Patrick Henry History Fellowship

The Center’s Patrick Henry History Fellowship includes a $45,000 stipend, health benefits, faculty privileges, a book allowance, and a nine-month residency (during the academic year) in a historic 18^th-century house in Chestertown, Md.

Applicants should have a significant project currently in progress — a book, film, oral history archive, podcast series, museum exhibition, or similar work. The project should address the history and/or legacy – broadly defined – of the U.S. founding era and/or the nation’s founding ideas. It might focus directly on early America, or on the myriad ways the questions that preoccupied the nation’s founding generation have shaped America’s later history. Work that contributes to ongoing national conversations about America’s past and present, with the potential to reach a wide public, is particularly sought.

Applications from published writers and established scholars are welcome. Dissertation projects will not be considered; first-book projects are likewise discouraged unless the applicant has an otherwise extensive publication history. Candidates who have completed the majority of their research and are focused on the writing phase of their projects are especially encouraged to apply. 

We encourage a broad reading of such terms as “founders” and “founding ideas.” Past fellowship topics have ranged as broadly as the early history of the slave trade, American religious minorities, and the LGBTQ rights movement.

 

2024-2025 Fellow: Dr. Lucy Maddox

Read About Past Patrick Henry Fellows

Applications for the 2025-2026 Patrick Henry Fellowship are now open. The deadline for submission is January 15, 2025.

More information about the application 

Email applications to: applications_starrcenter@washcoll.edu

Questions may be emailed to Chrissy Sinatra, Assistant Director for Communications and Outreach, at csinatra2FREEwashcoll.

 Support for the Starr Center Fellowships at Washington College comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Starr Foundation, the Hodson Trust, the Barksdale-Dabney-Patrick Henry Family Foundation, and other donors and friends. The Patrick Henry Fellowship is cosponsored by the Rose O’Neill Literary House.