Junior Fellowships at the National Museums of World Cultures, the Netherlands

The Research Center for Material Culture (RCMC) at Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, one of the members of the National Museums of World Cultures in the Netherlands, an ASEMUS member, has launched the 2019 edition of the RCMC/FEL Junior Fellowship programme. The RCMC/FEL Junior Fellowship programme provides financial support to talented junior researchers interested in conducting (ethnographic) research or publishing on the collections of the Tropenmuseum, Museum Volkenkunde, Afrika Museum and Wereldmuseum. The fellowship is co-sponsored by the Foundation for Ethnology in Leiden (FEL). Until 2016, the programme operated as the Dr. Steven Engelsman Grants.

What the fellowship consists of

Students and scholars with a background in museum studies, anthropology, archaeology, art history or related disciplines can apply. The RCMC/FEL Junior Fellowships offer four stipends in total, each of € 1,500. The types of activities supported are related to conducting (ethnographic) research and/or publishing on the museum collections. The selection committee will appreciate creativity and innovative ideas. Activities not supported include the organisation of symposia and travel to conferences to present work.

The grantees will be offered a RCMC/FEL Junior Fellowship for the proposed project. This fellowship includes:

a workspace at the RCMC in Leiden, the Netherlands;
access to the library documentation center, the collection database The Museum System (TMS) and the collections necessary for beneficiaries' research;
a total stipend of €1,500 (70% of the fellowship stipend at the beginning of the project and the remaining 30% of the stipend at the end of the project).

The conditions and expectations of the fellowship are as follows:

contribute to the intellectual life of the RCMC;
give a seminar presentation on beneficiaries' preliminary findings, before the end of the fellowship period;
produce a video/essay entry for the RCMC website, and/or a research article;
provided the RCMC with any new information generated on the collections;
make accessible to the RCMC any publications resulting from work at the center (if open access, agree to make these publications available on the RCMC website);
acknowledge the support of the RCMC in any publications or work that result from the research conducted during the fellowship.

Further information and application

The call for applications is open until 1 November 2019. For additional information about the RCMC-FEL Junior Fellowships 2019 and applications, please visit https://www.materialculture.nl/en/fellowships/rcmcfel-junior-fellowship