The M. C. Lang Fellowship in Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching with Historical Sources is a two-year program designed to animate humanities teaching and equip educators with tools to enlarge their students’ historical sensibilities through bibliographically informed instruction with original historical sources.
The goal of this program is to re-seed American colleges and small universities with humanities teachers who make maximal use of special collections resources in their undergraduate courses, so that the integration of bibliographical and book-historical sensibilities becomes woven into the fabric of such teaching. Lang Fellows are encouraged to enlist others on and near their campuses who could help create a community of practice, so that book-historical humanities teaching with original primary sources is not merely a matter of individual style but rather a central aspect of the local educational culture.
Eligibility
The Lang Fellowship is open to full-time tenured faculty, full-time tenure-track faculty who have passed the third-year review, or full-time library/curatorial staff members at liberal arts colleges and small universities in the United States (i.e., institutions that have 5,000 or fewer undergraduates and do not grant any humanities doctorates).
The following classes of applicants are ineligible for this fellowship program:
- Individuals based at institutions located outside the United States
- Individuals employed by universities that award earned doctorates (exceptions will be made for institutions that only offer doctorates in fields outside the humanities, such as medical fields, law, and education)
- Anyone who has previously taken more than two Rare Book School courses, or who has taken RBS course H-90: Teaching the History of the Book
- Past or present members of RBS’s full-time, year-round staff
Application Process
Applications for the Lang Fellowship have closed, but check back for more information about when applications will open again.
Requirements and Expectations
The Lang Fellowship includes the following components:
Two Rare Book School Courses
Each fellow will take a sequence of two intensive, hands-on Rare Book School courses, including an introductory course, “Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching,” required of all participants during their first year. In the second year of their fellowship, Lang Fellows will choose an elective course from the extensive RBS course offerings, in consultation with the Executive Director, the Director of Programs & Education, and the Admissions Officer. Fellows’ tuition for their two RBS courses will be waived. However, Fellows electing to take courses online must ensure that their total number of credit hours is equivalent to one in-person course and then be completed within one fiscal year. The fellowship includes up to $1,500 annually for travel, housing, course books, and other costs related to the fellow’s RBS course attendance.
Available Matching Funds
Fellows will be eligible to apply for matching funds of up to $1,000 per year of the fellowship to help improve their own teaching, create student-learning experiences, build book-historical culture on campus, foster book-related public outreach programs, or organize an event to raise awareness about humanities teaching with original textual artifacts. Collaboration with other parties (departments, the library, deans, faculty, collectors, local artisans of the book, &c.) is encouraged.
Previous Winners
2026
- Kevin Bourque, Associate Professor of English at Elon University
- Margaret Garnett, Special Collections Librarian at Susquehanna University
- Timothy Helwig, Professor of English at Furman University
- John Kinkade, Professor of English at Centre College
- Zhenzhen Lu, Assistant Professor of Chinese at Bates College
- Holly Pickett, Professor and Department Head of English at Washington and Lee University
- Olivia Rouse, Special Collections Librarian at the University of Puget Sound
- Jennifer Shook, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Dance, & Performance Studies at Grinnell College
- George Shuffelton, Professor of English at Carleton College
- Colleen Stockmann, Assistant Professor of Art History at Gustavus Adolphus College
2025
- Jessica Brown, Associate Professor of English at Adams State University
- Jennifer Camden, Professor and Associate Chair of English at the University of Indianapolis
- Hannah Crummé, Head of Special Collections at Lewis & Clark College
- Kristi DiClemente, Associate Professor and Chair of History at Mississippi University for Women
