Due to the upcoming building renovation at Houghton Library, the Visiting Fellowship Program is on pause for 2019-2020. The deadline for applications for 2020-2021 fellowships is January 13, 2020. Complete application guidelines will be made available in September 2019.
About
Houghton Library supports research opening new perspectives on its collections.
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, draw on staff expertise, and participate in intellectual life at Harvard.
Houghton also 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.
The 2018-2019 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.
Fellows receive a $3,600 stipend and are expected to be in residence at Houghton for at least four weeks within their fellowship year (July through June), though these do not have to be consecutive weeks.
Fellows are also required to produce a written summary of their experience working with the collections.
For an insight into the Visiting Fellowship experience at Houghton, visit our blog.
Fellowship Opportunities
Thanks to the generosity of the library's benefactors, sixteen 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 $3,600 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.
- 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
Fellowship stipends of $3,600 are awarded to help support visiting fellows 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 scholars from underrepresented groups in academia.
Apply
Due to the upcoming building renovation at Houghton Library, the Visiting Fellowship Program is on pause for 2019-2020. The deadline for applications for 2020-2021 fellowships is January 13, 2020. Complete application guidelines will be made available in September 2019.
Applicants are asked to submit:
- an online a project proposal
- a preliminary list of Houghton collection materials
- a curriculum vitae
- two letters of reference
Please note: Other than the Pantzer Fellowship, applicants need not apply for specific fellowships, as the Selection Committee determines which fellowship is best suited to your research, if awarded a fellowship.
Recipients will be notified by April 1, 2020.
For additional information, please contact the Anne-Marie Eze.
2018-2019 Visiting Fellows
Dr. Gillian Arrighi
Senior Lecturer, Creative and Performing Arts, School of Creative Industries, Faculty of Education and Arts,
University of Newcastle, Australia
“Pinafores, Prodigies and Precocities: child actors on popular American stages 1880-1915”
Robert Gould Shaw Fellowship for the Harvard Theatre Collection
Dr. Nigel Aston
Reader in Early Modern History, University of Leicester
“James Boswell’s later life networks, c.1784-1795”
Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for the Study of Dr. Samuel Johnson and his Circle
Dr. Lorena Barco Cebrián
Doctor and Professor of Historiographical Sciences and Techniques at University of Malaga
“Codicological study of medieval and modern Spanish manuscripts”
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography
Dr. Pamela A. Reese Blakely
Affiliated Faculty, Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania/Professor and Honors Program Coordinator, Reading Area Community College
“Anne Eisner Putnam and Colin Turunbull: Research Collaboration in the Ituri Forest”
Joan Nordell Fellowship
Dr. Mark Bland
Independent Scholar
“Typography and the Book-Trade: Jonson, Daniel and the Transformation of the Book”
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography
Dr. James Ford III
Assistant Professor of English at Occidental College
“Phillis, the Black Swan: Disheveling the Origins”
Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for Research in Early Modern Black Lives, including Africa and the African Diaspora, 1500-1800
Dr. Emily Friedman
Associate Professor of English, Auburn University
“Manuscript Fiction in the Age of Print, 1750-1900”
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography
Dr. Sarah Fuchs Sampson
Assistant Professor of Music History and Cultures, Syracuse University
“Singing beyond the Stage: The Embellished Score in Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Europe”
John M. Ward Fellowship in Dance and Music for the Theatre
Professor Glenda Goodman
Assistant Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania
“Strategic Sounds: Native American Music in the Era of Colonial Conquest”
W. Jackson Bate/Douglas W. Bryant/ American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS)
Andrey Ivanov
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Wisconsin at Platteville
“The Pious Lives of Catherine the Great”
