Houghton Library Visiting Fellowships

Scholars at all stages of their careers are invited to apply to pursue projects that require in-depth research on Houghton Library’s holdings, draw on staff expertise, and participate in intellectual life at Harvard.
Applications for the 2024-25 season
The application portal for 2024–25 Houghton Library Visiting Fellowships is open.
Apply Now

Houghton Library supports research opening new perspectives on its collections.

2017-2018 Visiting Fellow​ Dr. Ermine Algaier and his research assistant Diana J. Rhubi in Houghton Library's reading room.​
2017-2018 Visiting Fellow​ Dr. Ermine Algaier and his research assistant Diana J. Rhubi in Houghton Library's reading room.​

The Visiting Fellowship program offers scholars at all stages of their careers funding to pursue projects that require in-depth research on the library’s holdings, as well as opportunities to draw on staff expertise and participate in intellectual life at Harvard.

Houghton provides fellows with access to other libraries at the University, and opportunities to exchange knowledge and promote their research through its publications, and scholarly and public programs.

Recent fellows' research topics speak to the breadth and depth of Houghton’s holdings—ranging from colonial-era Native American music to the collecting of Sanskrit manuscripts, and Iberian chivalric romances to celebrity pregnancy on the London stage.

Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse amount of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

The library particularly welcomes proposals that reexamine its collections through a global lens and/or demonstrate how the holdings of a rare book and manuscript library can contribute to discourse around contemporary social, political, and cultural issues. New fellowships on gender and sexuality studies in the performing arts, and early modern black lives underscore Houghton's commitment to diversifying perspectives on our collections.

Responsibilities

  • Fellows in the 2024–2025 cohort will receive a $4,500 stipend and are expected to be in residence at Houghton for four weeks within their fellowship year (July through June), though these do not have to be consecutive weeks.
  • Fellows are responsible for paying taxes related to their award stipend.
  • Fellows must finalize their visit dates prior to arrival. Reading room seating is limited; therefore, applicants’ first choice for arrival cannot be guaranteed. 
  • Fellows are required to produce a written summary of their experience working with the collections.
  • Applicants must be 18 or older. 

For an insight into the Visiting Fellowship experience at Houghton, visit our blog.

Fellowship Opportunities

Thanks to the generosity of the library's benefactors, seventeen endowed fellowships support research in the following fields of study:

  • Beatrice, Benjamin, and Richard Bader Fellowship in the Visual Arts of the Theatre
  • W. Jackson Bate/ Douglas W. Bryant, American Society for Eighteenth‑Century Studies Fellowship; Successful applicants must either be an ASECS member in good standing or be willing to become a member in order to receive this fellowship.
  • José María Castañé Fellowship in 20th-century History
  • Maryette Charlton Fellowship for the Performing Arts; This fellowship is available to assist scholarly research on gender and sexuality in the performing arts.
  • William Dearborn Fellowship in American History
  • Rodney G. Dennis Fellowship in the Study of Manuscripts
  • The Ralph Waldo Emerson Fellowship
  • Eleanor M. Garvey Fellowship in Printing and Graphic Arts
  • Houghton Mifflin Fellowship in Publishing History
  • Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for Research in Early Modern Black Lives, including Africa and the African Diaspora, 1500-1800
  • Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for the Study of Dr. Samuel Johnson and his Circle
  • Joan Nordell Fellowship
  • Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography; This fellowship carries a stipend of $4,500 per month, up to twelve months (maximum $43,200). Fellows are expected to be in residence at Houghton Library for the duration of the fellowship.
  • The Theodore Roosevelt Association Fellowship for the Study of the Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt
  • Howard D. Rothschild Fellowship in Dance
  • Robert Gould Shaw Fellowship for the Harvard Theatre Collection
  • John M. Ward Fellowship in Dance and Music for the Theatre

Funding

Fellows in the 2024–2025 cohort will receive stipends of $4,500 during the tenure of their appointment.

