2025-2026 Walter O. Evans Fellowship for the Study of Slavery or Race
Yale UniversityAbout the role
Description
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in conjunction with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery and Abolition (GLC) at the MacMillan Center at Yale University is pleased to invite applications for a one-semester post-doctoral fellowship in honor of Walter O. Evans to study the American or global experience of slavery or race in the fall of 2024 or spring of 2025. The fellowship will support scholars who wish to use any of the Walter O. Evans collections, including the Evans Collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers, the Evans Collection of James Baldwin, and the Evans Collection of Ollie Harrington. The fellowship is also open to researchers interested in other collections related to race in the Beinecke Library or at any of Yale University Library’s other special collections repositories, including the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters, the Yale Collection of Western Americana, and the Early Modern and Modern Collections.
The fellowship program aims to facilitate research in Yale’s special collections by the broadest possible group of researchers, regardless of institutional association, race, cultural background, ability, sexual orientation, gender, or socioeconomic status. We welcome applications from scholars utilizing traditional methods of archival and bibliographic research as well as from individuals who wish to pursue creative, interdisciplinary, and non-traditional approaches to conducting research in the collections.
The application opens on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
The application closes on Monday, January 6, 2025.
The fellowship must be conducted either in the fall 2025 semester or the spring 2026 semester.
For more information, visit: https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/programs/fellowships/walter-o-evans-fellowship-study-slavery-or-race
COVID Advisory Note
Our ability to award fellowships to visiting researchers will be dependent on public health conditions and university guidelines. Current library policies can be viewed on the University library’s website.
Qualifications
- Applicants cannot be enrolled in a degree program at the time of their fellowship.
- Students currently enrolled in degree-granting programs should apply to the graduate student fellowship program.
- Note: Applicants to the Evans Fellowship may also apply to the Short-Term Research Fellowship. You may use the same materials for both applications. For your letter of recommendation, request that your recommender submit a letter to each application.
Application Instructions
All materials must be received by the deadline of January 6, 2025. Applicants are required to submit the following materials through Interfolio:
- An application form
- A curriculum vitae (3 pages max)
- A travel budget for up to $5,000 additional funding for travel, accommodations, and/or travel to do research in other repositories beyond Yale (optional)
- A research proposal (1,200 words max) that explains in detail:
- Significance of the proposed collections research to your larger project
- Value of your project to your field
- Feasibility of completing the scope of research proposed within the proposed timeline and reading room rules
- A detailed list of materials to be examined during your fellowship, including call numbers, collection names and boxes, and any other bibliographic information available. Also include links to the description of materials in Orbis, Quicksearch, and/or Archives at Yale. If you anticipate consulting oversize materials (broadsides, posters, maps, etc.), please indicate those clearly in your list.
- Two confidential letters of recommendation that speak to the impact of your research on your field and the centrality of accessing the collections for your project.
To assist with your application, you may consult these search tools:
- Archives at Yale-- a database of descriptions of archival collections (also known as finding aids)
- Quicksearch – a search tool that looks at multiple sources, including printed books, manuscripts, and archives
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