Photo Credit: Maria Baranova.

The fellowship programs at Bard Graduate Center are designed to further the institution’s goal of promoting research in the areas of decorative arts, design history, and material culture—what we call the “cultural history of the material world.” We offer a number of fellowship opportunities for researchers working in these and allied areas. See below for details regarding specific fellowships. For questions, please contact [email protected].

Bard Graduate Center Research Fellowships

Bard Graduate Center invites scholars from university, museum, and independent backgrounds with a PhD or equivalent professional experience to apply for funded research fellowships, to be held during the 2019–20 academic year. The theme for this period is “Whose story?” Applications due November 1, 2018.

Bard Graduate Center Visiting Fellowships

Bard Graduate Center invites scholars from university, museum, and independent backgrounds with a PhD or equivalent professional experience to apply for non-stipendiary visiting fellowships, to be held during the 2019–20 academic year. The theme for this period is “Whose story?” Applications due February 1, 2019.

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Islamic Art and Material Culture

Bard Graduate Center in New York City invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in Islamic art and material culture. Our ideal candidate is a scholar with a broad background in Islamic art, archaeology, and cultural history. Applications due January 15, 2019.

Bard Graduate Center/AMNH Fellowship in Museum Anthropology

A two-year postdoctoral fellowship jointly appointed at Bard Graduate Center and in the Anthropology Division and the Richard Gilder Graduate School of the American Museum of Natural History. The fellow focuses on a specific project that utilizes the collection at the AMNH. We are not currently accepting applications for this fellowship.

Conservation as a Human Science Fellowship (CHS): New York/Amsterdam

A one-year fellowship jointly appointed at Bard Graduate Center and the Conservation & Scientific Research Department of the Rijksmuseum This fellowship is focused on developing the idea that conservation practice is a human science. We are not currently accepting applications for this fellowship.

Fellowship Programs FAQ

What kinds of fellowships for visiting scholars does Bard Graduate Center offer?

Bard Graduate Center currently has four types of fellowships, each of which has different responsibilities, application requirements, and lengths of appointment:

Bard Graduate Center Research Fellowship
Bard Graduate Center Visiting Fellowship
Bard Graduate Center/AMNH Fellowship in Museum Anthropology
Conservation as a Human Science Fellowship (CHS)

How can I find out about fellowship opportunities at Bard Graduate Center?

Application information for our various fellowships is posted on the Bard Graduate Center website and on the job search pages of professional organizations in the humanities, such as H-Net. Dates and requirements vary from position to position and from year to year.

How are the fellowships decided?

A committee comprised of Bard Graduate Center faculty selects all

Is housing available?

Yes, depending on circumstances. Those interested in housing should indicate this in their application.

What kinds of additional things might a fellow be asked to do at Bard Graduate Center?

Fellows are expected to participate in the intellectual life of Bard Graduate Center by attending special academic events (Seminars, Symposia, Brown Bag Lunches, and Work-in-Progress Seminars), by making themselves available for informal meetings with students and faculty who are interested in their work, and by giving a presentation on their research to the Bard Graduate Center community on a mutually agreed-upon date.

If I plan to remain employed elsewhere during the time of the fellowship, am I eligible to apply for this award to augment my current responsibilities? May I hold this fellowship and still be employed full-time or part-time elsewhere?

The Bard Graduate Center/AMNH Fellowship in Museum Anthropology and the Conservation as a Human Science Fellowship (CHS): New York/Amsterdam are full-time academic appointments.

Bard Graduate Center Visiting and Research Fellowships are meant for scholars who are on leave to do research full-time. They are not intended to augment another position or be an additional award for someone who intends to teach or work elsewhere during the period of the fellowship.

Bard Graduate Center 2018-19 Fellows
Eduardo A. Escobar
Institute on the Formation of Knowledge, University of Chicago
Visiting Fellow, September 2018

Hadley Jensen
Bard Graduate Center / American Museum of Natural History Postdoctoral Fellow in Museum Anthropology, Fall 2018–Summer 2021

Yeewan Koon
University of Hong Kong
Fulbright Fellow, January–July 2019
Liat Naeh
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Research Fellow, October–December 2018

Sandy Ng
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design
Visiting Fellow, February 2019

Megan E. O’Neil
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Research Fellow, March–May 2019

Vera-Simone Schulz
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
Research Fellow, November 2018–January 2019