Eligibility

  • Open to candidates of all nationalities. Non-U.S. citizens awarded a fellowship are required to obtain a J-1 visa. Harvard University can sponsor the visa, but fellows are responsible for paying associated fees and will receive their stipend 2-3 weeks after arriving at Houghton Library.
  • Doctoral students, post-doctoral, academics and independent scholars, as well as curators, and other library, archive and museum professionals, are welcome to apply.
  • Fellowships normally are not granted to scholars who live within commuting distance of the library.
  • Scholars are welcome to apply each year. If awarded a fellowship, however, a period of 5 years must elapse before another fellowship may be awarded.
  • We particularly welcome applications from students and scholars from underrepresented groups in academia, including women, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, first generation scholars, and persons with disabilities.

Apply

Applications are due January 19, 2024.

Applicants are asked to submit:

  • a project proposal (1,000 words maximum)
  • a preliminary list of Houghton collection materials
    • note: applications that do not list materials held by Houghton Library will not be considered
    • applicants should ensure that Houghton is the holding repository for collections they wish to consult
  • a curriculum vitae
  • one letter of reference

Please note: Other than the Pantzer Fellowship, applicants need not apply for specific fellowships. The Selection Committee will determine the fellowship best suited to each awardee.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to save applications in progress; do not submit your application until it is complete.

Apply now

 

    Have questions?

    Peter X. Accardo

    2022-2023 Visiting Fellows

    Beatrice, Benjamin, and Richard Bader Fellowship in the Visual Arts of the Theatre

    • Dr. Alison Fitzgerald, Permanent Lecturer (Associate Professor), Department of History, Maynooth University
      Spectacles and Shows: Exhibitions and Entertainment in Georgian Ireland 1600–1800
    • Sasha Whittaker, PhD Candidate in Art & Archaeology, Princeton University
      George Hoyningen-Huene and the Cultural Politics of Dance Photography

     

    Robert Gould Shaw Fellowship for the Harvard Theatre Collection

    • Ryan Bachman, PhD Candidate in History of American Civilization, University of Delaware
      “From Canton”: Chinese Export Waxworks in American Museums
    • Rhae Lynn Barnes, Assistant Professor in American Cultural History, Department of History, Princeton University
      Darkology: “When the American Dream Wore Blackface”

    John M. Ward Fellowship in Dance and Music for the Theatre

    • Taryn Dubois, PhD Candidate in Historical Musicology, Yale University
      Sounding an Embodied Modernity: Corporeality and National Identity in Late-Nineteenth Century Italian Theatrical Dance

    Howard D. Rothschild Fellowship in Dance

    • Phil Chan, Co-Founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, Carleton College
      Costuming the Orient
    • Amina Mohammed (Mina Magda), PhD Candidate in Philosophy, Slavic Languages, and Literatures
      The Body Eclectic: Negrophilia, Russophilia, and the Making of Modernism

    Maryette Charlton Fellowship for the Performing Arts

    • Dr. David G. Rugger, Musicology, Visiting Lecturer of Music History and Voice, Butler University
      Simple Man: Klaus Nomi’s Life and Art

    Eleanor M. Garvey Fellowship in Printing and Graphic Arts

    • Emily Arthur, Associate Professor of Art, University of Wisconsin
      Secrets of Havell: Making Prints for “The Birds of America”
    • Dr. William Ma, University of California, Berkeley
      Race and Ethnicity, Imperial Landscapes, and Print Technologies in the French-made Qianlong Battle Prints
    • Dr. Vanessa Wilkie, William A. Moffett Curator of Medieval Manuscripts and British History, Huntington Library
      Emblems, Icons, and the Elites Who Loved Them: Manuscript Visual Culture in the English Renaissance

    Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship

    • Philippe Bernhard Schmid, PhD Candidate in Modern History, University of St. Andrews
      Reforming the Library: Learned Collecting and the Organization of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

    W. Jackson Bate/ Douglas W. Bryant/ American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS)

    • Agnieszka Anna Ficek, PhD Candidate in Art History, City University of New York
      From Allegory to Revolution: The Inca Empire in the Eighteenth-Century French Imagination

