New York Public Library Residential Fellowships at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers

Each year’s Fellows are chosen from a large field of applicants by a careful process of review and selection. Fellows from all over the United States and abroad work at the Center for a term that runs from September through May. The Selection Committee looks for diversity in gender, race, and age, seeking talented young writers and scholars as well as those with established reputations. The principal criteria for acceptance are the excellence of the applicant’s previous work and the significance of the new project’s need for sustained access to The New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences research collections.

Scope

The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers offers fellowships to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street (formerly the Humanities and Social Sciences Library). Renowned for the extraordinary comprehensiveness of its collections, the Library is one of the world's preeminent resources for study in anthropology, art, geography, history, languages and literature, philosophy, politics, popular culture, psychology, religion, sociology, and sports.

Criteria and Terms

The Cullman Center’s Selection Committee awards up to 15 fellowships a year to outstanding scholars and writers – academics, independent scholars, journalists, and creative writers. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply. Candidates who need to work primarily in The New York Public Library's other research libraries – The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Science, Industry and Business Library – are not eligible for this fellowship, nor are people seeking funding for research leading directly to a degree.

The Cullman Center looks for top-quality writing from academics as well as from creative writers and independent scholars. It aims to promote dynamic communication about literature and scholarship at the very highest level – within the Center, in public forums throughout the Library, and in the Fellows’ published work.

A Cullman Center Fellow receives a stipend of up to $65,000, an office, a computer, and full access to the Library's physical and electronic resources. Fellows work at the Center for the duration of the fellowship term, which runs from September through May. Each Fellow gives a talk over lunch on current work-in-progress to the other Fellows and to a wide range of invited guests, and may be asked to take part in other programs at The New York Public Library.

The New York Public Library/American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships

The Center may give up to five fellowships a year in conjunction with the American Council of Learned Societies. Candidates for joint fellowships must submit separate applications to The New York Public Library and to the American Council of Learned Societies. For information regarding ACLS eligibility requirements and an ACLS application, please visit the ACLS website, www.acls.org/programs/comps.

Competition Deadline

The deadline for the 2013-2014 CSW fellowship is September 28, 2012. Please click here for the online application.