Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica

Application Deadline: January 5, 2024

The Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies invites applications each academic year for the Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica. Applicants may come from any discipline in the humanities or social sciences associated with studies in Judaica; junior faculty are especially encouraged to apply. PhDs are required.

The Harry Starr Fellowships were established by a bequest from the estate of Harry Starr, A.B. 1921, LL.B. 1924, who had a broad vision of academic Jewish studies and of their place in university programs in the humanities and the social sciences.

The Starr Fellowship covers travel expenses and a stipend for a group of scholars from around the world to gather at Harvard to engage in full-time research in a designated subject area in Judaica. By drawing together scholars from a variety of universities and a variety of disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, the Starr Fellows not only share their research with each other but also with members of the Harvard community.

Residence in the Boston area and participation in the Center community are required during the fellowship appointment. All Starr Fellows must be in residence for at least the entirety of the spring semester, but we encourage Fellows to come for the entire year. Fellows are expected to devote full-time study to their projects without undertaking any other major activities and will be asked to present their work in progress in a seminar during the spring semester. It is hoped that fellows will participate in the academic and social life of the University and the Jewish studies community at Harvard.

Eligibility: Scholars from around the world, recent Ph.D. recipients, junior faculty

Stipend Amount: $40,000 for the spring semester or $70,000 for the full academic year

Field(s) of Interest:
The 2024-2025 application cycle will be available to scholars working on topics related to Ancient Jews in and against Empires. The story of Ancient Judaism has been traditionally told as a tale of Jewish survival in resistance to a series of foreign empires. Recent studies of Rabbinics and late antique Judaism have increasingly revealed a more complicated dynamic of Jewish life under Roman, Christian, Sassanian, and early Islamic empires, reflecting the specificity of different imperial cultures and not readily reduced to any simple dichotomy of assimilation and resistance. So too for Second Temple Judaism: in conversation with new research on the Hellenistic Near East within Classics, scholars have been attending anew to Ptolemaic and Seleucid imperial cultures.

Proposals are invited that speak to questions of ancient Jews and Judaism in relation to one or more of these imperial cultures, whether from the standpoint of history, literature, law, art, practice, material culture, and/or ritual and temple cultures.

Proposals are invited that speak to questions of ancient Jews and Judaism in relation to one or more of these imperial cultures, whether from the standpoint of history, literature, law, art, practice, material culture, and/or ritual and temple cultures.

Application includes:

• short project proposal (1-2 pages)
• Curriculum vitae
• two letters of recommendation

All Non-Harvard external candidates:

1. Create a Harvard Key Light account
2. Apply via CARAT: Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica

Other Eligibility Requirements:
Applicants who do not have the Ph.D. degree in hand at the time of the application must provide a letter from their advisor stating that they will have the Ph.D. in hand by June 1, 2024. Starr Fellows must be in residence for at least the entirety of the spring term unless University policy forbids Harvard-sponsored travel and access to Harvard buildings and resources. We encourage fellows to come for the entire year.