    Ralph Waldo Emerson Fellowship

    • Eagan Dean, PhD. Candidate in English Literatures, Rutgers University
      Women in the Nineteenth Century and the Anti-Politics of Reprinting, 1845–1970

    Theodore Roosevelt Association Fellowship for the Study of the Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt

    • David Welky, Professor of History, University of Central Arkansas
      Teddy and Bamie: The Roosevelt Siblings Who Defined an Era

    William Dearborn Fellowship in American History

    • Dr. Nicolas Cuvi, Principal Senior Research Professor in Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences at FLACSO
      Circulation of Knowledge in Tropical America: Networks of Local Actors, Naturalists, Geographers, Geologists and Anthropologists (1850–1950)

    Rodney G. Dennis Fellowship in the Study of Manuscripts

    • Irem Yildiz, PhD Candidate in Philosophy Oriental Studies, St. Antony’s College
      The Role of American Missionary Activities in the Training of Blind Children: Networks of Schools in the Late Ottoman Empire (1845–1914)

    Houghton Mifflin Fellowship in Publishing History

    • Alec Pollak, PhD Candidate in English Literatures, Cornell University
      Right to Repair: Literary Estates, Copyright Law, and Authorial Afterlives

    Joan Nordell Fellowship

    • Dr. Azelina Flint, Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Creative Writing, Lancaster University
      Portrait of the Artist as a Transatlantic Women: May Alcott Nieriker
    • Damanpreet Pelia, PhD Candidate in American Studies, Yale University
      Market of Souls: Missionaries and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Panjab

    Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography

    • James Phillip Ascher, PhD Candidate in English Language and Literature, University of Virginia
      A Descriptive Bibliography of the Philosophical Transactions Volumes 1–11 (1665–76)
    • Elena Fogolin, PhD Candidate in Humanities and Cultural Heritage, University of Udine, Italy / Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
      German Printers in Rome in the 1470s–1480s: Book Output and Circulation
    • Dr. Luis Rueda Galán, PhD in Art History, École pratique des hautes études, Paris (Université PSL) / Universidad de Jaén
      The Paper Temple. ‘In Ezechielem Explanationes’ and the (re)Construction of History
    • Kadin Henningsen, PhD Candidate in Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Book History, Transgender Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
      Biblionormativity and Trans* Capacity: Gender, Race, and the Material Book in Nineteenth-Century America, 1840–1910
    • Dr. Devrim Ümit, PhD in History, Columbia University
      The Annotated Bibliography of the American Protestant Missionary Network in Ottoman Turkey, 1876–1914
    • Dr. Molly G. Yarn, PhD in English, University of Cambridge
      Women Printers and the English Book Trade, 1640–1665

    2023–2024 Visiting Fellows

    Beatrice, Benjamin, and Richard Bader Fellowship in the Visual Arts of the Theatre

    • Jason Price, Reader in Theatre & Performance Studies, School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, UK
      "The best remedy ever offered to the public": Entertainment and healthcare in the United States, 1865-1930
    • Jane Wessel, Assistant Professor, United States Naval Academy
      Theatre and the Extra-Illustrated Book: Participatory Reading and Fandoms in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century England

    W. Jackson Bate/ Douglas W. Bryant American Society for Eighteenth‑Century Studies Fellowship

    • Julie Park, Paterno Family Librarian for Literature & Affiliate Professor of English, Penn State University
      Writing’s Maker: Inscribing the Self in 18th-Century England

    José María Castañé Fellowship in 20th-Century History

    • Alejandro Espejo, PhD Candidate, University of Bologna, Italy - University CEU San Pablo of Madrid, Spain
      Alfonso de Orleans: A Spanish Prince against Fascism

    Maryette Charlton Fellowship for the Performing Arts

    • Victoria LaFave, PhD Candidate, University of Pittsburgh
      Feeling the Archive: Embodied Memory within American(a) Popular Culture

    William Dearborn Fellowship in American History

    • Jeremy Schraffenberger, Professor of English, University of Northern Iowa, and Editor, North American Review
      Slavery, Abolition, and Colonization in the Antebellum North American Review

