Call for Applications: Stuart Hall Archive Project Summer Research Fellowship 2025

The Fellowship will run for 8 weeks, from May 19 through July 11, with the middle 4 weeks designated for on-site research in Birmingham. We are seeking graduate fellows to collaborate with SHAP on exploring the research, teaching, and community engagement possibilities of this archive. Duke PhD students in the arts, humanities, and interpretive social sciences are eligible to apply.

Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to attend a virtual info session on Monday, January 27, at 10am; please sign up here. SHAP faculty will be on hand to answer questions. Administrative details of the fellowship will also be discussed. Please direct general queries to FHI Associate Director Christina Chia (christina.chia@duke.edu). UPDATE 1/27: If you missed the info session but would like to view a recording, please contact Chris.

Stuart Hall Archive Project Overview

Stuart Hall (1932-2014) was a Jamaican-British academic, writer, cultural studies pioneer, public intellectual and teacher who made major interventions in cultural and political life: in theorizing race, class and nationhood; in working to establish the field of Cultural Studies; in his distinctive pedagogical practices and work as a public intellectual; and much more.

Hall’s papers were deposited at the Cadbury Research Library at Birmingham in 2018 and consist of 102 largely untouched boxes of unpublished reports, essays, scripts and speeches; teaching material; correspondence; editorial material; notes; ephemera and cuttings; and audio recordings and video cassettes.

The Stuart Hall Archive Project (2023-26), based at the University of Birmingham (UK), aims to use these archives as a catalyst to explore Hall’s intellectual and political legacies today and we want to collaborate with graduate fellows to do so. We want to support your projects and interests in the archive–please look at the website to see examples of current and previous projects. Possible areas for research study might include:

• Using Digital Humanities (or AI) approaches to generate new knowledge from, or reading against, the Black Archive.
• Situating Stuart Hall in his geographical (and temporal) contexts, whether Birmingham, the Caribbean, or internationally.
• Hall’s role in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) movement in the 1950s and 1960s and its relationship to the US Civil Rights movement.
• Under-explored or unknown relationships between Hall and other leading political figures and public intellectuals (such as Walter Rodney, C.L.R. James, or Edward Said).

Additionally, graduate fellows may consider a variety of forms and outcomes for their research, including but not limited to:

• Community engagement projects to facilitate use of the archives by people and groups outside of the academy
• Development of finding aids, or other resources that enable wider access to the archive
• Visualization of the geographies, temporalities, and relations of Hall to individuals, groups, and institutions as revealed by archive metadata
• A journal article (staff at SHAP are happy to mentor fellows in this area) or thesis work based on research findings
• Qualitative reports on discrete parts of the archive — specific projects, campaigns or critical work engaged by Hall; particular media holdings in the archive (audio, video, photographic, handwritten material); or, particular media that Hall engaged as evidenced in the archive (public broadcast radio or television; public street campaigning; or contributions to government inquiry or policy)

Fellowship Terms and Expectations

The Fellowship will run from May 19 through July 11, 2025 (8 weeks). It will begin with 2 preparatory weeks in Durham, during which Fellows will attend virtual orientation sessions with SHAP faculty and archivists and work independently to get ready for intensive research in the archive. All Fellows will then travel to Birmingham and conduct research on-site at the Cadbury Research Library from June 2 through June 27. Each Fellow will be expected to pursue an individual project, while working closely with your cohort to share ideas and learn from each other. Depending on your interests, SHAP faculty will facilitate possible visits to other archives and organizations important for Stuart Hall’s legacy, such as the Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA) and George Padmore Institute in London. The Fellowship will conclude with two wrap-up weeks back in the US to review your findings and plan towards a post-Fellowship presentation. 

Each Fellow will receive a non-compensatory stipend of $6,666.

Roundtrip travel to the UK will be covered, along with up to 4 weeks of international student housing at Birmingham. 

Each Fellow is expected to develop a presentation based on their research in Fall 2025, to be shared either as part of SHAP’s programs and/or back at Duke at the FHI. The first cohort of Duke SHAP Fellows, for example, presented together on a panel at Stuart Hall: Positions and Trajectories, a three-day international conference at the University of Birmingham in October 2024. Fellows are highly encouraged, though not required, to further develop these presentations into dissertation chapters, publications, exhibits, digital projects, community engagement projects, etc.

How to Apply

To apply, please send the following to fhi@duke.edu by Monday, February 3.

• A brief letter (up to 2 pages) proposing a specific project you would like to pursue at SHAP, in the context of your broader intellectual interests. Please review the suggested topics above for ideas. To formulate a viable project, we ask that you consult with this list of archive holdings and refer to specific materials you would like to explore in the fellowship proposal.  
• Your CV
• Official confirmation from your Department’s Director of Graduate Studies that you are eligible to receive this fellowship as part of your summer funding package. This may be submitted under separate cover to fhi@duke.edu.

We welcome applicants of any nationality, and are prepared to do what is possible and reasonable, within the guidelines of US, UK and international immigration authorities, to address students’ visa and immigration needs in order to ensure that they are able to travel abroad to conduct their research under the appropriate visa status.

Again, we encourage you to sign up for and attend the January 27 Zoom Info Session if possible. Questions may also be directed to christina.chia@duke.edu.