Residence Grant at the Center for Urban History

We invite you to apply for the 2020-2021 Residence Grant at the Center for Urban History.

The residence grants are offered to researchers of various fields in the humanities from different countries. We especially encourage historians, culture studies scholars, and anthropologists. We welcome applications for research that offer broad interpretations of urban history as a discipline at the intersection of various approaches of humanities and social sciences. The chronological and geographical frames of the proposed research are limited to the 19th and 20th-century history of East and Central Europe. Preference will be given to topics related to the Center’s research focuses like urbanization in multi-ethnic cities, individual experience of city residents during 20th-century radical changes and wars, planned cities, urban heritage, commemorative practices and city space, infrastructure and cultural practices in the cities, digital and public history.

The program includes:

• five one-month residence grants for young researchers, working on their PhD thesis or preparing them for publishing; 
• five two-week residence grants for advanced researchers;
• three residencies on digital urban history up to one month in cooperation with the Lviv Interactive project, an online encyclopedia representing the history of Lviv through places and spaces. The researchers are expected to have an interest in preparing materials for the project focusing on placing their own research focus on the spatial aspects of Lviv. We also encourage applications with projects not necessarily related to Lviv but employing digital techniques to develop a theme under research (such as but not exclusively, databases, the geo-information systems, network analysis, and digital storytelling).
• one residency in digital urban history up to one month in cooperation with the Urban Media Archive, which collects, offers access, and promotes digitized or digitally created visual and audiovisual materials on urban life. The applicants are expected to engage analytically with archival data in the collection, which includes photos and film documents, maps, and oral interviews. We also encourage applications that focus on the role of archives in society, as well as new approaches in evaluating, contextualizing, representing and using various archival media. 

The Center provides conditions to conduct research, and offers to scholars access to the own materials, such as the library, the media archive, research works, scholarly contacts, and also grants an opportunity to present and discuss the preliminary results of research within the Urban Workshop and public lectures.

The Library of the Center includes over 8,000 books in urban history, heritage, public history, museum studies, history of media and visual culture, gender studies, Jewish studies, a.o. in Ukrainian, English, Polish, Russian, and other languages 

Urban Media Archive is a unique collection of digitized archival photos and film documents, maps, and oral interviews

The grant means accommodation in the guest rooms of the Centre for a period of one month or two weeks, located on the same premises as the Institute. Conveniently situated in the heart of Lviv, the Center is a short walk from the city’s archives and libraries. The guest apartment has three separated guest rooms with shared kitchen and facilities. The rooms are fully-equipped to ensure a comfortable stay and provide WiFi access. During the stay at the Center, the grantee gets working space in the office, access to all resources and administrative support.

The grant does not cover travel, living and other expenses.

The residence grants are intended for postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Please note that no scholarship is offered to undergraduates and graduates. Pilot research projects are not encouraged. At the time of application, the project should last at least for a year and require access to Lviv archives and libraries, including the library and the media archives at the Center.

How to Apply

Applications have to include:

• Project Description (1000-2000 words)
• Curriculum vitae
• List of publications
• Letter of recommendation by a scholar who is familiar with the applicant’s research (for non-holders of PhD or relevant degree).

The referee, who recommends a candidate for the grant, should submit their letter of recommendation from their own email, providing contact information in the letter.

Please submit your application to the email grants@lvivcenter.org. Please indicate “Residence Grant Application 2019” in the subject line of your email.

Applications can be submitted in Ukrainian, English, Polish, Russian and Belarusian. Only fully completed applications will be accepted.

Application deadline: January 15, 2020

The selection of candidates will be done by January 31, 2020

The jury is not required to publicly justify its decisions.

The Center’s Grants Program has been effective since 2006 and is to encourage international academic exchanges, promote urban studies in Ukraine and advance interdisciplinary approaches, new topics and discussions in studying cities. So far the Centre has welcomed 120 researchers from Ukraine, the United States, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Switzerland, Romania, and China.