    Rodney G. Dennis Fellowship in the Study of Manuscripts

    • Johanna Ines Mueller, PhD Candidate, Stanford University
      Reevaluating the Emergence of the American Protestant Foreign Missions Movement

    The Ralph Waldo Emerson Fellowship

    • Rita Koganzon, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Houston
      Hating School: The Liberal Tradition in American Education

    Eleanor M. Garvey Fellowship in Printing and Graphic Arts

    • Christy Gordon Baty, Graduate Student, University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Erin Harvey Moody, Costume and Textile Technician, Richmond Museum of History and Culture
      An Examination of Embroidered Book Bindings in the Collection at the Houghton Library
    • René Lommez Gomes, Architecture and Urbanism Faculty, Sâo Paulo University, Brazil
      Arts, Crafts, and the transmission of practical knowledge in the Atlantic World. João Stoter’s books and other manuals for arts and crafts at the Houghton Library

    Houghton Library Visiting Fellowship

    • Melissa Bradshaw, Writing Program Director and Senior Lecturer and Associate Graduate Faculty, English Department, Loyola University Chicago
      The Amy Lowell Letters Project

    Houghton Mifflin Fellowship in Publishing History

    • Sonia Hazard, Assistant Professor of Religion, Florida State University
      Christianity and the Book in the Cherokee Diaspora, 1828–1861

    Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for Research in Early Modern Black Lives, including Africa and the African Diaspora, 1500–1800

    • Bindu Malieckal, Department of English, Saint Anselm College
      Mooricide: Religion, Violence, and Asia in Early Modern Literature

    Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for the Study of Dr. Samuel Johnson and his Circle

    • Emma Stanbridge, PhD Candidate, Keele University, UK
      Life-Writing and Lichfield Literary Culture, 1775–1835

    Joan Nordell Fellowship

    • Rosa Campbell, Associate Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature, School of English, University of St Andrews, UK
      The Unfinished: A Critical Biography of V.R. ‘Bunny’ Lang
    • Lily Ní Dhomhnaill, Independent Scholar
      The "fact that the world is a stage”: Susan Howe, Mary Manning, and the Poets’ Theatre

    Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography

    • Jennifer Bervin-Lagarde, Independent Scholar
      Measuring the Sun—
    • Shanti Graheli, Lecturer in Comparative Literature, University of Glasgow, School of Modern Languages and Cultures
      The Decline of the Aldine Press Between Crisis and Innovation
    • Paul Michael Johnson, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, DePauw University
      Carl Tilden Keller’s Quixote Collection and the Global Cultural Politics of Translation
    • Verônica Calsoni Lima, PhD Candidate, University of São Paulo, Brazil
      Typographical Censorship: Sir Roger L’Estrange, Henry Brome, and the Restoration Print Culture

    The Theodore Roosevelt Association Fellowship for the Study of the Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt

    • Michael Patrick Cullinane, Professor of U.S. History, Lowman Walton Chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies, Dickinson State University
      The Tennis Cabinet: Theodore Roosevelt and the Political Networks of the Progressive Era

    Howard D. Rothschild Fellowship in Dance

    • Megan Girdwood, Assistant Professor in Modern Literature, 1870-1945, Department of English Studies, Durham University, UK
      The Kinaesthetics of Modernism: Writing the Sense of Movement, 1880-1940
    • Thierry Jaquemet, Ballet Director, Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre in Pilsen, Czech Republic
      Paul Taglioni Papers at the Harvard Theatre Collection

    Robert Gould Shaw Fellowship for the Harvard Theatre Collection

    • Douglas A. Jones, Jr., Associate Professor, Departments of English, Theater Studies, and African and African American Studies, Duke University
      In Living Color: How Black Minstrelsy Created Modern American Culture from Standup to Tyler Perry’s Made
    • Lisa Schlansker Kolosek, Independent Scholar
      Parmenia Migel Ekstrom and the Stravinsky-Diaghilev Foundation

    John M. Ward Fellowship in Dance and Music for the Theatre

    • Chase Castle, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania
      The Gospel in Black and White: Race and Power in American Evangelical Hymnody, 1840–1900