Application Guidelines

Applications are accepted electronically beginning on September 1, 2012. Long-term fellowship applications must be received by December 1, 2012. Short-term fellowship applications must be received by January 15, 2013. These deadlines include the applicant’s own materials and all letters of reference. Submissions must arrive electronically by 11:59 pm C.S.T. on the deadline.

The applicant’s own materials must be submitted together electronically through the Newberry website; this includes the completed Information Webform with attachments of the applicant’s Abstract, Project Description, and CV. We will not accept these application materials through email. The webform cannot be revised once it is submitted. It cannot be submitted partially; the form and all attachments must be submitted together.

Letters of reference may be submitted by the letter writer, through the Letter of Reference Webform or as email attachments. Letters cannot be submitted as attachments to the applicant’s other materials.

Please Note:

We will not accept applications which include any materials in excess of the Required Materials described in detail below.

Excessive materials include but are not limited to:

• Images (either embedded or in appendices)
• Abstract or project description exceeding the word limit
• Appendices/bibliography exceeding the word limit
• CVs longer than the five-page limit
• Personal cover letter
• Audio-visual materials

We cannot accept re-submissions of materials. Once an application or letter has been submitted, we will not accept a revision.

Required Materials:

See Eligibility and Application Information before beginning the application process.

Applicants must prepare all contact information and attachments (Required Materials, 1-4) before applying.

Unless otherwise specified in a fellowship description, an application consists of five elements:

1. The Information webform. This form asks for contact information, project information, and referee information. Scholars applying for both long- and short-term fellowships must complete both the long-term and the short-term applications, including information forms.
   Links to these webforms can be found at the bottom of this page.

   Frances C. Allen Fellowship or Susan Kelly Power and Helen Hornbeck Tanner Fellowship applicants must also submit a completed Supplementary form. The form can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. See Supplementary Form, below.

   Collaborative teams applying for the Newberry Short-Term Resident Fellowship for Individual Research: collaborating applicants must each submit a completed Information webform and CV; only one of the collaborating scholars should submit the Abstract and Project Description. When completing the Information form, each collaborating scholar must select both the Newberry Library Short-Term Fellowship and NLST Fellowship-Collaborative boxes from the fellowship options. The Project Description should include all those elements required for individual applications but must also speak to the nature of the collaboration, including why the Newberry is an essential location for the collaborative work. The application should include ony one set of three Letters of Reference.

2. A Project Abstract of no more than 300 words. The abstract must communicate the significance of the project to reviewers who are humanities scholars but may not be specialists in the area of inquiry.
3. A Project Description of no more than 1,500 words. It consists of two parts, divided approximately as follows:
   • Description of the project and its significance (approximately 1,000 words). When appropriate, make specific reference to previously published scholarship that will be revised or supplanted by the proposed project.
   • Description of the specific Newberry materials to be consulted and an outline of the plan of work for the fellowship period (totaling approximately 500 words). Describe key archival holdings at the Newberry and elsewhere as well as key secondary sources that inform your project. Applicants for exchange fellowships must follow the specific instructions for those fellowships included in the descriptions of those awards.
4. A current Curriculum Vitae (CV) of no more than five pages. Please list manuscript pages or word counts for forthcoming publications and use the following commonly-accepted terms to describe them:
   • “submitted” (currently under review at a journal or press)
   • “accepted” (publisher committed to publication; currently under revision)
   • “in press” (in the hands of copy editor, typesetter, or printer)
   • “in progress” (not yet completed or submitted)
5. Three Letters of Reference. These letters are required by the same deadline as all other application materials. Letters must come directly from the letter writer, not from the applicant. They must be submitted through the Letter of Reference Webform or emailed as attached files to research@newberry.org.
   Letters should speak to the proposed project as well as to the qualifications of the applicant. Please send your referees a copy of your project description and remind them of the application deadline. Letters that speak of the applicant’s project in specific terms are more effective than general letters from a dossier. The letters must be in English.
    
   École Nationale des Chartes Fellowship applicants must submit a fourth letter from their university certifying French language fluency.
   Lawrence Lipking Fellowship applicants need to submit only one letter of reference.

Instructions for Submitting Applications

Applicants must compile their applications electronically. An application cannot be submitted partially; the information form and all required attachments must be submitted together.
Please note that the Newberry email server cannot accept attachments larger than 10 MB.

1. Complete the Information webform; this will require personal contact information, professional information, and the name, email, and academic affiliation of each referee.
2. Using prompts from the webform, attach the following documents as separate documents using these corresponding file names: Abstract, Project Description, CV. PDF files are preferred but not required.
3. Each completed application will receive an electronically generated confirmation email. This email should be saved for your personal reference.
4. Contact referees regarding letters of reference. We require referees to send their letters electronically as attachments on institutional letterhead through our Letter of Reference Webform or emailed to research@newberry.org. We do not accept letters of reference that are sent in the body of an email.  Due to the large volume of applications we receive, we cannot notify applicants about missing letters. Applicants are responsible for making sure that their referees submit their letters by the deadline.

Fellowship Application Webforms

Click the following links to apply for long- or short-term fellowships. Please note that we will not accept an additional or amended application once an application has been submitted.

Long-Term fellowships application

Short-Term fellowships application

Letter of Reference (for use by letter writers only)

Supplementary Form

This form is required of applicants for the Frances C. Allen Fellowship or Susan Kelly Power and Helen Hornbeck Tanner Fellowship. Download this form, complete the required information, and upload it as an attachment to the Information webform with other application documents.