Fellowships

There are a number of competitive fellowships available at Rare Book School with various requirements for eligibility. Please refer to the fellowship descriptions below for details.

RBS-Mellon Fellowships

In 2012, Rare Book School received a substantial grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography. The aim of this new program is to reinvigorate bibliographical studies by providing focused training and mentorship for doctoral candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in the humanities. Fellowships include three years of support for RBS course attendance and research-related travel. Forty fellows currently participate in the program; RBS will admit an additional twenty fellows in the spring of 2015. The application period for the 2014 cycle has now closed. See the RBS-Mellon Fellowship page for more information about the program and the current Mellon fellows.

IMLS-RBS Fellowships

Rare Book School received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through their Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program in March 2014. This grant will fund a fellowship program to help educate and contribute to the professional development of early-career special collections librarians, with a special emphasis on recruiting participants currently underrepresented in the field. Fellowships include funding to take a course at Rare Book School as well as to attend the annual conference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. The application period for the 2014 cycle has now closed. See the IMLS-RBS Fellowship page for more details.

RBS-UVA Fellowships

Thanks to a generous grant made possible by The Jefferson Trust, an initiative of the UVA Alumni Association, Rare Book School is pleased to offer a fellowship program for distinguished undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Virginia. RBS accepts applications annually for the fellowship program, offering full scholarships to attend RBS with the intention of advancing UVA student scholarship. Applications are due by 2 April 2015. See the RBS-UVA Fellowship page for more details.

RBS Fellowships

Rare Book School’s fellowship program began with the E. Ph. Goldschmidt Fellowship in 1995, followed in 1999 by the Reese Company and San Garde Fellowships, and in 2001 by the Ian Willison Fellowship.

Applications for these four fellowships are by invitation only, but RBS has a generous general scholarship program; see the RBS Scholarship page for details.