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THE JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY will award approximately thirty Research Fellowships for the year June 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009. Sponsorship of research at the John Carter Brown Library is reserved exclusively for scholars whose work is centered on the colonial history of the Americas, North and South, including all aspects of the European, African, and Native American involvement.

Fellowships are of two types:

Short-Term Fellowships
Regular John Carter Brown Library Fellowships are available for periods of two to four months and carry a stipend of $2,000 per month. These Fellowships are open to Americans and foreign nationals who are engaged in pre- or post-doctoral, or independent, research. Graduate students must have passed their preliminary or general examinations at the time of application.

The stipends of many of the Fellows each year are paid out of restricted funds generously donated to the Library for this purpose:

• The Paul W. McQuillen Memorial Fellowship, the Alice E. Adams Fellowship, the Charles H. Watts Memorial Fellowship, the Barbara S. Mosbacher Fellowship, the Helen Watson Buckner Memorial Fellowship, the Norman Fiering Fund, and the Library Associates Fellowship are open to scholars in any area of research related to the Library’s holdings.

• The Jeannette D. Black Memorial Fellowship is for research in the history of cartography or a closely related area.

• The William Reese Company Fellowship is for research in bibliography and the history of printing.

• The Ruth and Lincoln Ekstrom Fellowship is for research on the history of women and the family in the Americas prior to 1825, including the question of cultural influences on gender formation.

• The Alexander O. Vietor Memorial Fellowship and the Marie L. and William R. Hartland Fellowship focus on research in early maritime history.

• Center for New World Comparative Studies Fellowships are available for scholars engaged in research in the comparative history of the colonial Americas.

• Maria Elena Cassiet Fellowships are restricted to scholars who are permanent residents of countries in Spanish America.

• The Maury A. Bromsen Fellowship is focused on colonial Spanish American history.

• The Touro National Heritage Trust Fellowship is for research on some aspect of the Jewish experience in the New World before 1825.

• The nine-month J. M. Stuart Fellowship is reserved for a graduate student at Brown University.

The foregoing list is intended to suggest areas of research on colonial America that may benefit from the use of JCB materials. Applicants should not, however, apply for a grant in a specific Fellowship category. All short-term applications are reveiwed as a group without reference to these categories.

A few Fellowships-without-stipend will be offered every year to highly qualified applicants. Scholars interested in this option must go through the normal application procedure.

Long-Term Fellowships
The Library will also receive applications for 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, by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and by the InterAmericas Fellowship which supports research on the history of the West Indies and the Caribbean basin. The R. David Parsons Fellowship supports the study of the history of exploration and discovery.

Long-Term Fellowships are for five to ten months (with a stipend of $4,000 per month). The term for these Fellowships will typically begin between June 1 and July 15 or between January 15 and March 15. Applicants for NEH Long-Term Fellowships must be American citizens or have been resident in the United States for the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. Graduate students are not eligible for Long-Term Fellowships.

Recipients of all Fellowships are expected to relocate to Providence and to be in continuous residence at the John Carter Brown Library for the entire term of the award. Those living within commuting distance of the Library (approximately 45 miles distant) are ordinarily not eligible for JCB Fellowships.

Applications for all Fellowships will be evaluated by independent academic committees. Fellowships will be awarded on the basis of the applicant’s scholarly qualifications, the merits and significance of the project, and the particular need that the holdings of the John Carter Brown Library will fill in the development of the project. A good guide to the spectrum of research supported by the JCB is the list of “Publications by Fellows.”

Application forms can be downloaded from the Fellowship Applications page or they may be obtained by writing to the Director, John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Providence, RI 02912.