Each year the Folger Institute awards research fellowships to create a high-powered, multidisciplinary community of inquiry. This community of researchers may come from different fields, and their projects may find different kinds of expression. But our researchers share cognate interests in the history and literature, art and performance, philosophy, religion, and politics of the early modern world. The Folger Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library offers long-term fellowships for scholarly research and short-term fellowships for both scholarly and artistic research. For the 2024-25 year, applicants may request virtual, onsite, or hybrid residencies.

Long-term Fellowships

The Folger Institute offers five, long-term fellowships at $70,000 for the 2024-2025 academic year (approximately $7,777 per month, for a standard period of 9 months). These fellowships are designed to support full-time scholarly work on significant research projects that draw on the strengths of the Folger’s collections and programs.

Please note, for the 2024-25 fellowship year, long-term fellows will have the option to take up to 3 months of their 9-month fellowship virtually. This virtual time may be taken at any point in the fellowship and does not have to be taken concurrently. Applicants may propose any research schedule that best fits their project’s needs.

Submission guidelines

https://www.folger.edu/research/the-folger-institute/fellowships/apply-for-a-fellowship/long-term-fellowships/ 

The application portal for long-term fellowships is now open. All applications must be completed and submitted through our online portal by December 15, 2023. Applications will be reviewed by an external selection committee, which is comprised of new members each year. 

Please be sure to review the Fellowships FAQs page before applying.

To apply for a 2024–2025 Folger Long-term Scholarly Fellowship, please submit the following:

• 250-word abstract of your project.
• 1,500-word description of your project, placing particular emphasis upon the proposed topic’s importance, its relevance to the field, and the originality and sophistication of your approach. In addition to your proposed plan for work at the Folger, you must include a statement about your work plan and/or the proposed location(s) of any proposed virtual research, with a justification of why and how this virtual time will be useful to your research, thinking, and/or writing process.
• Two-page CV.
• One- to two-page list of primary sources, rare materials, or digital assets you wish to consult onsite during the residential portion of your fellowship at the Folger Library. This list will be used to help determine the viability of your project, as well as to assess the availability, condition, and conservation or exhibition status of the Folger’s collections.
• One letter of recommendation. You will identify your recommender in the online application portal. Your recommender will be contacted directly via the online portal and will be given guidance on how to upload their letter. Anyone is eligible to act as a recommender: artists, scholars, teachers, colleagues. We recognize that, due to continuing contractions in the humanities, we are all under unique and significant pressures. Letters of recommendation are very helpful to interdisciplinary selection committees as they work to understand how a project fits within its field. Applications may be disadvantaged, but they are not rendered ineligible or formally penalized if they are missing a letter of recommendation.

Please note, our ability to offer a residential component for our 2024-25 long-term, short-term, artistic fellowships is dependent upon the status of Covid-19. Unforeseen complications could alter or delay fellows’ ability to be on-site and could affect the period of residency. 

Selection modalities

The criteria stated in our application guidelines are the criteria set for review. Fellowship awards are determined by a committee made up of invited specialists and the professional staff of the Folger. Membership on the Folger fellowship selection committees changes each year. We seek to establish committees that reflect the disciplinary, geographic, gender, and status diversity of the applicant pool. All committee discussions are confidential. We do not share reviewers’ comments.

Short-term Fellowships

For the 2024-25 fellowship year, short-term fellows will have the option to take their fellowship fully onsite, fully virtual, or a combination of the two. Applicants may propose any research schedule that best fits their project’s needs.

Short-term fellowships support scholars whose work would benefit from significant primary research for one, two, or three months, with a monthly stipend of $4,000. These fellowships are designed to support a concentrated period of full-time work on research projects that draw on the strengths of the Folger’s collections and programs.

Submission guidelines

https://www.folger.edu/research/the-folger-institute/fellowships/apply-for-a-fellowship/short-term-fellowships/ 

The application portal for short-term scholarly fellowships is now open. All applications must be completed and submitted through our online portal by January 15, 2024. Applications will be reviewed by an external selection committee, which is comprised of new members each year. 

Please be sure to review the Fellowships FAQs page before applying.

