For the fourth year, Special Collections and Archives will offer two 10-week summer fellowships for Furman undergraduates. These competitive fellowships will allow students to perform original research using materials in Special Collections and Archives for a research or creative project of their own design. In past years, Fellows have: transcribed medieval music manuscripts into modern musical notation; performed background research for a senior studio art installation; edited short films about Furman history; done historical research on South Carolina elections; and written a creative essay based on our collection of Hogarth prints. What will you propose to do?
The rare books, manuscripts, and archives housed in the Furman Libraries range across several centuries. Fellows will explore these collections and use them to work on a project that can be discipline-based, related to their major or minor fields of study, or to further their career goals and creative aspirations. Projects can be interdisciplinary or creative in nature, based on the skills, background, and demonstrated interests of applicants. Our collections are diverse and rich with cultural meaning, and we encourage Furman students to use them in the creation of new knowledge, art, or music.
Fellows will receive a summer stipend ($3,000) in addition to lodging on campus for the period of June 1 – August 15, 2020, and will be expected to be in residence during that time. While Fellows will work independently, it is expected that they have a faculty sponsor who can provide occasional advice and guidance (either on-site or remotely) during the fellowship period. Fellows will also work closely with the faculty and staff of the Furman Libraries during their time in residence.
Following its completion, Fellows will be expected to submit a short report on their fellowship experience and a copy of their completed project to be added to Special Collections and Archives and FUSE. They may also be asked to take part in a public presentation of their work for the Furman community during the fall semester following their fellowship and participate in Furman Engaged! in the spring.
Previous Student Research and Creative Fellowships:
2017 [see news story]
- Chrissy Hicks ’20, Music major and classicist, worked on our growing collection of medieval music manuscripts: studying the background of manuscript production, the uses of medieval written music, and looking closely at our manuscripts to confirm or expand their present descriptions and what we know about them.
- Emory Conetta ’18, an Art History and Studio Art double major who used our collection of Furman and Greenville Woman’s College scrapbooks from the early 20th century in a project that will study young women’s identity and practices of keeping and making memories, in Greenville and the South. One of her aims is to start making her own scrapbook as a response to what she discovers, and this summer fellowship will form the basis of her year-long senior studio art project, which will culminate in a gallery show spring 2018.
2018 [see blog post]
- Olivia Corso ’20, an English and Art History double major. Olivia’s project was on the imagery and iconography of women in antiquity using several different types of sources from Special Collections and Archives.
2019 [see news story]
- Jess Foster ’20, studied the role of antisemitism in Greenville mayor Max Heller’s unsuccessful 1978 congressional campaign
- Allie Bolton ’21, created a documentary film on Furman history as an extension of the 4 short films that she and Claudia Leslie ’19 created for use in the Pathways program this fall 2019
Eligibility:
First-year students through juniors are eligible to apply for a 2020 summer Fellowship.
Instructions for Applicants:
Course credit is not required for this fellowship. Applicants should submit a research proposal by Monday, March 16th outlining the work they would like to do during their fellowship, especially noting how the collections in Special Collections and Archives will help them achieve their goals, together with a current resume. Applicants should also discuss their project and application in advance with a Furman faculty member who will act as their sponsor, and submit (or have submitted) a letter/email of support from the faculty sponsor at the same time. In addition to collection information found on the Special Collections and Archives website and library catalog, we strongly encourage inquiries about project ideas, our holdings, and our collection strengths. Please send all questions and all application materials to Jeffrey Makala (jeffrey.makala@furman.edu).