Fortunoff Research Fellowship for Study of Roma and Sinti Persecution

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) and the Fortunoff Archive at Yale University invite applications for its research fellowship for the period of two years, between October 2023 to September 2025.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the study and documentation of antisemitism, racism, nationalism, and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science, and Research as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

The Fortunoff Video Archive is a collection within the Manuscripts and Archives Department of Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University. The Archive, which began as a grassroots effort in New Haven to record on video the testimonies of survivors, witnesses, and bystanders in 1979, currently holds more than 4,400 testimonies comprising over 10,000 hours of moving image materials. These testimonies were produced with the cooperation of 37 affiliate projects working in over a dozen countries and just as many languages. The archive is still recording testimony today at Yale University. The Fortunoff Archive is a unique collection that has served as an important resource for scholarship in a wide range of disciplines for more than three decades. The collection includes a significant number of Sinti and Roma testimonies in several languages, primarily German and Slovak. This fellowship is designed to encourage scholarly use of those materials.

Scholars who have completed their PhD studies and have produced works of scholarship are eligible for receiving a research fellowship. The Fortunoff Research Fellow will be able to conduct research on a topic of their choice related to Roma and Sinti persecution during the Porrajmos/Holocaust at the VWI using the digital collection of the Fortunoff Archive in Vienna. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the institute. The Fortunoff Research Fellow is expected to support the institute’s academic work and provide research adjective and support to junior fellows. The Fortunoff Research Fellow must be regularly present at the VWI. Fortunoff Research Fellow will also participate in projects related to the Sinti and Roma materials included in the Fortunoff Archive, including the organization of events related to the collection, cooperating with the archive partners who recorded the original materials, improvement of collection metadata, and other activities as assigned.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests on oral history of the Porrajmos with special focus on the collections of the Fortunoff Archive. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. The Fortunoff Research Fellow will also have access to the archives of the VWI. It is expected that the fellow will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellow’s discussion and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, the fellow is required to submit a research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in the institute’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation. He/She will develop a deep overview and analysis of the subcollection of Roma testimonies in the Fortunoff Archive.

The Fortunoff Research fellowship is awarded for a duration of 24 months. He or she will have and Internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,200. In addition, VWI will cover housing costs during the fellowship (up to € 700) as well as the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the institute, where applicable.

The Fortunoff Research fellow will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI and of the Fortunoff Archive.

Applications may be submitted in English and must include the following documents. Preference will be given to Roma and Sinti applicants:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the research objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000- character max.)
• a list of publications and a CV with a photo, if not already included in application form (optional).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “Fortunoff Research Fellowship for Study of Roma and Sinti Persecution 2023/25” by 13 January 2023 to: fortunoff-fellowship@vwi.ac.at.
If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.