- Louise Lobello, Special Collections Librarian at Franklin & Marshall College
- Kimberly Monroe, Assistant Professor at Trinity Washington University
- Virginia Moran, Special Collections Librarian at Macalester College
- Deborah Solomon, Associate Professor and Chair of East Asian History at Otterbein University
- Jamie Taylor, Professor at Bryn Mawr College
- Jennifer Thomas, Book Arts Program Director at the University of Richmond
2024
- Jenny Bledsoe, Assistant Professor of English at Northeastern State University
- Jessica Boyer, Director of the Library at Mount St. Mary’s University
- Matt Crow, Associate Professor of History and Law and Society at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
- Richard Gibson, Professor of English at Wheaton College
- Katherine Graber, Special Collections Librarian at Wheaton College
- Mary Ashburn Miller, Professor of History & Humanities at Reed College
- Amanda Nelson, Dietrich Family Associate University Librarian for Unique Collections at Wesleyan University
- Rebecca Orozco, Instructor of Library Data Services & Research at the United States Air Force Academy
- Lindsay Shannon, Associate Professor of Art History at North Central College
- Erik Simpson, Professor of English and Rosenthal Professor of Humanities at Grinnell College
2023
- Jenny Barker-Devine, Professor of History at Illinois College
- Antonio Barrenechea, Professor of English at the University of Mary Washington
- Xena Becker, Special Collections Librarian at Colgate University
- Rebecca Bramlett, Special Collections Librarian at Gould Library, Carleton College
- Amy Fisher, Associate Professor of History of Science and Technology at the University of Puget Sound
- Karen Gross, Professor of English at Lewis & Clark College
- Hannah Hudson, Associate Professor of English at Suffolk University
- Erin Schoneveld, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages & Cultures and Visual Studies at Haverford College
- Jane Wessel, Assistant Professor of English at the United States Naval Academy
- Xiuying Zou, Head of Asian Library at the Claremont Colleges
2022
- Francesco Marco Aresu, Assistant Professor of Italian and Medieval Studies at Wesleyan University
- Piers Brown, Associate Professor of English at Kenyon College
- Jessica Dandona, Professor of Art History at Minneapolis College of Art and Design
- Colleen Hoelscher, Special Collections Librarian at Coates Library, Trinity University
- Priti Joshi, Professor of English at University of Puget Sound
- Ellen Joyce, Associate Professor of History at Beloit College
- Jennifer Kinniff, Head of Archives and Special Collections at Loyola Notre Dame Library
- Jared Richman, Associate Professor of English at Colorado College
- Eric Stoykovich, Manuscript Librarian and College Archivist at Trinity College
- Christine Woody, Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing, Widener University
2021
- Marta Ameri, Assistant Professor in the Art Department at Colby College
- Alexander Bevilacqua, Assistant Professor of History at Williams College
- Tess Chakkalakal, Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Africana Studies and English, and Program Director of Africana Studies at Bowdoin College
- Jason Cohen, Associate Professor of English at Berea College
- Eurie Dahn, Associate Professor of English at The College of Saint Rose
- Marlowe Daly-Galeano, Associate Professor of English at Lewis-Clark State College
- Jordana Dym, Professor of History and Director of the Program in Latin American and Latinx Studies at Skidmore College
- Susan Falciani Maldonado, Special Collections and Archives Librarian at Muhlenberg College
- Sara Swanson, Assistant Director for Archives, Special Collections & Community at Davidson College
- Micaela Terronez, Assistant Librarian for Special Collections at Knox College
2020 (inaugural cohort)
- Margaret Boyle, Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Bowdoin College
- Bartholomew Brinkman, Associate Professor of English at Framingham State University
- Caleb Dance, Assistant Professor of Classics at Washington and Lee University
- Berton Emerson, Assistant Professor of English at Whitworth University
- Jacob Heil, Digital Scholarship Librarian at the College of Wooster
- Anne Peale, Special Collections Librarian at Williams College
- Jillian Sparks, Librarian for Special Collections and Archives Instruction at St. Olaf College
- Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, Special Collections Education and Outreach Librarian at Bowdoin College
- Lynda Yankaskas, Associate Professor of History at Muhlenberg College
- Beth Zinsli, Curator and Assistant Professor of Art History at Lawrence University