2026-2027 Beinecke Library Short-term Research Fellowships

Description

The Beinecke Library Fellowship Program offers, on a competitive basis, short-term fellowships to facilitate research projects that substantively engage with Yale Library Special Collections materials. This application is open to academic and independent scholars, locally and globally, who would like to apply for funding to support up to two months of onsite research with the collections. We welcome applications from all interested researchers, regardless of their institutional association, race, cultural background, ability, sexual orientation, gender, or socioeconomic status. Applications from scholars utilizing traditional methods of archival and bibliographic research are encouraged as are applications from individuals who wish to pursue creative, interdisciplinary, and non-traditional approaches to conducting research in the collections.

The application opens on June 2, 2025 and closes on July 31, 2025.

Applicants will be notified of all decisions by January 31, 2026.

Research must be conducted between June 1, 2026 and May 31, 2027. We are unable to defer awards.

For more information, visit: https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/programs/fellowships/short-term-research-fellowships

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 Research Fellowships for Graduate Students. 

 

Application Instructions

All materials must be received by the deadline. Applicants are required to submit the following:

• An application form
• A curriculum vitae (3 pages max)
• A research proposal (1,000 words max) that outlines:
  • 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 fellowship period and in relation to the 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 the materials in Quicksearch and/or Archives at Yale. If you anticipate consulting oversize materials (broadsides, posters, maps, etc.), please indicate those clearly in your list.
• One confidential letter of recommendation that speaks to the impact of your research on your field and the centrality of accessing the collections to this 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

LUX – a new search tool that looks across Yale’s cultural heritage collections (please note only Yale University Library materials are eligible for fellowship funding).

Questions about the application process can be sent to beinecke.fellowships@yale.edu. Questions about collections materials can be sent to beinecke.library@yale.edu. For any technical difficulties, contact Interfolio directly for assistance.

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The University is committed to basing judgments concerning the admission, education, and employment of individuals upon their qualifications and abilities and seeks to attract to its faculty, staff, and student body qualified persons from a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives.  In accordance with this policy and as delineated by federal and Connecticut law, Yale does not discriminate in admissions, educational programs, or employment against any individual on account of that individual’s sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, disability, status as a special disabled veteran, veteran of the Vietnam era or other covered veteran.