The John Carter Brown Library
The John Carter Brown Library, an independently funded and administered institution for advanced research in history and the humanities located on the campus of Brown University, will award approximately 25 Research Fellowships for the year June 1, 2000-May 31, 2001. 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 $1,200 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 Charles H. Watts Memorial Fellowship, the Barbara S. Mosbacher Fellowship, the Helen Watson Buckner Memorial Fellowship, 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 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 William Reese Company Fellowship is for the study of American bibliography and the history of the book in the Americas; the Alexander O. Vietor Memorial Fellowship is for research in early maritime history; Center for New World Comparative Studies Fellowships are available for scholars engaged in research with a definite comparative dimension; Maria Elena Cassiet Fellowships are restricted to scholars who are permanent residents of countries in Spanish America; and 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.
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, an independent agency of the U.S. Federal government, and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Long-Term Fellowships are for five to nine months (with a stipend of $2,800 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 Long-Term Fellowships must be American citizens or have been resident in the United States for the three years immediately preceding the term of the Fellowship. Graduate students are not eligible for Long-Term Fellowships. The Lampadia-Adams Fellowship, carrying a stipend of $20,000 for five months in residence, is restricted to senior scholars from Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.
General Application Information
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. Preference may be given to applicants free to take up the Fellowship during the course of the academic year, September to May.
Applications for all Fellowships and grants will be evaluated by committees consisting of members of the Brown University Faculty Liaison Committee to the Library and the National Advisory Council of the Library. Fellowships and grants 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.
Application forms may be obtained from the Director, John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Providence, RI 02912. To request application forms by e-mail, messages should be sent to [email protected]. The deadline for submission of applications is January 15, 2000; envelopes must be postmarked no later than that date. Announcements of Fellowship awards will be made before March 15, 2000.
Information about the John Carter Brown Library
The John Carter Brown Library is an outstanding collection of primary materials relating to virtually all aspects of the discovery, exploration, settlement, and development of the New World. From its beginnings in 1846, when the eminent collector John Carter Brown began to concentrate on the early history of the Americas, the Library has grown to include 54,000 printed books, major collections of maps and prints, and a large number of manuscript codices (archival manuscripts, however, generally fall outside the Library’s collecting policy). While terminal dates vary from area to area, the collections range from the late fifteenth century to about 1825, when direct European involvement in American affairs came to an end. Approximately 20 percent of the collection consists of books printed before 1700. Because the focus is thematic as well as regional and chronological, the Library’s holdings are useful for the study of subjects that cross conventional boundaries. The following survey, by no means exhaustive, suggests some applications of these resources.
The original European travel narratives concerning both North and South America, from the early Spanish chronicles onwards, are substantially complete and form the point of departure for the collections. Numerous works dealing with native Americans in North and South America, including both printed and manuscript items in Indian languages, offer opportunities for research in anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. A wide range of colonial architecture books, prints on American themes, and English cartoons and caricatures from the eighteenth century are available to art historians, while the art of book illustration over four centuries and other essentially bibliographical subjects may be studied throughout the collections. Economic history is widely represented in works illustrating the impact of the Americas on economic theory, commerce, investment, landholding, monetary policies, taxations, and labor. A large group of cosmographical and geographical works, atlases, and maps offers unusual opportunities for research in the history of geography and cartography. Maritime history is also one of the Library’s specialties. The Library holds early editions of literary works on New World themes by English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, and Dutch authors. Numerous legal works reflect the response of European legal systems to the growth of overseas empires and in particular deal with the development of international law. A major collection centers on the adaptation of religion and religious institutions to the New World, with particular strength in works concerning the activities of the Franciscans, the Jesuits, and other missionary orders, and of Puritans and Anglicans in New England. An important group of works on natural history records the appearance of American plants and their use as food and medicine.
These primary materials are supported by a large bibliographical reference collection and are extended by the collections of the Brown University Libraries, all of which are open to John Carter Brown Library Fellows.
For further information, applicants may consult the Library’s publications concerning its collections, available in most large research libraries or for sale directly from the John Carter Brown Library.
