VWI-Fortunoff Research Fellowship at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

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 October 2025 to May 2026.

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 Science, Research and Economy 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.

Scholars who have preferably but not necessarily completed their PhD studies and have produced works of scholarship are eligible for receiving a research fellowship. The VWI-Fortunoff Research Fellow will be able to conduct research on a topic of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies 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 VWI-Fortunoff Research Fellow is expected to support the institute’s academic work and provide research adjective and support to junior fellows. The VWI-Fortunoff Research Fellow must be regularly present at the VWI.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests on oral history of the Holocaust 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 also pick a testimony used for his/her research paper from the Fortunoff-collection, annotate the transcript to explain terms, places and provide context with the goal of making the testimony understandable to a broader readership. This annotated critical edition will include a short introductory essay. These critical editions will be made available on the Fortunoff collection’s website as interactive documents, as well as in S:I.M.O.N.

The VWI-Fortunoff Research fellowship is awarded for a duration of eight months. He or she will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,200. In addition, VWI will cover housing costs during the fellowship (up to € 600) as well as the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare).

The VWI-Fortunoff Research fellow will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI and of the Fortunoff Archive. Preference will be given to a project that focusses on topics related to spoilation and aryanization of Jewish property.

Applications may be submitted in English and must include the following documents:

• 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, if not already included in application form (optional: with picture).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI-Fortunoff Research Fellowship 2025/26” by 17 January 2025 to: fortunoff-fellowship@vwi.ac.at.

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.