Fellowships of $4,000 to USA, Canada, and International scholars holding a Ph.D. and artists pursuing research to conduct studies using the funding source's digital resource library. The purpose of the opportunity is to allow researchers to set aside designated research time without having to worry about other work obligations.
Virtual research fellowships are available for both scholarly and artistic projects. These fellowships support one month of work. They provide fellows with the resources and opportunities necessary to advance their research outside of the context of in-person work at the Folger. This can include but is not limited to support for time to write, access to digital resources, reproduction and permission fees for images of rare materials, time to organize notes and images, and a digital project. Fellowship funds may also support work-life balance such as childcare or summer course releases to facilitate research and writing.
Virtual Fellowships for Scholarly Research:
Applicants must make their own best cases for how a one-month virtual fellowship can provide vital support to pursue or advance their research. Here are some examples of scenarios an applicant might propose to use their fellowship funds:
- A researcher requests dedicated time to review and evaluate archival notes and images collected on previous research trips and will fund childcare in order to do so.
- A researcher requests dedicated time to research and write the final chapter of their manuscript without summer teaching obligations.
- A researcher requests time to conduct remote research with digitized materials available through the Folger and other online collections.
- An independent researcher needs to fund access to online databases.
- A researcher plans to create and/or curate digital resources for use in undergraduate classrooms.
- A researcher, working with a Folger digitized collection, requests time to examine these sources in detail, but must supplement adjunct teaching in order to do so.
- A researcher, unable to take up a residential research fellowship because they have small children, requests funds to pay for the digitization of or the reproduction and permission fees for images of rare materials so they might access them from home.
- A researcher with care-giving responsibilities requests time to revise and finalize their manuscript from home.
In all cases, fellowship funds are to support full-time work on a research project. Funds may be used to relieve personal and/or professional constraints to full-time research.
Virtual Fellowships for Artistic Research:
Virtual fellowships for artistic research are open to artists working in all media whose work would benefit from significant primary research and that is related to the histories, concepts, art, and objects of the early modern world. This includes, but is not limited to, visual artists, writers, dramaturgs, playwrights, performers, filmmakers, and composers. For context, here are some generalized examples from the 2022-23 cohort.
- An artist working with a Folger digitized manuscript requests funding to produce imagery inspired by that manuscript using innovative printing techniques as well as creating related performance art pieces.
- A visual artist requests funding to produce a series of paintings that explore mental illness in Tudor England.
- A filmmaker requests funding to write a script for a miniseries inspired by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
- A playwright requests funding to research and write a contemporary Latinx interpretation of a play by Shakespeare.
- An artist requests funding to produce performance art that explores the crossroads of scientific fact and speculative fiction in the early modern US.
- An artist requests funding to create a multi-media exhibit that explores Indigenous objectification in the early modern world and its continuation today.
- A writer requests funding to write longform poetry focused on constructs of gender in the early modern period.
