Warburg Institute Short-Term Fellowships in Cultural and Intellectual History

Each year the Institute offers post-doctoral short-term Yates Fellowships to support research on projects on any aspect of cultural, intellectual or art history supported by the resources of the Institute’s Library, Photographic Collection or Archive. The awards provide financial support towards living and subsistence costs in London for three months.

Yates Fellowships are intended for scholars at any stage of their post-doctoral career. They are designed to enable scholars to carry out research in and on the Warburg’s Collections. Applications will not be accepted from candidates proposing to revise their doctoral dissertation for publication. Proposed projects should be unrelated to the doctoral dissertation. Preference may be given to research proposals which demonstrate a sustained focus on the Warburg Archive, on the Photographic Collection or on specific aspects (e.g., provenance, collection history, collection strengths) of the Warburg Library.

The annual group of fellows benefits from and contributes to the vibrant intellectual life of the Institute.  Fellows are given a space to work, they may be asked to give a Work-in-Progress Seminar paper and are encouraged to contribute the Institute’s blog: Mnemosyne.

The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. It is dedicated to the survival and transmission of culture across time and space, with special emphasis on the afterlife of antiquity. Its open-stack Library, Photographic Collection and Archive serve as an engine for interdisciplinary research, postgraduate teaching and a prestigious events and publication programme. Situated in the heart of the Bloomsbury Knowledge Quarter, the Warburg offers scholars the opportunity to engage with academics not only within the institute, but also at local universities, museum and galleries and research institutes.

How to apply

Applications can be made to the Short-Term Research Fellowships program on the SAS Fellowship Portal; please find link HERE(Opens in new window)

Please note the following:

• Those who have previously held a short-term fellowship at the Institute are not eligible to apply
• Candidates must hold a PhD by the time the fellowship begins in September/October 2025. For those who do not hold a PhD upon application, their reference must be provided by their PhD supervisor 
• Fellowships at the Warburg Institute may not be held concurrently with another fellowship or award
• Incomplete applications, or applications without references will not be considered.
• Candidates from outside the EU will need to check the regulations(Opens in new window) for acquiring a visa to visit the UK for the period of their fellowships
• Fellowships are tenable at the Warburg Institute and begin in September/October 2025 for a three month period. Fellows are paid a stipend of £3000 per month 

Selection procedure 

The Selection committee will assess the quality of applications with reference to the following criteria:   

• The academic record of the candidate as exhibited by the application form
• The originality and significance of the proposed research to the applicant’s field;   
• How well the candidate’s research complements the Warburg’s resources and areas of expertise of its staff 
• How active the candidate is as a scholar and his or her expected contribution to the intellectual life of the Warburg Institute.