The Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture offers several opportunities to engage with collections in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. UVA students are eligible for the Wolfe Fellowship. Only non-UVA students and scholars are eligible for the Taylor and Elwood Fellowships.
For UVA undergraduate students
The Harrison Institute’s Wolfe Undergraduate Fellowship Program offers UVA students an experiential fellowship in exhibition curation, design, and outreach. The fellowship program— sponsored by Mary Lacey Long Wolfe (College ’88) and her husband Michael—supports undergraduate students in projects that promote the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library’s collections and services to the wider University and central Virginia communities.
Wolfe Undergraduate Fellowships are offered periodically, typically to small cohorts of undergraduate students. These opportunities are advertised early in the Fall or Spring semesters on the Small Special Collections Library’s social media channels (@RareUVA). For more information, contact exhibitions@virginia.edu.
For non-UVA students and scholars
The Harrison Institute’s William A. Elwood Fellowship in Civil Rights and African American Studies supports research in the history of African Americans, in particular their struggle for equal rights. Relevant civil rights manuscript collections include the papers of activists Julian Bond and Sarah Patton Boyle; papers and records of organizations such as the Southern Student Organizing Committee and the Virginia Council on Human Relations; the Social Movements Collection covering various radical political organizations and social action groups; and many others.
The Harrison Institute’s Lillian Gary Taylor Fellowship in American Literature supports research in the literary works of authors residing in what is now the United States. Proposals may encompass any time period or genre, and may be bibliographical, biographical, critical, historical, or textual in focus. The Small Special Collections Library is home to one of the world’s most comprehensive holdings of American literature and literary manuscripts, including the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, the Taylor Collection of American Best-Sellers, and the papers of William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, and many other authors of note.
Key dates
- Application review begins March 31, 2025
- Applicants will be notified of a decision by April 30, 2025
Application
- Complete the application form.
- You will be required to upload the following: a proposal detailing your planned use of materials from the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.
- A current curriculum vitae
The details
- Successful applicants for both the Taylor Fellowship and the Elwood Fellowship will be awarded $2,500
- The funds must be spend between July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026.
- Research will be conducted in the Barrett Reading Room of the Small Special Collections Library.
- Within a year of the conclusion of their research, fellows should be prepared to provide a short virtual presentation on their research or write an essay that will be shared on Notes from Under Grounds, the Special Collections Library blog.
Eligibility
Fellowships are open to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals who live beyond a 60 mile radius of Charlottesville VA, and:
- have a PhD or equivalent degree,
- are doctoral students who have completed their coursework, or
- are independent scholars with a records of scholarly achievement.
Applications will be evaluated on:
- the research potential of the proposed project,
- its contribution to defined and emerging fields,
- relevance to our holdings, and
- candidate’s qualifications for engaging in the research.