Jenny H. Shaffer
New York University
Visiting Fellow, September–October 2018

Daniel H. Usner
Vanderbilt University
Research Fellow, March–May 2019

Past Bard Graduate Center Fellows

Past Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows

Alicia Boswell (Fall 2016–Summer 2018 )
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Jessica Walthew Fall 2016–Summer 2017 )
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Stephanie Su
(Fall 2015–Summer 2016)
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Vera A. Solovyeva (Fall 2015–Summer 2016)
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Gabrielle Berlinger (Fall 2013–Summer 2015)
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Hanna Hölling (Fall 2013–Summer 2015)
Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Professor, Cultures of Conservation

Past Bard Graduate Center/AMNH Fellows in Museum Anthropology

Urmila Mohan
Fall 2016–Summer 2018

Shawn C. Rowlands

Fall 2014–Summer 2016

Nicola Sharratt
Fall 2012–Summer 2014

Erin Hasinoff
Fall 2010–Summer 2012

Aaron Glass
Fall 2008–Summer 2010

Past Bard Graduate Center Research Fellows

Visa Immonen
University of Turku, Finland
April–May 2018

Jeffrey Moser
Brown University
February–April 2018

Mark Salber Phillips
Carleton University, Ottawa
January 2018

Corinne Thépaut-Cabasset
Château de Versailles; Centre for Textile Research/SAXO Institute at the University of Copenhagen
October–November 2017

Amanda Wunder
City University of New York
September–December 2017

Christina Anderson
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
November–December 2016

Malcolm Baker
University of California, Riverside
September–October 2016

Henry John Drewal
University of Wisconsin-Madison
May–August 2017

Pat Kirkham
Bard Graduate Center; Kingston University, London
September–December 2016

Jeffrey Quilter
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
February–April 2017

Brendan Dooley
University College Cork, Ireland
September 2015; November–December 2015

Haidy Geismar
University College London
September–December 2015

Susanne Ebbinghaus
Harvard Art Museums
January–March 2016

K.L.H Wells
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
June–August 2016

Jilly Traganou
Parsons The New School for Design
September 2014–June 2015

Barbara Karl
MAK-Museum für angewandte Kunst/Gegenwartskunst, Vienna
October–November 2014

Ruggero Longo
Università della Tuscia, Viterbo
December 2014–January 2015

Georgios Boudalis
Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki, Greece
February–May 2015

Amy Lonetree
University of California, Santa Cruz
June–July 2015

Past Bard Graduate Center Visiting Fellows

Fabio Barry
Stanford University
September–December 2017

Jeanette Lynes
University of Saskatchewan
November–December 2017

Elizabeth Rodini
Johns Hopkins University
January–May 2018

Olaya Sanfuentes
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
June–July 2018

Otto von Busch
Parsons School of Design, The New School
February–May 2018

Paula Sofia Hohti
November–December 2016
Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki

Maggie Jackson
September–October 2016
Independent Scholar

Tobias Locker
May 2016
Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona

Beth H. Piatote
September–November 2016
University of California, Berkeley

Stephanie Sadre-Orafai
April–June 2017
University of Cincinnati

Uthara Suvrathan
January–May 2017
Independent Scholar

Tian Chun
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
September–December 2015

Matthew Dennis
University of Oregon
April–June 2016

Daniel Hershenzon
University of Connecticut
October–December 2014

Steven Leuthold
Northern Michigan University
October–November 2014

Richard Taws
University College London
October–December 2014

Anne Kraatz
Independent Scholar
November 2014

Céline Ventura Teixeira
University of Paris-Sorbonne
May–June 2014

Alison Clarke
University of Applied Arts, Vienna
April–May 2014

Monica L. Smith
University of California, Los Angeles
March–June 2014

Joseph Sciorra
Queens College, City University of New York
February–June 2014

Wolfgang Brückle
University of Zürich
January–February 2014

D. Graham Burnett
Princeton University
September 2013–June 2014

Susannah Fisher
Hunter College
September 2013–March 2014

Sean Leatherbury
University of Oxford
September 2013–March 2014

Alison Goodrum
Manchester Metropolitan University
November 2013–January 2014

Hannah Rogers
Cornell University
September–December 2013

Rikke Baggesen
Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen
March–April 2013

Sarah Lepinksi
Bryn Mawr College
October 2012–May 2013

Other Past Fellows

Carol Yinghua Lu
Melbourne University
ARIAH East Asia Fellow, July–September 2017