Fellowship Application

The application for the 2024 cycle is currently available. Please submit your materials by December 15, 2023.

Application Details

• A current Curriculum Vitae of no more than six pages. 
• A project proposal, consisting of
  • An abstract of no more than 300 words describing the significance of the project to the selection committee which consists of humanities scholars with wide areas of expertise.
  • A research proposal of no more than 1,500 words. This document should include in roughly equal parts:
    • A description of the project and its significance with specific reference to published scholarship in the field that will be influenced, revised, or supplanted by the proposed project.
    • A rationale for the use of the Booth Family Special Collections Center.
      • This rationale should include specific reference to the parts of the collection the applicant wishes to use and an outline of the applicant’s plan of work. 
      • The applicant should provide an approximate research schedule for the four weeks of the award’s residency that encompasses 160 total hours of research in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area, including at least 80 hours specifically in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections.
      • If the materials applicants plan to consult are also available online or elsewhere, they should explain how access to physical materials at the Booth Family Center would be advantageous to their research.
  • A one-page, selective bibliography providing:
    • A list of the most pertinent scholarly literature on the research subject and
    • A list of the specific collection(s) the applicant expects to work with.
• Letters of recommendation (2)
  • Letters are required for doctoral candidates and optional for post-doctoral applicants.
    • The applications of doctoral candidates will not be evaluated until both letters have been received via Interfolio.
    • Post-doctoral applicants may opt out of submitting letters. In lieu thereof their scholarly publications (in the c.v.) will then be examined with particular scrutiny.
      • The Interfolio system requires two names and email addresses. To opt-out, applicants should enter their own email in the first slot and the selection committee chair (David Collins, catholicstudies@georgetown.edu) in the second to signal the selection committee of their opt-out.
  • The confidential letters must be received by the application deadline via Interfolio (12/15/2023).

Letters of recommendation: 

• Each letter should address the qualities of the proposed project, the value of research at Georgetown University/BFCSC for the applicant, and the qualifications of the applicant. The more specifically the letter addresses the project at hand and the usefulness of the resources at Georgetown’s Special Collections, the more helpful it will be to the selection committee.
• Letters of recommendation should be written on institutional letterhead, establish the qualifications of the author, and include the recommender’s signature. 
• Letters must be submitted via Interfolio by the application deadline. Applicants are responsible for communicating the link and information about the fellowship program, including deadlines, to their recommenders. The selection committee will not accept letters by email or regular mail.

Frequently Asked Questions

What collections are available in the Lauinger Library?

Among the other collections, pertaining to Catholic organizations and institutions: 

• America magazine archives (1903-1995)
• Congregatio de Propaganda Fide Collection, far east section (1723-1746)
• American Teilhard Association Library

And there are numerous papers, including those of:

• Jesuits from the 17th to the 19th centuries, e.g., John Carroll, Patrick Healy, Peter Kenney, John McElroy, Jan Philip Roothaan, Pierre-Jean de Smet, et al.
• Jesuits from the 20^th century to the present, e.g., John LaFarge, John Courtney Murray, James Schall, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,  Edmund Walsh, Gustave Weigel, et al.
• Catholicism in Washington, D.C.: The archives of the Holy Trinity church, the papers of Horace McKenna S.J., etc.
• The papers of leading figures in 20th-century Catholic scholarship and public life include journalist and photographer Anna Brady, theologian Monika K. Hellwig, novelist Sr. Alma Regina, pundit and author Russell Shaw, and navigator Michael Richey.

The collections also include:

• The John Gilmary Shea library, which includes 5,000 printed items from the 16th to the 18th century and with an emphasis on the exploration of Canada and the Spanish Southwest.
• The John Gilmary Shea papers, which include a substantial body of original manuscripts, transcripts related to the early history of the Catholic Church in America, and original Civil War artists’ sketches, as well as extensive files dealing with Native American languages and cultures.
• Papers pertaining to Catholic literature and literary figures, e.g., the Kilmer Family Papers, Seumas MacManus papers (including letters by Ethna Carbery, Maud Gonne, Williamm Butler Yeats, and many others), Theodore Maynard Papers, Sister Miriam RSM papers, and collections of the papers of Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Christopher Sykes, Catherine Walston, and Shusaku Endo.
• The Sr. Mary Joseph, S.L., Gallery of Living Catholic Authors, a collection of manuscripts, letters, and other archivalia by and about over 600 20th-century Catholic authors globally, including Julian Green, Mary Lavin, and Josephine Ward.
• The Catherine Walston Papers, which includes over a thousand letters from Graham Greene to Catherine Walston and original manuscripts of two novels she helped inspire: The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair.

For the study of Catholicism, other archives in the vicinity include the U.S. National Archives and the Special Collections at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis, and the Archives of the Archdiocese of Baltimore at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.

What should my Letters of Recommendation include?

• Each letter should address the qualities of the proposed project, the value of research at Georgetown University/BFCSC for the applicant, and the qualifications of the applicant. The more specifically the letter addresses the project at hand and the usefulness of the resources at Georgetown’s Special Collections, the more helpful it will be to the selection committee.
• Letters of recommendation should be written on institutional letterhead, establish the qualifications of the author, and include the recommender’s signature. 
• Letters must be submitted via Interfolio by the application deadline. Applicants are responsible for communicating the link and information about the fellowship program, including deadlines, to their recommenders. The selection committee will not accept letters by email or regular mail.

Whom can I reach out to with more detailed questions?

• About Special Collections: specialcollections@georgetown.edu
• About the Fellowship: catholicstudies@georgetown.edu