literature, and culture of peoples represented in collections housed at the Schwarzman Building and to professionals in fields related to the Library’s holdings, including librarianship and archives administration, special collections, photography, prints, and maps. The NEH Long-Term Fellowships support two fellows for nine months with a stipend of $45,000.
NEH-Hagley Postdoctoral Fellowship on Business, Culture, and Society
An in-residence postdoctoral fellowship at the Hagley research library to perform historical research on business and its impact on the world. Scholars can connect their research to other topics in the humanities and social sciences to explain the impact business has had on them and all of the library’s resources will be available for the fellow to aid their research. Fellows must be U.S. citizens or foreign national who has lived in the U.S. for at least 3 years. The fellowships are for either 4 or 8 months and include lodging, a stipend of $4,200/month, and office space.
New-York Historical Society Fellowships
Leveraging its rich collections, the New York Historical Society’s unique fellowship program provides scholars with deep resources and an intellectual community to develop new research and publications. Several pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships will be awarded to scholars at any academic level working in the library collections of the New-York Historical Society. Fellows are fully in residence and may not participate in external employment. Applicants should have a strong interest in New York State and City History.
New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowships
The New York Public Library offers Short-Term Research Fellowships to support visiting scholars from outside the New York metropolitan area engaged in graduate-level, post-doctoral and independent research. Fellowship stipends are $1,000 per week for up to 4 weeks and researchers must be in residence at the Library for a minimum of 2 weeks between July and June. Supports on-site research in the Library’s special collections for projects in the humanities including art history, cultural studies, history, literature, performing arts, and photography. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
The Newberry Collection Fellowships
The Newberry Collection, based in Chicago, IL, considers research projects that utilize the Newberry’s collection to advance scholarship in the humanities, in particular American history and culture, American Indian studies, genealogy, history of books, maps, and postcards, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Studies, and religion. Graduate students and scholars can apply for Short-Term Fellowships of 1-2 months ($3000 stipend/month). PhD holders can apply for Long-Term Fellowships of 4-9 months ($5000 stipend/month). The Newberry also offers an $8,000 Publication Subvention award to subsidize the publication of a scholarly book. Deadlines are November 1 or December 15. Check the website here.
Philip Lee Phillips Society Fellowship
The John W. Kluge Center and the Philip Lee Phillips Society at the Library of Congress invite qualified scholars to conduct research at the Kluge Center using the Geography and Map Divisions collections and resources for two months. There are no degree requirements for applicants. Applicants must have a history of successful accomplishment in the field of geography, cartography, or history and have a record of publication commensurate with a senior fellowship of this kind. $5,750 per month for 2 months.
Thomas K. McCraw Fellowship in U.S. Business History
The fellowship enables established scholars from around the world whose primary interest is the business and economic history of the United States to spend time in residence at Harvard Business School. The main activities of the Thomas K. McCraw Fellow will be to conduct research in the archives of Baker Library or in other Boston-area libraries, present his or her work at a seminar, and interact with the HBS faculty. The Thomas K. McCraw Fellow will receive a stipend of $7,000 to cover travel and living expenses. Fellows are expected to be in residence for a minimum of two months.
Resnick Family Fellowship Program
The Stewart and Lynda Resnick Fellowship Program aims to enable international senior scholars to use the unique resources and special collections of the NLI, helping to enrich the Library’s intellectual life while strengthening connections between the global academic community and the new home in Jerusalem. The Program is open to tenured scholars in all fields whose work is anchored in one or more of the Library’s core collections: Judaica, Israel, Islam and the Middle East, the Humanities, and the Music Collection and Sound Archive. The fellowship includes a stipend of $17,000 for up to two months of research in residence at the National Library of Israel. Check the website here.
Washington Library Research Fellows
Awards are available for research focused on the life and leadership of George Washington, and his place in the development of American civic life and culture. These funded research opportunities, which last up to six months, are available to doctoral candidates, recent PhDs, and mid-career faculty as well as advanced scholars and independent researchers with relevant topics. Fellowships less than three months provide a stipend of $3,000 per month, three-month fellowships provide $10,000, and six-month fellowships provide $20,000. All awards include onsite housing at Mt. Vernon.
Woodberry Poetry Room Creative Fellowship
Each year, the Creative Fellowship program at the Woodberry Poetry Room invites poets, writers, translators, artists, filmmakers, composers, and scholars of contemporary poetry to propose creative projects that would benefit from the resources available in the Woodberry Poetry Room. The Creative Fellow receives a stipend of $5,000, access to a range of Harvard Library special collections (including the Poetry Room), and in-depth research support from the WPR curatorial staff. The Creative Fellowship is open to US-based and international applicants. Applications to conduct a collaborative project with one or more artists are permitted.
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