W. Jackson Bate/Douglas W. Bryant/ American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ASECS)
Dr. Michael Griffin
Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Limerick
“A new edition of the collected works of Oliver Goldsmith (Cambridge University Press) – Dr Michael Griffin general editor, with Dr David O’Shaughnessy; Professor Aileen Douglas and Dr Jim Watt, contributing editors”
Augustin H. Parker Fellowship for the Study of Oliver Goldsmith
Professor Mary Hancock
Professor, Departments of History and Anthropology; Associate Dean, Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, UCSB
“India in the American Evangelical Imaginary: Missionary Contributions to Popular Geography, 1812-1920”
Joan Nordell Fellowship
Dr. Kristoff Kerl
Dan David Fellow at the Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University
“Politics of Ecstasy: A Transnational History of the Body in Western Countercultures, 1960s-1980s”
Houghton Library Fellowship
Dr. Scott Kirsch
Professor, Department of Geography, UNC-Chapel Hill
“The 1921 Wood-Forbes Mission to the Philippines”
William Dearborn Fellowship in American History
Dr. Michelle Levy
Professor, Department of English, Simon Fraser University
“Women’s Books, 1750-1836”
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography
Dr. Kirsten Macfarlane
Title A Research Fellow, Trinity College, University of Cambridge
“Elizabethan Hebraism in Seventeenth-Century Europe and North America: The Reception of Hugh Broughton (1549-1612)”
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography
Ms. Noreen Masud
DPhil candidate at University of Oxford; College Lecturer at Brasenose College and Balliol College, Oxford
“Hard Language: Aphorism in Twentieth-Century Literature”
Eleanor M. Garvey Fellowship in Printing and Graphic Arts
Dr. Erin A. McCarthy
Postdoctoral Researcher, National University of Ireland, Galway
“Towards a Descriptive Bibliography of Early Modern Manuscripts”
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography
Ms. Madeline McMahon
PhD student, history, Princeton University
“‘The Bishop Must Always Appear a Bishop’: Religious Knowledge and the Creation of Episcopal Traditions in England and Italy after 1560”
Eleanor M. Garvey Fellowship in Printing and Graphic Arts
Ms. Laura Nicolaiciuc
Ph.D. Candidate, Art History, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
“Before rescue and restitution: The establishment and preliminary work of American art protection services – the achievements of Francis Henry Taylor”
Eleanor M. Garvey Fellowship in Printing and Graphic Arts
Mr. Derek Kane O’Leary
PhD Candidate, UC Berkeley History Department
“Building the American Archive”
William Dearborn Fellowship in American History
Dr. Chelsea Phillips
Assistant Professor of Theatre, Villanova University
“Carrying All Before Her: Celebrity Pregnancy on the London Stage, 1689-1800”
Maryette Charlton Fellowship for the Performing Arts
Professor Steven Rozenski
Assistant Professor of English, University of Rochester
“Perspectives on a Previously Unknown Low German Passion Meditation in Houghton Library MS Ger 69, with an Edition and Translation of the Text”
Rodney G. Dennis Fellowship in the Study of Manuscripts
Dr. Jordi Sanchez-Marti
Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Alicante
“A descriptive catalogue of the Iberian romances of chivalry in English translation, with a census of copies, 1572-1700”
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography
Mr. Robert Sarwark
Librarian, The Art Institute of Atlanta
“A Book-by-Book Journey through the Catholic Index of Forbidden Books (Index Librorum Prohibitorum)”
Houghton Mifflin Fellowship in Publishing History
Professor Peter Scharf
President, The Sanskrit Library; Visiting Professor, Language Technology Resources Center, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
“The acquisition of Sanskrit manuscripts”
Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography
Dr. Madison Sowell
Professor and Provost Emeritus, Southern Virginia University
“American Ballet Lithographs of the Romantic Era: A Study in Iconography and Cultural History”
Howard D. Rothschild Fellowship in Dance
Professor Michael Winship
Professor, English Dept., University of Texas at Austin
“Bibliographical Checklists of Resources for the Study of the History of American Book Distribution”
Houghton Mifflin Fellowship in Publishing History
Professor David Worrall
Emeritus Professor of English, Nottingham Trent University, UK
“Eighteenth-Century Theatre Finances: Box Office Receipts, Audience Capacities, Author and Performer Income”
Robert Gould Shaw Fellowship for the Harvard Theatre Collection