2021 Visiting Fellows working in the Upper Reading Room

From 2007-2017, Chawton House offered a competitive Visiting Fellowship programme in partnership with the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Southampton, building up a community of scholars across the globe and supporting world-class research. However, changes to the funding structure of Chawton House led to the suspension of the programme to allow for a strategic reshaping of the organisation, ensuring it could become self-sustaining.

In August 2021, we piloted a new summer Fellowship programme aimed specifically at early career researchers, awarding three residential Fellowships. Below, the Fellows share some of the research they undertook during their time at Chawton House, and talk about the experience of being onsite.

In July/August and November 2022, Chawton House offered six residential fellowships for postgraduate or early career researchers (within 5 years of PhD) working on women’s writing of the long eighteenth century. You can find out about our 2022 Fellows and their research here. These fellowships were made possible by a generous donation from the Ardeola Charitable Trust. We will continue to offer Fellowships in the future.

How to Apply

Applications for 2023 Fellowships will open in February 2023.

You can get a sense of the application process and view application information about previous Fellowships here.

We ask for the following as part of the process:

  • A cover letter, including a proposal for a contribution to the outputs at Chawton House (1 page only; please see our website & YouTube channel)
  • A proposal for the work you intend to carry out as a Visiting Fellow, to include items in our collection that you would want to consult (no more than 2 pages, 1.5 spaced. See our catalogue)
  • Your CV (no more than 2 pages)
  • One confidential letter of recommendation to be emailed separately by the referee before the deadline.

Please direct general questions to Dr Kim Simpson: kim.simpson@chawtonhouse.org, and collections-specific questions to Curator and Collections Manager, Emma Yandle: emma.yandle@chawtonhouse.org