Fellowships

The Consortium offers multiple fellowship opportunities each year for scholars in the history of science, technology or medicine:

• Due December 15
  • Emanuel Fellowships for Independent Scholars
  • Four-month NEH Fellowships
  • Nine-month NEH Fellowships
  • Research Fellowships
• Due April 15
  • Research Fellowships

NEH Fellows have offices in the Consortium’s facility in Center City Philadelphia and have ready access to events and activities throughout Philadelphia’s vibrant academic and cultural communities. Research Fellows receive funding for reseach travel to Consortium member institutions and participate in Consortium activities online.

Emanuel Fellows are expected to participate in the Consortium online fellows' activities, and are welcome to be in residence at the Consortium but are not required to do so. Emanuel Fellows are not required to conduct research at Consortium collections.

When evaluating applications, the Consortium considers two primary criteria:

• All Fellowships: The potential to make significant contributions to scholarship: The significance of the project with respect to existing literature should be clearly explained.
• NEH and Research Fellowships: The appropriateness of the project to the collections of member institutions: The application form requires listing materials to be accessed in the collections of member institutions. If the requested items are available elsewhere or online, the application should explain why access to physical materials or variants at member institutions is required for the project. The best way to address this criterion is to contact the library and archive staff at the institutions you would like to visit for your research. Successful applications will demonstrate strong familiarity with member collections and make a compelling argument for the importance of those collections to the proposed project.

For further information, see How Fellows Are Selected.

Fellowship Opportunities

Emanuel Fellowships for Independent Scholars (Application deadline, December 15)

Emanuel Fellows will be awarded a stipend between $10,000 to $30,000 to be used for research in archives, oral history, or other research methods, travel for research, or time to write up research findings for an article, book, or other scholarly contributions in various formats or media. The stipend can also be used as income and salary support to provide time to conduct scholarship. Applicants must have received a Ph.D. or equivalent degree at least two years before the time of application, and may NOT be in a tenured or tenure track faculty position at a university or college nor enrolled as a student in any program of higher education. Scholars are eligible if they are independent or alternative academic scholars, meaning they have positions that do not have research expectations or offer institutional support for research in their area of expertise. They can be adjunct faculty, lecturers (if there is no research expectation), or unaffiliated with an educational institution. Applicants must be permanent residents or citizens of the United States. The Emanuel Fellowship may not be held concurrently with any position that would violate eligibility for applying as described above.

NEH Fellowships (Application deadline on December 15)

The Consortium’s NEH Fellows receive a monthly stipend of $5,000 ($45,000 for nine months and $20,000 for four months). Fellows are expected to spend their fellowship months at the Consortium facilities in Philadelphia, participate in our events and conduct research at two or more Consortium member institutions. The Consortium’s NEH Fellowships are available to scholars who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Applicants must have a Ph.D., or have completed by the application deadline all requirements for a Ph.D. except for the actual conferral of the degree. Additional funding is available for research travel to the collections of Consortium member institutions.

Research Fellowships (Application deadline on April 15 and December 15)

Research Fellowships are for scholars who would like to conduct research in the collections of two or more Consortium member institutions. Research Fellows will be awarded a stipend of $1,000 plus $750 for use of each collection, $425 if the collection is less than 100 miles from another collection for which a stipend has already been awarded. Fellows typically receive between $2,500 and $5,000 depending on number and locations of collections used.

How to Apply

Late applications will not normally be accepted.

All Fellowships: Applications must include

• an abstract limited to 150 words
• a single PDF file, single-spaced, in Times New Roman font, no smaller than 11 pt type with at least 1” margins:
    -  Curriculum Vitae, limited to 3 pages
    -  project description explaining the research project and how it will advance scholarship in the history of science, technology or medicine, limited to 6 pages
    -  references cited in the project description, limited to 2 pages
• contact information for two recognized scholars who will be asked to submit letters of recommendation. We will send instructions to these scholars upon receipt of an application, but applicants should let their recommenders know to have a letter ready for submission. Letters are due 15 days after the application deadline

Emanuel Fellowships: The project description must include

• the amount requested and a description of how the stipend will be used
• the dates during which the fellowship will be undertaken
• a description of the product or outcome of the fellowship

NEH and Research Fellowships: These fellowships require use of at least two Consortium member institutions' collections

• must include the specific collections they wish to use, and are strongly encouraged to determine relevance of collections to their projects before applying by searching online catalogs and contacting librarians and archivists at member institutions. Applicants can search most members collections through a single interface on the Consortium's website.

Please contact info@chstm.org with any questions regarding fellowships.