Potential Hosts

NOTE: The host application period for these fellowships is now closed. Any institutions interested in hosting 2020 Postdoctoral Fellows should consult the Academic Libraries fellowships described above.

These fellowships, which are supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, are for recent Ph.D.s with expertise in any aspect of African American and African Studies; salaries, a portion of fringe benefits, and educational benefits are fully funded through CLIR for selected hosts.

Fellowships are open to any specialty or domain related to African American and/or African Studies in which the Ph.D. is the terminal degree. For this program, we take an expansive and inclusive approach to the field of African American and African Studies in the interest of encouraging a variety of host institutions, scholars, and practitioners to participate in the fellowship program. We actively seek host partners prepared to support fellows who will engage in work that transcends the interests of single institutions, cultivating and strengthening inter-institutional partnerships in data curation that show genuine promise for outlasting the two-year fellowship term.

Data curation entails the organization, maintenance, and preservation of data relevant to African American and African Studies in a manner that assures its utility by providing appropriate context(s) for the data and facilitating its ethical reuse, often for diverse intellectual ends.

• Five two-year fellowships will begin at selected host institutions between June and September 2020. All new fellows must complete a week-long orientation seminar that will be held July 26 – August 1, 2020, at Bryn Mawr College.

• Fellows must have completed the Ph.D. within the five years preceding the fellowship appointment. Fellows’ research expertise must be in an area that relates to African American and/or African Studies.

• Host institutions may include any academic, independent, public, or government library, archive, or museum, or any partnership or consortium made up of the same, provided the organization has a demonstrable need of the fellow’s subject expertise to pursue a project or initiative commensurate with its mission and in alignment with this program’s goals.

• Salaries for these fellowships are set at $67,500 per year for two years. Benefits should be comparable to other academic staff at the host institution. Salary costs will be paid by CLIR to the host institution in semi-annual installments. A portion of the benefits costs ($20,250 per year for two years) will also be paid by CLIR to the host institution at the time of these installments. The host institution will be responsible for making up the difference between this portion and the full benefits package offered at the institution. CLIR will pay all costs for the fellow’s participation in program activities throughout the fellowship year (a $10,000 value), including all travel, room, and board costs for required program meetings held each summer and winter, as well as monthly online symposia. All additional costs related to the fellowship (such as recruitment costs, moving expenses, and indirect costs) are the responsibility of host institutions.

• Interested host applicants should review the 2019-2021 African American and African Studies Data Curation Postdoctoral Fellowship position descriptions that have been filled, here.

Applications to host the 2020-2022 Postdoctoral Fellows in Data Curation for African American and African Studies were due October 21, 2019, 11:59 pm US Eastern Time. An external review committee will select five host applications for funding in November 2019. Preference will be given to institutions that have not been selected previously to host Mellon-supported fellows through the CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. Apply here. [Application for these fellowships now closed.]