Become a Newhouse Fellow
The Suzy Newhouse Center fellows’ community consists of Wellesley faculty on sabbatical, Wellesley summer fellows, the undergraduate fellows of the Mellon Mays program, and normally three or four scholars and artists from outside the college. All fellows are required to engage in Suzy Newhouse Center programs and give a public presentation in the spring.
Internal Newhouse Faculty Fellows are chosen from among Wellesley College faculty members on sabbatical leave. Faculty members in all humanities departments and programs are eligible, as well as faculty members in social sciences whose current research is humanistic in character.
Internal Newhouse fellows may be in residence for either one or two semesters. They participate in talks and fellows’ lunches as well as give a talk at the end of their term. Fellows receive a $1,000 stipend to be used for books, travel, and other associated costs of scholarly research, excluding equipment, accrued within the time period of the fellowship.
Wellesley faculty may count an application for the Suzy Newhouse Center for the Humanities Fellowship as one of the three applications demonstrating their “strenuous effort” to secure grant support.
The 2024-2025 application cycle is now closed. Please check back soon for 2025-2026 academic year fellowship applications.
The Suzy Newhouse Center hosts three to five external fellows each academic year. Residencies are ordinarily for the full academic year, but one-semester residencies may also be considered. Resident fellows devote themselves primarily to their own research, but they also participate actively in the intellectual life of the institution, attending fellows’ lunches and sharing their work in progress with one another and with the larger Wellesley community. Fellows may also work with the director to develop programming for the center in the form of guest speakers, a faculty series, or a mini-conference.
Newhouse External Faculty Fellows are chosen through open competition and both junior and senior faculty members at other institutions may apply. Fellowships with or without stipends are available. Stipended faculty fellowships carry a stipend of up to $50,000 for two semesters. Newhouse fellows in residence may not teach at other institutions during the period of the fellowship.
The Suzy Newhouse Center will make available private office space, some clerical support, technical and computing resources, and the collegiality of both the Center and the Wellesley community at large.
Wellesley College is an EO/AA educational institution and employer. The College is committed to increasing the diversity of its community and the curriculum. Candidates who believe they will contribute to that goal are encouraged to apply.
A complete application will include the following materials:
- A 1,200 research proposal with bibliography (bibliography excluded from total word count)
- Current CV
- Two letters of recommendation
Applicants must also have full- or part-time affiliation with an academic institution. We are unable to offer fellowships to postdoctoral researchers.
Applications for 2025-2026 external fellowships are now open. Click here to apply.
If you are writing a letter of recommendation for a fellowship applicant, click here to submit your file(s).
In 2022, the Suzy Newhouse Center will offer four to five summer fellowships for faculty in the humanities and in interdisciplinary fields that straddle the social sciences and humanities. Faculty should plan to work on a research project that is nearing readiness for publication. To build a sense of community, faculty will be required to be in residence for four weeks during the summer. In the year following the residency period, faculty will also have the option to give a public presentation to the community on the work they have readied for submission. Preference for summer grants will be given to those who declare their intention to submit their work to a peer-reviewed journal or academic press.
- Wellesley faculty will be given an office for the summer and a stipend.
- The summer fellowship program runs from June 15 to August 15 every summer.
- In addition to having the option to present their own work during the academic year, summer fellows are strongly encouraged to attend other fellows' presentations.
- The advisory board votes on fellowship applications and follows a strict recusal policy. (Applications that bridge the humanities and social sciences will be judged by the director of the Knapp Center with faculty from the Social Sciences.)
- Wellesley faculty only are eligible to apply for this fellowship. You must wait 3 years after you receive the fellowship to apply again. Please also let the director know if you applied last year.
- The 2024-2025 application cycle is now closed. Please check back soon for 2025-2026 academic year fellowship applications.