Gale Fellowships

Terms and eligibility

• Bodleian Visiting Fellowships are intended for applicants external to the University of Oxford.
• Applicants for fellowships should hold a doctorate at the time of application, or equivalent qualification in their field of research (eg, holding a curatorial post in a museum or library), unless specified otherwise in the particulars for individual fellowships as described on the fellowships webpage.
• Fellowships are open to applicants of any nationality (although the Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowship will prioritise applicants from the Asia Pacific region as defined on the fellowships webpage). 
• Those who have held a Bodleian Visiting Fellowship within the past 5 years are not eligible.

In every case, the applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:

• The demonstrated need of the applicant to consult specific items or collections within the Bodleian Libraries' special collections or working in the Centre for Digital Scholarship (only for Gale Scholar Asia Pacific, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowship).
• The potential of the applicant to contribute to the research culture of the Bodleian Libraries and the University.
• Evidence that the project will increase scholarly or public understanding of the materials consulted, through publication or public dissemination, or by developing innovative research methods.
• The benefits of the award within the invited fellow’s research career.

North America, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowship

This fellowship will support a short period of research into any topic and in any field of study, using the special collections or Centre for Digital Scholarship of the Bodleian Libraries. Fellowships may be awarded for a period of up to 3 months.

Gale Scholar North America, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellows will be expected to present their work at a seminar or other event and can propose to develop a digital resource or other innovative output during their time at Oxford.

Travel to Oxford for this fellowship may be funded in addition to your fellowship stipend. Please indicate on your application whether you would like to apply to supplement your travel costs.  

The Gale Scholar North America, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships are named after Gale, a Cengage company, who have generously funded these fellowships.  

Gale is a world-leader in the digitisation of historic materials through its Gale Primary Sources programme. Data from more than 160 million pages of these collections can be mined and analysed in the Gale Digital Scholar Lab, a cloud-based digital humanities environment. Fellows will have privileged access to Gale Primary Sources, the Gale Digital Scholar Lab, and support from members of the Gale team as part of their fellowship.

Applications are encouraged from active scholars conducting their work in the North America*, and should be focused in methodologies and subjects relating to digital humanities. However, applications may be considered from outside the North America region in any given year. 

Applications are particularly welcome from black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in Oxford.

Fellows will become Short-Term Visiting Fellows at Jesus College, benefits of which include:

• Lunch and dinner at the college’s expenses for the duration of your fellowship, except when the kitchens are closed;
• Membership of the Senior Common Room, free of charge;
• Use of the Fellows’ Resources Room, which provides networked computers, printers, and photocopiers;
• Use of the working and reading space in the college’s beautiful 17th-century Fellows’ Library, with use of Wi-Fi, and use of the Meyricke Library.

Please note that a Short-Term Visiting Fellowship does not carry with it membership of Governing Body and that college accommodation is not offered.

The application deadline for the academic year 2023–2024 is 12 noon, 17 November 2023.

For eligibility, selection criteria, and other application information see Terms & Eligibility and Apply for a Visiting Fellowship.

*North America is defined for the purposes of this Fellowship as including the following countries: United States of America, Canada.

Terms and eligibility

• Bodleian Visiting Fellowships are intended for applicants external to the University of Oxford.
• Applicants for fellowships should hold a doctorate at the time of application, or equivalent qualification in their field of research (eg, holding a curatorial post in a museum or library), unless specified otherwise in the particulars for individual fellowships as described on the fellowships webpage.
• Fellowships are open to applicants of any nationality (although the Gale Scholar North America, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowship will prioritise applicants from the North America region as defined above). 
• Those who have held a Bodleian Visiting Fellowship within the past 5 years are not eligible.

In every case, the applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:

• The demonstrated need of the applicant to consult specific items or collections within the Bodleian Libraries' special collections or working in the Centre for Digital Scholarship (only for Gale Scholar North America, Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowship).
• The potential of the applicant to contribute to the research culture of the Bodleian Libraries and the University.
• Evidence that the project will increase scholarly or public understanding of the materials consulted, through publication or public dissemination, or by developing innovative research methods.
• The benefits of the award within the invited fellow’s research career.

Apply for a Visiting Fellowship

Before making an application, please see the Terms & Eligibility.

Applications for all the Gale North America Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowship must include:

• A completed application form, indicating the preferred dates and length of your visit.
  Please use one of the following:
  • Microsoft Word Digital Humanities application form: Download, complete, save and submit with the rest of your application;
  • PDF Digital Humanities application form: Download, complete, save and submit with the rest of your application
• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• A proposal for the fellowship period, including an outline of the research to be carried out in the special collections of the Bodleian Libraries during the term of the fellowship (1,200 words maximum). This statement must directly address the selection criteria as listed under 'Terms & Eligibility’.
• Two letters of recommendation from the referees named in the application form. Applicants should ask the referees to comment on their professional knowledge of the applicant and the contribution the proposed research would make to scholarship. The referees should be asked to send their letters by email directly to the support officer for Digital Scholarship at Oxford (digitalscholarship@humanities.ox.ac.uk), to arrive by the application deadline.

Each document must be an individual PDF or Word file. Do not combine all the documents into one file.

Send all application documents by email to digitalscholarship@humanities.ox.ac.uk with the subject line: Visiting Fellowships Applications.