To apply for a 2024–2025 Folger Short-term Scholarly Fellowship, please submit the following:

• 250-word abstract of your project.
• 1,500-word description of your project and the part of the project you plan to work on while in residence at the Folger as well as how this part of the project relates to the overall project. Please emphasize your proposed topic’s importance, its relevance to the field, and the originality and sophistication of your approach. Please be sure to indicate how many months of research you are applying for (1, 2, or 3 months), why that is an appropriate length of time, and how you will utilize each month (virtually and/or on site).
• Two-page CV.
• One-page list of relevant primary sources, rare materials, and/or digital assets you wish to consult during your fellowship.
• One letter of recommendation. You will identify your recommender in the online application portal. Your recommender will be contacted directly via the online portal and will be given guidance on how to upload their letter. Anyone is eligible to act as a recommender: artists, scholars, teachers, colleagues. We recognize that, due to continuing contractions in the humanities, we are all under unique and significant pressures. Letters of recommendation are very helpful to interdisciplinary selection committees as they work to understand how a project fits within its field. Applications may be disadvantaged, but they are not rendered ineligible or formally penalized if they are missing a letter of recommendation.

Please note, our ability to offer a residential component for our 2024-25 long-term, short-term, artistic fellowships is dependent upon the status of Covid-19. Unforeseen complications could alter or delay fellows’ ability to be on-site and could affect the period of residency. 

Selection modalities

The criteria stated in our application guidelines are the criteria set for review. Fellowship awards are determined by a committee made up of invited specialists and the professional staff of the Folger. Membership on the Folger fellowship selection committees changes each year. We seek to establish committees that reflect the disciplinary, geographic, gender, and status diversity of the applicant pool. All committee discussions are confidential. We do not share reviewers’ comments.

Artistic Research Fellowships

https://www.folger.edu/research/the-folger-institute/fellowships/apply-for-a-fellowship/artistic-research-fellowships/ 

Folger Institute Artistic Research Fellowships are open to all artists whose work would benefit from significant primary research related to the histories, concepts, art, and objects of the early modern world (ca. 1400-1800) and its legacies. Artistic applicants are not required to hold a formal degree, but should describe their training and level of industry-specific experience in their CV.

Artistic applicants may apply for one, two, or three months of research support, with a stipend of $4,000 per month, taken any time between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. For the 2024-25 fellowship year, artistic fellows will have the option to take fellowships fully onsite at the Folger, fully virtual, or a combination of the two. Applicants may propose the research schedule that best fits their project’s needs.

Submission guidelines

The application portal for Artistic Research Fellowships is now open. All applications must be completed and submitted through our online portal by January 15, 2024. Applications will be reviewed by an external selection committee, which is comprised of new members each year. 

Please be sure to review the Fellowships FAQs page before applying.

To apply for a 2024–2025 Artistic Research Fellowship, please submit the following:

• 250-word abstract of your project.
• 1,500-word description of your project and the part of the project you plan to work on while in residence at the Folger as well as how this part of the project relates to the overall project. Please emphasize your proposed topic’s importance, its relevance to the field, and the originality and sophistication of your approach. Please be sure to indicate how many months of research you are applying for (1, 2, or 3 months), why that is an appropriate length of time, and how you will utilize each month (virtually and/or on site).
• Two-page CV.
• One-page list of relevant Folger primary sources, rare materials, digital assets, and/or other resources you wish to consult during your fellowship.
• One letter of recommendation. You will identify your recommender in the online application portal and will be given guidance on how to upload their letter. Anyone is eligible to act as a recommender: artists, scholars, teachers, colleagues. We recognize that, due to continuing contractions in the humanities, we are all under unique and significant pressures. Letters of recommendation are very helpful to interdisciplinary selection committees as they work to understand how a project fits within its field. Applications may be disadvantaged, but they are not rendered ineligible or formally penalized if they are missing a letter of recommendation.
• If you feel that portfolio materials or a link to an online portfolio will help the selection committee to better understand your application, please upload them as one file through the application portal or provide a link to your online portfolio in your proposal. DO NOT upload portfolio materials that are unrelated to your proposed fellowship project. Providing portfolio materials is optional.

Please note, our ability to offer a residential component for our 2024-25 long-term, short-term, artistic fellowships is dependent upon the status of Covid-19. Unforeseen complications could alter or delay fellows’ ability to be on-site and could affect the period of residency. 

Selection modalities

To evaluate applications each year, the Fellowships Program assembles an external committee of respected artists, aiming for disciplinary, methodological, and geographical diversity. Committee membership changes annually. The committee is charged with evaluating applications based on the proposed project’s impact, its relevance to the field, the originality and sophistication of the artist’s approach, the feasibility of the artist’s research objectives, and their expected use of Folger resources and collections. Particular weight is accorded to the project’s impact, relevance, and approach. Furthermore, the Institute is committed to supporting work across artistic fields that address inequities or marginalized subjects, and that point to richer and more inclusive histories.