The American Philosophical Society’s Library & Museum invites applications from mid-career or senior scholars in all fields seeking sabbatical support for the completion of a book project. These opportunities are funded by The National Endowment for the Humanities and provide six or twelve months of research support in the Society’s collections for persons who have already completed their formal professional training. 

The APS's Library & Museum’s collections make it among the premier institutions for documenting and exhibiting the history of the American Revolution and founding, the history of science from Newton to NASA, and Indigenous languages and cultures. The Society’s collections include more than 14 million pages of manuscripts, 275,000 bound volumes , 250,000 images, thousands of hours of audio tape, and 3,360 three-dimensional artifacts and fine art objects. It is home to three research centers: the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR), which has worked with over 80 Native American and Indigenous communities since 2014; the Center for Digital Scholarship, which interprets and expands access to APS collections through digital projects and open source data; and the David Center for the American Revolution, a partnership with the David Library of the American Revolution that formed a new research center for the American Revolution at the APS and brought the David Library’s collection of Revolutionary-era manuscripts, hundreds of rare books and pamphlets, 8,000 reference volumes, and 9,000 reels of microfilm to Philadelphia.

Comprehensive, searchable guides and finding aids to our collections are available online at www.amphilsoc.org/library and http://amphilsoc.pastperfectonline.com/.

APS-NEH fellows are expected to be in regular and continuous residence at the Society. They must devote full time to their study and may not accept teaching assignments or undertake any other major activities during the tenure of their award. Fellows may hold other major fellowships or grants during fellowship tenure, in addition to sabbaticals and supplemental grants from their own institutions. Other NEH-funded grants may be held serially, but not concurrently.

The fellowship pays a stipend of $5,000 a month.

Eligibility:

NEH fellowships are for persons who have already completed their formal professional training. Degree candidates and persons seeking support for work in pursuit of a degree may not hold APS-NEH fellowships. Candidates for advanced degrees must have completed all requirements, except for the actual conferral of the degree, by the application deadline for the fellowship. This includes the dissertation defense. Foreign nationals who have been residents in the United States for at least three years immediately preceding the application deadline for the fellowship are eligible. Mid-career and senior scholars are encouraged to apply.

APS Fellows are selected on the basis of the applicant's scholarly qualifications, the scholarly significance or importance of the project, and the appropriateness of the proposed study to the Society's collections.

Application Instructions:

All application materials will be submitted online via Interfolio (https://apply.interfolio.com/116133). Applicants will submit:

• C.V.;
• Research proposal describing work to be undertaken during the fellowship term (2-4 pages);
• Writing sample or sample chapter (no more than 25 pages double-spaced);
• Two letters of reference in support of the project and applicant

Deadline: February 3, 2023 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

This fellowship has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.