Fellowships

Fellowships

Through its fellowship programs, the Starr Center supports innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to the American past – especially by fostering the art of written history. Visiting fellows find a place where they can retreat from daily responsibilities and focus on their writing projects – but also where they are stimulated by interactions with students, faculty, and distinguished visitors.

Fellowships

Description: Staff & Faculty Fellowships are to be awarded to college staff and faculty who generate and/or engage Chesapeake Heartland materials while also collaborating with local community partners. Digitization and interpretation efforts might take shape within courses, research projects, student activities and events, interpretive workshops, exhibits, public humanities programs, site visits, collaborations with local public schools, and other experiential and service learning opportunities. Toward the end of the year, each fellow will make a presentation along with other fellows, community members, and project stakeholders. Proposed projects should be collaborative and the proposed budget should reflect such collaboration: fellows may apply for up to $5,000 for the entire project, of which a maximum of $3,000 can be applied to an individual stipend with the remainder covering additional project costs including wages and stipends for collaborators. Fellows will serve as project managers and work closely with the Starr Center to administer and track expenses.

Timeline: Application due January 10, 2020. Awards announced by February 1, 2020.

Eligibility: Staff and/or faculty of Washington College, including adjunct faculty and retired faculty and staff. Fellows may also include staff and/or faculty from other educational institutions who partner with faculty and staff from Washington College. To learn more about the Chesapeake Heartland’s mission and goals, please see the FAQ document.

Application Materials:

1. A Completed application form, including a project summary, biographical sketch, description of collaborators, timeline, budget, list of deliverables, and statement of goals.

2. Letters of support and/or commitment from collaborators.
Washington College Faculty should include a letter of support from their department chair.
Washington College Staff should include a letter of support from their supervisor.

Evaluation Considerations (while a project proposal does not need to satisfy all of the criteria below, it should seek to achieve some combination of the following):

• Digitizes and interprets African American history and culture in Kent County, MD
• Emphasizes community-led interpretation
• Cultivates a collaborative process (with a budget that reflects such collaboration)
• Builds toward a public-facing event
• Produces a work of written reflection
• Strengthens local schools and/or nonprofits
• Fosters cross-generational mentorship and interracial conversation
• Engages, employs, and trains local teenagers
• Focuses not only on injustice and activism, but also daily life experiences
• Shows an understanding of Chesapeake Heartland’s mission
• Seeks support from those with relevant experience
• Outlines clear deliverables within a feasible timeline and budget

Questions: Questions may be emailed to Airlee Ringgold Johnson at ajohnson23@washcoll.edu.

Description: Community Curation Fellowships will allow smaller organizations, community groups, artists, teachers, and mentors to develop public humanities projects and programs. Digitization and interpretation efforts might take the form of workshops, events, exhibits, documentaries, concerts, and performances. Toward the end of the year, each fellow will make a presentation along with other fellows, community members, and project stakeholders. Proposed projects should be collaborative and the proposed budget should reflect such collaboration: fellows may apply for up to $5,000 for the entire project, of which a maximum of $3,000 can be applied to an individual stipend with the remainder covering additional project costs including wages and stipends for collaborators. Fellows will serve as project managers and work closely with the Starr Center to administer and track expenses.

Timeline: Applications due January 10, 2020. Awards announced by February 1, 2020.

Eligibility: Project must include substantial collaboration with Kent County community members, groups, and/or institutions. To learn more about the Chesapeake Heartland’s mission and goals, please see the FAQ document.

Application Materials:

1) A completed application form, completed application form, including a project summary, biographical sketch, description of collaborators, timeline, budget, list of deliverables, and statement of goals;

2) Letters of support and/or commitment from collaborators.

Evaluation Considerations (while a project proposal does not need to satisfy all of the criteria below, it should seek to achieve some combination of the following):

Digitizes and interprets African American history and culture in Kent County, MD
Emphasizes community-led interpretation
Highlights a collaborative process (with a budget that reflects such collaboration)
Builds toward a public-facing event
Cultivates a work of written reflection
Strengthens local schools and/or nonprofits
Fosters cross-generational mentorship and interracial conversation
Engages, employs, and trains local teenagers
Focuses on daily life experiences in addition to injustice and activism
Promotes an understanding of Chesapeake Heartland’s mission
Seeks support from those with relevant experience
Outlines clear deliverables within a feasible timeline and budget

Questions: Questions may be emailed to Airlee Ringgold Johnson at ajohnson23@washcoll.edu.

The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience invites applications for its full-time residential writing fellowship, which supports outstanding writing on American history and culture by both scholars and nonacademic authors. The deadline for applications for the 2020-2021 Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship has been extended until November 15, 2019.

The Center’s Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship includes a $45,000 stipend, health benefits, faculty privileges, a book allowance, and a nine-month residency (during the academic year 2020-2021) in historic Chestertown, Md.

