The Women’s History Network is offering four WHN fellowships to support Early Career Researchers of women’s or gender history. Each fellowship is designed to provide financial support to those who have completed their doctorate but are yet to secure their first academic post. We anticipate that the scholar would produce, or work towards producing, at least one tangible output during the duration of the Fellowship.

This fellowship is specifically designed to assist scholars in building their CV towards seeking long-term academic employment. As a result, it is highly likely that any output(s) would be primarily ‘academic’ (e.g. a journal article or work towards a monograph) though we welcome proposals which also include additional outputs (e.g. a podcast). Those working outside academia may wish to consider the WHN’s Independent Fellowships.

The Early Career Fellowship includes:

• A bursary of £1500 (paid in two instalments of £750) which can be used in any way that enables the Fellow to sustain their role as a writer and researcher. This might, for example, include paying copyright fees for images for a publication; travel and accommodation expenses for visits to archives; childcare; living expenses such as rent; conference attendance; subscriptions to online archives, or for technical equipment or support.
• A stipend of up to £250 to attend and present at the WHN Annual conference in September 2022.

The deadline for applications is 1 August and the result will be communicated to the successful applicants by 1 September. Fellowships will last from 1 October 2022 – 30 September 2023.

Enquiries about the Fellowships may be sent to Dr Anna Muggeridge, and submissions made to prizesandawards@womenshistorynetwork.org . Members of the selection committee will be drawn from the Women’s History Network’s Steering Committee.

GUIDELINES:

• We welcome proposals for research on any aspect of women’s history or gender history (though strongly focused on women), and particularly encourage applications on topics outside the Anglophone world and/or modern period.
• The fellowships are open to anyone within ten years of completing their PhD (this does not include career breaks). Applicants must have had their viva by 1 June 2022. Those with corrections still to complete are welcome to apply.
• The applications are open to those with and without a current academic affiliation.
• They are only open to those who are not in full time academic employment, and those who do not currently hold a postdoctoral funding award (e.g. a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship). If you have any questions about eligibility, please do be in touch.
• Those awarded Fellowships will be expected to: write a WHN blog post by February 2022; present a paper at, and, separately, chair a session for, the 2022—23 online seminar series; and present a paper at the 2022 WHN Annual Conference in September 2023 (the costs of attending the conference will be covered in addition to the Fellowship). We would welcome suggestions of further ideas for engagement with the WHN, but this is not obligatory.
• Any publications or other outputs that result from the Fellowship should include an acknowledgement of funding received from the Women’s History Network.

In making decisions, the WHN will primarily assess the quality of the proposal. However, we will also take into account an applicant’s circumstances and reserve the right to prioritise the most precarious applicants.

Applicants should be based in the UK and must be members of the Women’s History Network at the time of application. Student/unwaged membership is available from £15. Members of the current Women’s History Network Steering Committee are ineligible to apply.

Please click here to download the application form. Please send the form and a one page CV to prizesandawards@womenshistorynetwork.org  We will acknowledge receipt of your application; if you have not heard from us within seven working days of sending the application, please resend it.