BGC Director of Public Humanities + Research, Andrew Kircher, with 2023 fellows kelli rae adams and Juan Carlos G Mantilla. Photo by Fresco Arts Team.
The fellowship programs at Bard Graduate Center are designed to further the institution’s goal of promoting research in the areas of decorative arts, design history, and material culture—what we call “cultural histories of the material world.” We offer fellowship opportunities for researchers and artists working in these and allied areas. Please note that we prioritize applicants who have not yet held a BGC fellowship with us before. See below for details regarding specific fellowships.
Visiting Fellowships
We invite scholars from university, museum, and independent backgrounds with a PhD or equivalent professional experience to apply for non-stipendiary visiting fellowships. Intended for scholars who have already secured means of funding, this fellowship provides scholars with workspace in the BGC Research Center and enables them to join our dynamic, intellectual, and scholarly community in New York City.
BGC Visiting Fellowship applications for the 2026-27 academic year are now open; applications are due Sunday March 1, 2026 at 11:59pm EST.
Fields of the Future Fellowships
In partnership with Sylvester Manor for Spring 2027, the Fields of the Future fellowship invites a distinguished scholar to study the collections of the historical site, culminating in a research presentation as part of a June 2027 symposium. The Fields of the Future fellowship aims to help promote diversity and inclusion in the advanced study of the material world. These partially funded fellowships reflect our commitment to explore and expand the sources, techniques, voices, and questions of interdisciplinary humanities scholarship from different perspectives.
Applications for the BGC Fields of the Future Spring 2027 fellowship will open in Spring 2026. Please sign up for our newsletter to receive updates.
About Bard Graduate Center
Bard Graduate Center is a graduate research institute devoted to the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture, drawing on methodologies and approaches from art history, economic and cultural history, history of technology, material culture studies, philosophy, anthropology, and archaeology. Our MA and PhD degree programs, gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, and public programs explore new ways of thinking about the cultural history of the material world. We possess a specialized library of 60,000 volumes exclusive of serials and publish the journals West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture and Source: Notes in the History of Art; the book series Cultural Histories of the Material World (all with the University of Chicago Press); and the catalogues that accompany the exhibitions presented every year in our gallery (with Yale University Press). More than fifty research seminars, lectures, and symposia are presented annually, and many are made available on Bard Graduate Center’s YouTube channel.
Bard Graduate Center is an equal opportunity employer, and we welcome applications from those who contribute to our diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, mental or physical disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, familial status, veteran status, or genetic information.
Bard is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for all individuals in employment practices, services, programs, and activities.
Bard Graduate Center is an equal opportunity employer, and we welcome applications from those who contribute to our diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, mental or physical disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, familial status, veteran status, or genetic information.
Bard is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for all individuals in employment practices, services, programs, and activities.
