Howard Fellowships

The Howard Foundation awards a limited number of fellowships each year for independent projects in fields selected on a six-year rotation of topics. Appproximately ten fellowships will be awarded for 2009-2010 in the fields of

History and Philosophy

Stipends of $25,000 are awarded to support individuals working on specific research projects. Howard Fellowships may not be used to prepare exhibits or to support institutional programs. There are no residency requirements for individuals who receive awards. We are aware that departmental needs and leave patterns do not necessarily correspond to the Howard Foundation cycle of awards for individuals, and we are accordingly willing to grant awardees some flexibility in postponing the year in which they actually use their fellowships.

Sequence of Awards

Howard Fellowships are awarded in a six-year rotation of fields in the Liberal and Fine Arts, but please note that with its limited resources the Foundation has frequently been forced to redefine fields to maintain an applicant pool that can reasonably be handled by our small staff and that continues to offer applicants a reasonable chance of success. Even so, the ratio of applications to awards has sometimes exceeded 25 to one. The topic for the competition in a given year is set by the Board of Administration in the year before its announcement, and the topic for the 2010-2011 competition to be held next year will be Creative Writing in English: Fiction and Poetry. The topics for the four years prior to 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 were:

2005-2006
Literary Criticism, Film Criticism, and Translation (into English)

2006-2007
Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science

2007-2008
Visual Art, Media Studies, and the History of Art and Architecture

2008-2009
Music: Composition, Performance, Musicology
Playwriting and Theatre Studies

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to apply for a Howard Fellowship, candidates should be able to answer "yes" to each of the following questions. If "no" is the correct answer to any of them, they are asked to explain on the application form what special circumstances might make them eligible anyway, given the requirements for a Howard Fellowship.

Can your current professional status appropriately be viewed as “mid-career” as understood by the Howard Foundation? Appropriate candidates for a Howard Fellowship should have completed their formal studies within the past five to fifteen years and should also have successfully completed at least one major project beyond degree requirements that would be sufficient for the awarding of tenure at a research institution or for achieving comparable peer recognition. Candidates who are already nationally and internationally recognized leaders in their fields as reflected by their promotion to full professor or by comparable recognition in their fields of endeavor are not normally eligible for a Howard Fellowship.

Would a Howard Fellowship provide you with time off from other responsibilities to work on your proposed project? Our support is particularly intended to augment paid sabbatical leaves. In the case of independent artists and scholars, or those without paid leaves, we would expect that a Howard Fellowship would enable them to devote a substantial block of time to the proposed project.

Are you, regardless of your citizenship, professionally based in the United States either by affiliation with an institution or by residence? The Howard Foundation is unable to provide support for individuals living and working outside of the United States.

Does your proposed project fall within the fields established for this year's round of applications? Given the limits of our resources, we must adhere strictly to the fields announced each year for project proposals.

The Application Process

2008-2009: The competition for 2008-2009 awards in Music: Composition, Performance, Musicology as well as Playwriting and Theatre Studies has concluded, and fellowship recipients were announced on April 2, 2008.

2009-2010: Application materials for the 2009-2010 competition in History and Philosophy should be printed out and mailed to the Howard Foundation with a postmark dated not later than November 10, 2008. Please note that the two required copies of application materials should be placed in pocket folders.

Previous winners of Howard Fellowships can be viewed here.

History

The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation was established in 1952 by Nicea Howard in memory of her grandparents. Miss Howard had a special interest in furthering the personal development of promising individuals at the crucial middle stages of their careers in the liberal and creative arts.

Correspondence To:

Professor William C. Crossgrove
Administrative Director
or
Susan M. Clifford, Coordinator

The Howard Foundation
Brown University
Box 1945
Providence, RI 02912

Express Mail Address:

Brown University
The Howard Foundation
167 Angell St., Rm. 10, Lower Level
Providence, RI 02912

(401) 863-2640 voice
(401) 863-6280 fax

E-mail: Howard_Foundation@brown.edu

Web site: http://www.brown.edu/Howard_Foundation

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