Opportunities for Historians
Fellowships
Call for Applications: The Herbert D. Katz Center at the University of Pennsylvania 2020–21 Fellowships
DEADLINE: September 23, 2019
The Herbert D. Katz Center at the University of Pennsylvania is now accepting applications for the 2020–2021 academic year on the theme of America’s Jewish Questions.
Over the past four decades, the methods, questions, and sources guiding the study of Jews in the United States have changed vastly even as the central narrative of American Jewish history has shifted only gradually. In particular, the story that "America is different"—that American Jewish experience has been marked by success and progress in contrast to the narrative sweep of European Jewish history—has remained entrenched in scholarship about American Jews.
New attention to the diversity of Jewish practices, politics, and peoples, at home and abroad, compels us to reconsider many of the basic assumptions and concepts that have shaped the study of American Jews. This fellowship year promises multiple entry points into some of the most pressing debates within U.S. history and Jewish history, and intersects with vital questions shaping Jewish cultural studies, literary theory, and social scientific inquiry. Even as the recent rise of anti-Semitism and the emerging challenges to Zionism in the United States have been sources for contemporary Jewish debate, broader trends in Jewish scholarship over the last two decades also suggest the need for critical reinterpretations of American Jewish culture and community.
In an effort to make the most of this moment, the Katz Center invites applications from scholars pursuing research that revises, reframes, or expands our understanding of American Jews, their history, religious life, politics, culture, and experience. Possible topics may include but are not limited to:
- nationalism and sovereignty in globalizing contexts
- religious experimentation and innovation
- civil society and the state
- constructions of gender, sexuality, and race
- systems of jurisprudence and economics
- aesthetic and cultural expression
- linguistics
- mobility, migrations, urbanism, and Jewish life in unexpected places.
The fellowship year aims to be in conversation with developments beyond Jewish studies, and applications are welcome from scholars whose work crosses national or religious boundaries and who explore the complex connections that American Jews created throughout Europe, Latin America, Palestine/Israel, and other parts of the world. The Center also welcomes projects that engage in public scholarship or that seek to communicate to new audiences in new ways.
The Katz Center’s goal is to support individual projects, but it aims as well to encourage intellectual community, which means the ideal applicant will be one willing to learn from and work with scholars from other disciplines or focused on other periods, or animated by different approaches.
Additional Opportunity: Israel Institute Fellowship
With funding from the Israel Institute and in partnership with Penn’s Jewish Studies Program, the Katz Center is offering an additional opportunity for a teaching fellowship in 2020–2021 for Israeli scholars. The recipient will be a full participant in the Center’s fellowship program, and will teach one undergraduate course per semester on an Israel-related subject. Scholars doing work that explores American-Israeli relations, Jewish American responses to Israel, the role of Americans in Israel or other related topics are particularly welcome to apply. To be eligible for the Israel Institute/Katz Center fellowship applicants must be Israeli citizens with a PhD in a field or subject related to modern Israel and/or who is currently employed at an Israeli institution of higher learning or research center. Applicants to this fellowship are required to submit a sample syllabus along with a statement of past teaching experience and teaching style.
Fellowship Eligibility
The Katz Center invites applications from scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts at all levels. Applicants must hold a PhD or expect to receive their degree no later than the start date of the fellowship. The fellowship is open to all scholars, national and international, who meet application terms. International scholars are appointed under a J-1 visa only (Research Scholar status). No exceptions can be made, and the Katz Center reserves the right to cancel awards if the recipient is unable to meet this condition. Applicants should consult the international programs office at their current university to confirm eligibility before applying for this fellowship.
Fellowship Requirements
Fellows are required to spend the term of the fellowship in residence in Philadelphia at the Katz Center and are expected to pursue their proposed research projects while at the Center. The Center’s requirements are residency in Philadelphia, attendance of weekly lunches on Mondays and weekly seminars on Wednesdays, one seminar presentation, as well as full participation in fellow-conceived colloquia and symposiums, among other special events. Fellows are provided with an office, computing and printing access, as well as administrative assistance and full library privileges to the University of Pennsylvania library system, including book delivery.
Application deadline is September 23, 2019
Fellowship recipients will be notified in March 2020
Posted: August 26, 2019
Tagged: Fellowships
Call for Applications: The National Humanities Center 2020–21 Residential Fellowship Program
DEADLINE: October 10, 2019
The National Humanities Center invites applications for academic-year or one-semester residential fellowships. Mid-career, senior, and emerging scholars with a strong record of peer-reviewed work from all areas of the humanities are encouraged to apply.
Scholars from all parts of the globe are eligible; stipends and travel expenses are provided. Will offer up to 40 residential fellowships for advanced study in the humanities for the period of September 2020 through May 2021. Fellowship applicants must have a PhD or equivalent scholarly credentials. Fellowships are supported by the Center’s own endowment, private foundation grants, contributions from alumni and friends, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Located in the vibrant Research Triangle region of North Carolina, the Center affords access to the rich cultural and intellectual communities supported by the area’s research institutes, universities, and dynamic arts scene. Fellows enjoy private studies, in-house dining, and superb library services that deliver all research materials.
Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. ET, October 10, 2019.
Posted: August 26, 2019
Tagged: Fellowships
Library Company of Philadelphia: Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, 2020–2021
DEADLINE: November 1, 2019
National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellowships support research in residence at the Library Company on any subject relevant to its collections, which are capable of supporting research in a variety of fields and disciplines relating to the history of America and the Atlantic world from the 17th through the 19th centuries. NEH Fellowships are for individuals who have completed their formal professional training. Consequently, degree candidates and individuals seeking support for work in pursuit of a degree are not eligible to hold NEH-supported fellowships. Advanced degree candidates must have completed all requirements, except for the actual conferral of the degree, by the application deadline, November 1, 2019. Foreign nationals are not eligible to apply unless they have lived in the United States for the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. NEH fellowships are tenable for four to nine months. The stipend is $5,000 per month.
Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) Post-Doctoral Fellowships support research in the collections of the Library Company and other nearby institutions into the origins and development of the early American economy, broadly conceived, to roughly 1850. The fellowships provide scholars the opportunity to investigate the history of commerce, finance, technology, manufacturing, agriculture, internal improvements, economic policymaking, and other topics. Applicants may be citizens of any country, and they must hold a Ph.D. by September 1, 2020. The stipend is $40,000 for the academic year, or if the award is divided between two scholars, $20,000 per semester.
Senior scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. The Library Company’s Cassatt House fellows’ residence offers rooms at reasonable rates, along with a kitchen, common room, and offices with internet access, available to resident and non-resident fellows at all hours. All post-doctoral fellowships are tenable from September 1, 2020, through May 31, 2021, and fellows must be in continuously in residence in the Philadelphia area for the duration of their fellowships.
The deadline for receipt of application is November 1, 2019, with a decision to be made by December 15. Make just one application; you will automatically be considered for all the fellowships for which you are eligible.
To apply, click here>>
Please fill out an online coversheet and upload a single PDF containing a brief résumé, a two- to four-page description of your proposed research, and a writing sample of no more than 25 pages. In addition, two confidential letters of recommendation should be submitted online in PDF format using the form provided on the application page. Candidates are strongly encouraged to inquire about the appropriateness of the proposed topic before applying.
For more information about the NEH award, contact James Green via telephone (215) 546-3181 or e-mail jgreen@librarycompany.org.
For more information about the PEAES award, email Cathy Matson at cmatson@udel.edu.
Posted: August 26, 2019
Tagged: Fellowships