Website: http://www.JCBL.org
William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University
The Clements Research Fellowship in Southwest Studies
The Carl B. and Florence E. King Research Fellowship in Southwestern History
The Summerfield-Roberts Research Fellowship in Texas History
The William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies in the Department of History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas (http://www.smu.edu/~swcenter) welcomes applications for three research fellowships: the Clements Research Fellowship in Southwest Studies, open to individuals in any field in the humanities or social sciences doing research on Southwestern America; the Carl B. and Florence E. King Research Fellowship in Southwestern History; and the Summerfield-Roberts Research Fellowship in Texas History. The fellowships are designed to provide time for senior or junior scholars to bring book-length manuscripts to completion.
Fellows would be expected to spend the 2000–2001 academic year at SMU, teach one course during the two-semester duration of the fellowship, and participate in Center activities. Each fellow will each receive the support of the Center and access to the extraordinary holdings of the DeGolyer Library. Fellowships carry a stipend of $30,000, health benefits, a modest allowance for research and travel expenses, and a subvention for the publication of the book.
Applicants should send two copies of their vita, a description of their research project, and a sample chapter or extract, and arrange to have letters of reference sent from three persons who can assess the significance of the work and the ability of the scholar to carry it out. Send applications to David J. Weber, Director, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Department of History, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0176.
Applications must be received by January 14, 2000. The award will be announced on March 2, 2000. Applicants need not specify the fellowship for which they are applying. This announcement contains all the information necessary to complete the application process.
Southern Methodist University will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or veteran status.
The Clements-DeGolyer Library Grants
The William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies offers an annual grant to encourage broader and more intensive use of the special collections at DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University. The DeGolyer Library consists of almost 100,000 titles; 300,000 photographs; and approximately 4,000 linear feet of archival materials pertaining to the trans-Mississippi West, the Spanish Borderlands, and the history of transportation (especially railroads). This collection represents one of the best of its type in the nation.
Terms of the Award
The Clements-DeGolyer Library Grant is awarded to facilitate scholarly research on any aspect of the Southwestern experience on an uninterrupted basis in the DeGolyer Library. Either a stipend of $400 a week for a maximum of four weeks, or an in-kind award of up to four weeks’ lodging in the Clements Center’s campus apartment, assists in covering the costs of living away from home, travel, and research materials. The length of the award will be for a period of one to four weeks. The stipend is offered independently of salaries and other awards. Recipients are expected to conduct their research primarily at the DeGolyer. Applicants should live outside the Dallas and Fort Worth metropolitan area, beyond reasonable commuting distance.
In general stipends are awarded to individuals who have demonstrated in one manner or another excellent qualifications as revealed primarily through previous publications (to a degree commensurate with their age, profession, and experience).
Obligations of the Grant
In accepting an offer, a scholar will assume three obligations: to consult with DeGolyer Library staff about resources for research in their area of specialization; to recommend research materials not represented in the library that would help meet its mission and collection development policy and to deliver an informal lecture or seminar talk describing the topic being researched.
Applications and Deadlines
In preparing an application, individuals should include an outline of the project, indicating in particular its pertinence to the DeGolyer Library and the length of time expected to be spent at the DeGolyer; a curriculum vitae; and two letters of reference from persons who can assess the significance of the project and the scholarship record of the applicant.
Deadlines for applications are March 15 and September 15; awards are announced April 1 and October 1. For further information, please contact Jane Elder, Associate Director, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0176, (214) 768-3684; fax: (214) 768-4129, e-mail: [email protected].
The William P. Clements Prize for the Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America 1999
The William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University announces the creation of the William P. Clements Prize for the Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America, to promote and recognize fine writing and original research on the American Southwest. The competition is open to any non-fiction book,
including biography, on any aspect of Southwestern life, past or present, with a 1999 copyright. The author need not be a citizen or resident of the United States; the book need not be published in the United States. The author and publisher will each receive a certificate; in addition, the author will receive one thousand dollars, and an invitation to give the annual Clements Prize Lecture at Southern Methodist University, expenses to be paid by the Clements Center. There is no fee for participation. Publishers may submit as many titles as they wish, but must send copies of each submission to each of the judges. Submissions must be postmarked by January 21, 2000, although earlier submission is preferable. For further information, contact Jane Elder at the address given above.
Clements Prize Judges: David Farmer (committe chair) DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0369; Patricia Limerick, 2000, Department of History, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309; Thomas Sheridan, 2000-1, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721; and Sylvia Rodriguez, 2000-2, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131.
Website: http://www.smu.edu/~swcenter