The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) today launches the fifth round of its Library of Congress (LoC) Scholarship scheme offering AHRC funded award holders the opportunity to spend up to six months in the USA researching the World-Renowned Library of Congress collections.
If you are an AHRC funded PhD student, postdoctoral fellow or research assistant than this scheme offers access to the internationally renowned research collection at the Library of Congress. It is by no means limited to American studies as, with 142 million items, the full AHRC Subject domain is covered.
Carolyn Brown – Director of Scholarly Programs, Library of Congress, said of recent AHRC students ‘The Kluge Center in the Library of Congress has been absolutely thrilled with the AHRC project that brings dissertation students at British Universities to the Library to conduct research.
From our side, we do everything we can to facilitate their research, from official orientations to conducting research at this Library, - whatever seems like it might be helpful, to creating an atmosphere where the dissertation students, fellows at the junior faculty level, and the senior scholars all have multiple chances to meet and interact. From our perspective, the program has been fantastic. The students are terrific--energetic, enthusiastic, open-minded, hard working, making excellent use of the time, the resources, and the community. The program is everything we could have dreamed that it would be.’
The successful applicants will receive a stipend towards their flight costs and a monthly allowance in addition to their normal monthly stipend paid as part of their award holder funding.
Previously successful project titles include
• The Contexts of Controversial Religious Literature in late Elizabethan and early Jacobean England,
• Exploring of Physicality and Virtuosity in the Concertos of Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg,
• Political Prophecy in Early Modern Wales and
• The Move to Violence: a matrix of the factors involved in the move from religious belief to violent action, amongst others.
The closing date for this round of the scheme will be 01/03/2010.
Matthew Frances, a 2008-09 AHRC funded Library of Congress scholar talks about his experiences in an AHRC podcast.
Images of the standard work space scholars at the Kluge Center are based in can be viewed on Flickr.
Library of Congress homepage – http://www.loc.gov/index.html
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AHRC Media Contact: Jake Gilmore, tel: 0797 099 4586
Notes to Editors
How to make an application
Application guidance notes and an application form can be downloaded from the funding opportunity page. You should read the application guidance in full before completing the application form.
Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.
The USA Library of Congress and the Kluge Center:
The Library of Congress is the USA's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library's mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The Kluge Center at the Library presents a new opportunity to attract to Washington the best available minds in the scholarly world, facilitate their access to the Library's remarkable collection of the world's knowledge, and engage them in conversation with the U.S. Congress and other public figures. The John W. Kluge Center occupies inspirational and capacious study and meeting spaces within the Library's magnificently restored Thomas Jefferson Building.
http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/