Gale Digital Humanities Fellowships

Gale Scholar 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 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 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 in China and Singapore, and should be focused in methodologies and subjects relating to digital humanities. However, applications may be considered from outside China and Singapore in any given year. 

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

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 who are active scholars conducting their work in China and Singapore.
  • 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 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 Digital Humanities Oxford Fellowships must include:

  • A completed application form, indicating the preferred dates and length of your visit: Word or PDF
  • 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’. This can be completed in the relevant sections of the application form or sent as a separate document. If you choose to send the research proposal separately, please take a look at the suggested criterion listed in the application form. 
  • 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 (cds@bodleian.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 cds@bodleian.ox.ac.uk with the subject line: Gale Digital Humanities Fellowships Applications.

Applications will close at 12 noon on 25 March 2026.

We will be running an information session for anyone interested in applying for this fellowship on Wednesday 25th February at 8 AM (GMT). Find out more and register for the session.