Opportunities
Fellowships are awarded to scholars to support dedicated research, either remotely or in residence, in the JCB’s collections. Fellowship awards include a stipend, which varies for short and long-term fellowships. Our fellows will need to pay significant attention to the administrative processes associated with visa sponsorship, health insurance, banking and other details (for international scholars in residence), and establishing a payment process (for all fellows, domestic and international, remote and residential). Please send questions about fellowships to Alyson Conroy, Fellowship Coordinator.
Long-term Fellowship
The John Carter Brown Library offers long-term fellowships, several of which are funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), an independent agency of the U.S. Federal government. Additional long-term fellowships have been made possible by Donald L. Saunders; R. David Parsons; and The Reed Foundation, which has endowed the InterAmericas Fellowship (for research on the history of the West Indies and the Caribbean basin). Applicants of all nationalities, however, will be considered for long-term fellowships; fellowships funded by the NEH are only available to citizens of the United States or to those applicants residing in the U.S. for the three years preceding application. Long term fellowships are open to researchers that have completed a PhD program, including the successful defense of their dissertation. Long-Term Fellowships are available for periods of five to ten months and carry a monthly stipend of $5,000. Long-term fellowships must be residential. The application for a long-term fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library is due December 19, 2024. Fellowships awarded for the 2025-2026 cohort are to be completed between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026.
The deadline for applications for this year has passed.
Short-term Fellowship
The John Carter Brown Library supports scholarship centered on the history of the colonial Americas, North and South, including all aspects of African, European, and Native American engagements in both global and comparative contexts. Short-term fellowships are open to individuals who are engaged in pre- and post-doctoral, or independent research, regardless of nationality. Short-term fellowships are available for periods of two to four consecutive months and carry a stipend of $2,500 per month. The JCB supports both residential and remote Short-term fellowships. The application for a short-term fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library is due December 19, 2024. Fellowships awarded for the 2025-2026 cohort are to be completed between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026.
The deadline for applications for this year has passed.
John Carter Brown Research Fellowship for Indigenous Communities
The John Carter Brown (JCB) Library, located on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, stewards a research collection focused on the histories and cultures of the Early Americas. The Library is free and open to the public with appointments required for research visits, and operates a robust fellowship program to support researchers across myriad research topics. The JCB invites tribal communities and community members to apply to its Research Fellowship for Indigenous Communities. This fellowship supports community-prioritized and community-based research that would benefit from research time in the JCB’s collections, that could be undertaken, for example, by Native or Indigenous scholars, Elders, Tribal librarians or archivists, and knowledge keepers.
Individual scholars may apply but must include a letter of support from the tribal community that will benefit from their research. Researchers do not need to have an academic affiliation or academic background to apply. Fellowship funding supports the JCB’s commitment to knowledge sharing and digital and on-site access to its collection of materials focused on the history of the western hemisphere from the 15th through the 19th centuries.
The Fellowship is available for periods of two to four months and includes a stipend of $2,500 per month. The JCB supports both residential and remote fellowships. Applications for this fellowship are accepted and awarded on a rolling basis.
A letter of support must come from a representative of the community that will directly benefit from the research project. The letter should include a description of researcher’s experience and interest in undertaking this work on behalf of the community.
Awards are open to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals who hold the necessary U.S. government documents. Successful proposals will require the use of materials available only at the JCB.
Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice and John Carter Brown Library Joint Fellowship
The John Carter Brown Library (JCB) and the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University (Simmons Center) invite applications for a postdoctoral fellowship focused on any area/theme of historical scholarship around African racial slavery, and/ or Indigenous dispossession and slavery. The fellowship is also open to scholars working on the relationships between African slavery and Indigenous slavery and dispossession as well as related issues of freedom and sovereignty. Combining the mission and resources of the Simmons Center and the JCB, we expect to support a single fellow doing advanced research for a year (12 months) in residence beginning July 2025. The Simmons Center-JCB postdoctoral fellowship is expected to be offered annually in recognition of our collective commitment to advance scholarship in critical areas. Applications representing a wide range of disciplinary perspectives are welcome.
The position salary is $72,000, includes benefits and a modest research account.
Applicants must have completed doctoral work by the time of application and should expect to submit a letter of application explaining how the combined resources of the Simmons Center and the JCB would provide particular and distinctive support to the applicants’ research. Fellows will be asked to participate in the intellectual community at Brown, in and through the Simmons Center and the JCB, to include an opportunity to share their research at a jointly sponsored event.
The application deadline for this opportunity has passed.
Brown University Opportunities
The J. M. Stuart Graduate Fellowship is open to Brown Ph.D. students in the Humanities or Social Sciences whose dissertation topic relates to the early history and culture of the Americas and whose research and writing would benefit from privileged and sustained access to the resources of the John Carter Brown Library. Stuart Fellows are full members of the international community of scholars in residence at the Library in any given year. In addition, although Stuart fellows are primarily engaged in dissertation research, a distinctive component of this fellowship is the opportunity to gain deeper scholarly command of the collections by working closely with leading curatorial experts on a Library project—such as an exhibition, publication, or website—germane to the fellow's area of interest.
The Stuart Fellow must have completed all preliminary exams and is expected to reside in Providence or nearby for the entire academic year in which the fellowship is awarded. Time contributed to work on the Library project, which is a requirement of the fellowship, should average around one day/week. The application for a Stuart fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library is due January 31, 2025.
The deadline for applications has been extended to February 7, 2025