Bard Graduate Center is a research institute for advanced, interdisciplinary study of diverse material worlds. We support the innovative scholarship of our faculty and students as well as resident fellows, guest curators and artists, and visiting speakers.

We are no longer accepting applications for this fellowship.

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Bard Graduate Center, together with the Conservation & Scientific Research Department of the Rijksmuseum, announce a 10-month (September 2019–June 2020) fellowship focusing on developing the idea that conservation practice is a human science. Long devoted to the restoration and preservation of objects, conservation in the twentieth century became focused on questions of dating and attribution. With this fellowship, we aim to refocus attention on the life course, rather than the birth, of objects and so bring the conservator or cultural heritage scientist into the conversation about history-through-things now being carried on between historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and art historians.

Aimed at conservation scholars at an early stage of their careers, the Fellow will reside in New York for 5 months (September–January) and in Amsterdam for 5 months (February–June). They will be integrated fully into the intellectual lives of Bard Graduate Center and the Conservation & Scientific Research Department of the Rijksmuseum. The fellow will have considerable free time to do research in local collections and libraries. His or her main institutional responsibility will be to guide a monthly “wandering” seminar: visits of an invited group of scholars to view “problematic” objects in local area collections. The Fellow will play a major role in choosing the objects and collections and moderating the discussions of all relevant issues with the curators, conservators, and scientists in attendance. Each month will explore a different collection (public or private) and a different type of object (antiquities, art, natural history specimens, ethnographic, archaeological, etc.). The Fellow will write up a report of the conversation for the project website and supervise any editing and publication of video recordings.

In addition to job criteria requirements, this position requires travel outside the US.

This fellowship is part of Bard Graduate Center’s “Cultures of Conservation” initiative, generously supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Salary is $45,000 and housing is available, as is a small research/travel fund while the Fellow is in residence.

To apply, please submit the following materials electronically via email to fellowships@bgc.bard.edu in a single PDF file: a cover letter stating the candidate’s qualifications for this fellowship as well as its desirability, a sample piece of writing, and curriculum vitae. In addition, please arrange for two letters of reference to be submitted via email to fellowships@bgc.bard.edu. Applications must be received by March 1, 2019. Bard Graduate Center is an AA/EOE employer.

Applicants must meet position criteria, including proper work authorization to work both at the BGC and abroad from June 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020.

Current and past Andrew W. Mellon Fellows include:

Soon Kai Poh
Fall 2019–Spring 2020
Conservation as a Human Science, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow

Alicia Boswell
Fall 2016–Summer 2018
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Jessica Walthew
Fall 2016–Summer 2017
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Stephanie Su
Fall 2015–Summer 2016
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Vera A. Solovyeva
Fall 2015–Summer 2016
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Gabrielle Berlinger
Fall 2013–Summer 2015
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Cultures of Conservation

Hanna Hölling
Fall 2013–Summer 2015
Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Professor, Cultures of Conservation