Applicants should have a significant book-length project currently in progress. The project should address the history and/or legacy – broadly defined – of the American Revolution and the nation’s founding ideas. It might focus on the founding era itself, or on the myriad ways the questions that preoccupied the nation’s founders 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. We encourage a broad reading of such terms as “founders” and “founding ideas.”

For information on how to apply for a Patrick Henry Fellowship, click here .

Applications from published writers and established scholars are welcome. Questions may be directed to Assistant Director, JaJuan Johnson jjohnson24@washcoll.edu.

Deadline for the 2020-2021 fellowship is November 15, 2019.

Applications may be submitted via email in a single pdf document to: applications_starrcenter@washcoll.edu. All email correspondence must include applicant’s full name in the subject line.

To learn more about previous Patrick Henry Writing Fellows, please visit this page.

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.

The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the John Carter Brown Library invite applications for the Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Library Fellowship, a unique research and writing fellowship. The deadline for applications for the 2020-2021 fellowship is March 15, 2020.

The Hodson Trust - John Carter Brown Library Fellowship supports work by academics, independent scholars and writers working on significant projects relating to the literature, history, culture, or art of the Americas before 1830. Candidates with a U.S. history topic are strongly encouraged to concentrate on the period prior to 1801. The fellowship is also open to filmmakers, novelists, creative and performing artists, and others working on projects that draw on this period of history. Candidates are encouraged to consult the John Carter Brown Library’s collections online prior to submitting an application.

The fellowship award supports two months of research and two months of writing. The stipend is $5,000 per month for a total of $20,000, plus housing and university privileges. The research is conducted at the John Carter Brown Library on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The two-month writing period of the fellowship will be at the Starr Center at Washington College in Chestertown during the summer following the research term.

For information on how to apply for a Hodson Trust - John Carter Brown Library Fellowship, click here.

Questions may be directed to Jajuan Johnson, Starr Center Assistant Director at jjohnson24@washcoll.edu.

Deadline for applications is March 15, 2020. Applications must be submitted
via email in a single pdf document to applications_starrcenter@washcoll.edu
All email correspondence must include applicant’s full name in the subject line.

To learn more about past Hodson Trust - John Carter Brown Library Fellows, please visit this page.

For more information on the fellowships and the sponsor institutions, please visit starrcenter.washcoll.edu and www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library.

The Starr Center’s annual Frederick Douglass Visiting Fellowship brings to campus scholars, writers, musicians and others engaged in the study or interpretation of African-American history or a related field. The fellowship also offers Washington College students and faculty a chance to spend time with some of today’s leading thinkers in the arts and humanities.

Frederick Douglass Fellowships support the innovative research, development and implementation of collaborative public humanities programs on the history and culture of African-Americans and other underrepresented groups in the public humanities.

The author, activist, and diplomat Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), for whom the fellowships were named, was born in Talbot County, Maryland, about 30 miles south of Chestertown, and retained a deep attachment to the Eastern Shore until the end of his life. Frederick Douglass was a self-directed learner, organizer, and activist. He reached across race, class, gender, discipline and profession to produce scholarship with the public and for the public. He championed the humanity of diverse peoples across the globe including African-Americans, Native Americans, and women. He gave voice to the voiceless, speaking out for them when he had to, but perhaps more importantly, creating platforms for them to project their voices. Therefore, Frederick Douglass Fellowships seek to support projects focused on the history and humanity of underrepresented communities and cultures.

Established through a generous gift from Maurice Meslans and Margaret Holyfield of St. Louis, the annual Frederick Douglass Visiting Fellowship brings to campus established scholars, writers, musicians, artists and others engaged in the study or interpretation of African American history or a field related to underrepresented cultures. The fellowship offers Washington College students and faculty a chance to spend time with some of today’s leading thinkers in the arts and humanities.

Fellowship funds are awarded to leading cultural scholars engaged in the creative process and practice of public humanities that shed new perspectives on underrepresented communities and cultures. Generally, funds support up to five days in residence at Washington College. During their residency, fellowship recipients work side-by-side with Washington College students to lead workshops, conduct research, and create collaborative projects culminating in a public presentation or performance . The Starr Center does not accept unsolicited applications for this fellowship.

To make possible independent learning experiences that take students beyond the classroom, the Starr Center disburses more than $50,000 in stipends each year to Washington College undergraduates.

The Explore America summer internships place students at some of the nation’s leading cultural institutions, and the Frederick Douglass Fellowships support collaborative public history research in African-American studies and related fields. Fellows’ projects have included:

conducting oral history interviews on the black labor experience in Kent County.
assisting with the curation of a major Smithsonian exhibition.
following in the footsteps of August Wilson in Pittsburgh.
discovering 18th century fashion trends.
cataloguing early maps and travel accounts of Brazil and Peru.