Science History Institute Nine-Month Dissertation Fellowship

With around 20 scholars in residence each year, the Science History Institute (Philadelphia, PA) is home to the largest private fellowship program in the historical study of science, medicine, and technology in the United States. Researchers travel from all over the world to use our collections and take part in a vibrant scholarly community.

The Institute’s primary collections focus is the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the modern life sciences. Our materials range chronologically from the 15th century to the present and include more than 7,000 rare books, significant archival holdings, thousands of images and other graphic materials, memorabilia of various kinds, oral histories, scientific instruments and artifacts, and a substantial fine art collection, supported by over 100,000 modern primary-source volumes and journals. Within the collections there are many areas of special strength of interest to historians of art, business and labor, and the environment, as well as historians of science, technology, and medicine and scholars in science and technology studies.

The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry offers dissertation fellowships, supporting nine months of full-time research and writing that will make use of the Institute collections. Fellows will participate in Beckman Center scholarly programs, including the Works in Progress writing group and Fellows’ Talks lecture series. Past research projects cover a wide variety of subjects: previous fellows have self-identified with environmental history, business and labor history, art history, and science and technology studies, among other fields.

Eligibility

Dissertation Fellowships are open to graduate students whose PhD dissertation proposals have been accepted by their respective university departments by the application deadline (January 15, 2024). Applicants may be citizens of any country.