Humanities Research Center

Faculty Residential Fellowships

Applications are now open for 2026-27.

The Humanities Research Center’s Faculty Residential Fellowship program gives four to six faculty members release from teaching responsibilities for one semester so they can focus on individual research projects and at the same time engage regularly with each other. HRC fellows are expected to attend weekly fellows seminars and events at the HRC during their fellowship period. Publications resulting from this fellowship program must acknowledge the center’s support. The fellows will submit a report of their activities during the fellowship year by May 1.

Fellowship details

Residency: 2026-27
Annual theme: Repair
Deadline: Oct. 17th, 2025

The HRC invites applications for the Residential Fellowship Program for the 2026-2027 academic year, centered around the theme of Repair. The concept of repair encompasses both material and immaterial forms of restoration: from the conservation of cultural artifacts and the rebuilding of communities after trauma, to the healing of historical wounds and the restoration of damaged relationships between peoples, nations and the natural world. Recent scholarship in the humanities suggests that repair is not simply about returning to a previous state, but rather about creating new possibilities for flourishing in the aftermath of damage.

We seek fellows whose research interrogates how societies, cultures and individuals engage in acts of repair—and how these processes shape our understanding of justice, memory, identity and futurity. We are interested in supporting the work of scholars in the humanities, arts and humanistic social sciences who engage one of the following concepts:

Historical and cultural repair

  • Post-conflict reconciliation and transitional justice
  • Truth and reconciliation processes
  • Cultural heritage preservation and restoration
  • Repatriation of cultural objects and human remains
  • Oral history and community memory projects

Social and political repair

  • Reparations movements and restorative justice
  • Healing from historical trauma and collective memory
  • Community organizing and grassroots restoration efforts
  • Environmental justice and ecological restoration
  • Immigration, displacement and community rebuilding

Literary and artistic repair

  • Narratives of healing and recovery in literature and the arts
  • The role of creative expression in trauma recovery
  • Restoration of lost or suppressed cultural traditions
  • Digital humanities and the recovery of marginalized voices
  • Performance, ritual and ceremonial practices of repair

Philosophical and ethical repair

  • Theories of forgiveness, justice and reconciliation
  • Ethics of care and responsibility across difference
  • Decolonial approaches to healing and restoration
  • Indigenous knowledge systems and healing practices
  • Interfaith dialogue and religious reconciliation

Material and technological repair

  • Conservation science and cultural preservation
  • The politics of restoration in museums and archives
  • Digital preservation and the recovery of lost media
  • Traditional crafts and artisanal knowledge and preservation
  • Sustainable practices and environmental restoration

Selected faculty and graduate students will have the opportunity to participate in the Global Justice and Humanities Practices Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in June 2026.

How to apply

With support from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and the College of Humanities and Sciences, this fellowship will be awarded to up to four faculty members in the College of Humanities and Sciences, and up to two faculty members from other schools/departments at VCU who are engaged in humanistic projects. HRC Advisory Board members are eligible to apply but will not be involved in the evaluation process. Beginning this year, previous HRC residential fellows are eligible to apply.

A complete application will consist of the following submitted as a single PDF document:

  • Cover page (applicant’s name, rank, department/school, contact information, title)
  • A 200-word abstract
  • A 1,000-word project proposal
  • A one-page work plan for the year
  • Short bibliography (up to 2 pages)
  • Curriculum vitae (up to 4 pages)
  • A short paragraph describing your contributions to the intellectual life of the HRC in the last three years (panels, grant teams, research groups, labs, webinars, Research Fridays, Meet VCU's Authors presentations, mentoring, community engagement work, etc.)
  • Support from department chair or equivalent; email is acceptable

Submit full application (one PDF document) to cstanciu@vcu.edu by Oct. 17, 2025.

Review

Applications will be reviewed by a committee of faculty, including the previous year’s fellows, appointed by the center director. The applications will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Scholarly/creative excellence and promise of the project
  • Applicant’s readiness to pursue proposed research
  • Quality of the proposal
  • Demonstrated need for support
  • Explanation of how the experience of an HRC fellowship will benefit the applicant and the project