Short-Term Fellowships
The Starr Center occasionally invites eminent visitors to Chestertown for short-term residential fellowships that have ranged in length between one and eight weeks. Short-term fellows work on their writing or other projects, and often offer workshops, deliver public lectures, visit classes, and meet informally with students. The annual Frederick Douglass Visiting Fellowship brings to campus an individual engaged in the study or interpretation of African-American history and related fields. The Chestertown Fellowships provide opportunities for informal project-based residencies, lending support to worthy projects and providing Washington College students with a firsthand look at exciting works-in-progress.
Participation in these short-term fellowships is by invitation only; there is no formal application process.
The Center also supports an annual fellowship at the Boston Athenaeum in honor of Washington College’s founding namesake, whose personal library is archived there. The Washington College Fellowship in Early American History provides a stipend of $1,500 for twenty days of on-site research at the Athenaeum by a candidate proposing to conduct research in the library of George Washington, or working in a germane area. Applications should be submitted to Stephen Nonack, Head of Reader Services at the Athenaeum, and must include a curriculum vitae and letter of intent describing the proposed project and the collections to be consulted. Graduate students should also include a letter of recommendation from their faculty advisor. Please check back soon for details on applying for the 2009-10 academic year. For more information, please contact Stephen Nonack (617-720-7644; nonack@bostonathenaeum.org), or visit
http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/fellowships.html.
Past Fellows:
Frederick Douglass Visiting Fellows
Gretchen Gerzina, Spring 2008
Kathe Tappe Vernon Professor of Biography, Dartmouth College
Author, Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and Into Legend
Ralph Eubanks, Spring 2007
Director of Publishing, Library of Congress
Author, Ever is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi’s Dark Past
Marlon Saunders, Spring 2005
Professor of Voice, Berklee College of Music
Jazz musician/composer, Workin’ on a Building: Compositions of Black Life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore
Chestertown Fellows
Washington College Fellows, Boston Athenaeum
Kevin J. Hayes, 2008-09
Professor of English, University of Central Oklahoma
“The Book of Washington’s Life”
Christine LaHue, 2006-07
Ohio State University
“The Resurrection of John Wise – Mobilization of Ordinary New Englanders in the Revolutionary Movement, 1772-1775”
John A. Ruddiman, 2005-06
Yale University
“Becoming Men of Some Consequence: Young Men of the Continental Army in Revolutionary War and Peace”
Senior Fellows
