Apply for a Fellowship
Review the information below as you consider applying to the BSA Fellowship Program.
Application guidelines & eligibility ↑
Applicants must be active members of the Society to be considered for a Fellowship award. This restriction does not apply to New Scholars Program applicants. Join or renew now.
Learn about Fellowship application requirements:
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The application deadline for the 2025 award cycle will be announced in June 2024. All applications must be completed and letters of recommendation submitted to the Society by this date.
The BSA uses Kaleidoscope to manage applications to our programs, and all candidates and recommenders are required to submit materials through that website. Applicants are asked to submit the following when applying for any BSA Fellowship, including the Pantzer Senior Fellowship:
Project title
Applicant’s curriculum vitae
Project proposal of no more than 1,000 words
Project budget
Project timeline, including a list of materials to be consulted
Two letters of recommendation submitted via Kaleidoscope. The committee will not accept letters of recommendation by any other means.
The fellowship committee will match proposed projects to suitable fellowships, and the awards will be announced in early 2025. All fellowships require a project report within one year of receipt of the award, and copies of any publications resulting from the project are to be sent to the BSA.
We regret that we cannot consider late or incomplete applications. Applicants are advised to request recommendation letters well in advance.
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Eligibility ↑
Except for the BSA-Harry Ransom Center Pforzheimer Fellowship in Bibliography, eligibility is limited to:
Active BSA members
US Citizens and Residents
Citizens of other nations without US residency who wish to conduct research outside of the United States only
The BSA-Harry Ransom Center Pforzheimer Fellowship is open to non-US residents who wish to conduct research at the Harry Ransom Center, which will sponsor their visas and assist with the visa application process. Fellows must be BSA members.
Applicants must be active members of the Society to be considered for a Fellowship award. This restriction does not apply to New Scholars Program applicants. Join or renew now.
All fellowships except for the BSA-Harry Ransom Center Pforzheimer Fellowship are open applications from research pairs or groups. Special instructions for joint or group applications are provided in the application form.
For more information, please contact the BSA Fellowship program at bsafellowships@bibsocamer.org.
Start your application ↑
The next deadline for fellowship applications will be announced in June 2024. All applications must be completed and letters of recommendation submitted to the Society by the deadline.
To preview the application requirements, please read the text above under “Application Guidelines and Eligibility”.
The BSA uses Kaleidoscope to manage applications to our programs. Applications cannot be submitted by any other means. The form will open in summer 2024.
Applications for ALL BSA Fellowship Awards are collected through a single form. We advise applicants to start early and alert recommenders well before the deadline.
For recommenders ↑
If you have been asked to submit a recommendation on behalf of a Fellowship applicant you will receive an automated message from Kaleidoscope prompting you to set up an account and submit your materials through their website. If you do not receive such an email, check your junk or spam folder. You can also email help@mykaleidoscope.com for tech support.
Letters of recommendation should be written specifically in support of this application by persons competent to judge the project’s significance.
How to submit a letter of recommendation
Follow the instructions below to create and/or login to your Kaleidoscope account to submit the letter of recommendation. This process should take no more than 15 minutes if your letter is ready for upload.
Visit the Kaleidoscope login page: https://apply.mykaleidoscope.com/login
If the recommender has never used Kaleidoscope to submit a recommendation letter: Follow the prompt below the login fields (email address, password) reading, “Are you a nominator, endorser, reference, school counselor, third party contributor or review board member? An account has already been created for you! Click here to set your password.” Click “click here” and follow the prompts to set a password to access your account. (Here’s a picture of that screen.)
If the recommender has used Kaleidoscope to submit a recommendation letter: Login with your existing username and password, as long as it is the same email address as that submitted by the applicant. If you have used Kaleidoscope in the past but registered with a different email address, you will need to follow the process outlined for first-time users above.
Once the recommender has logged in: The recommender dashboard will display the recommendation request awaiting completion. Click on the prompt and follow the instructions to complete the upload.
Kaleidoscope sends prompts to every recommender entered into the system by an applicant. Unfortunately, institutional firewalls sometimes prevent Kaleidoscope’s messages from being delivered. If you have not received a prompt to submit a letter of recommendation, please follow the instructions below and contact the Kaleidoscope help desk if you need further assistance.
Tech support for applicants and recommenders ↑
Applicants and recommenders experiencing technical difficulties with Kaleidoscope should email the Kaleidoscope help desk at help@mykaleidoscope.com.
Someone from the Kaleidoscope tech support team replies to emails within 24 hours; most emails receive a response within 3 hours.
Kaleidoscope staff are on call from 9am to 5pm Central time, Monday through Friday. If you email their team on the weekend or holiday, they will respond on the next business day.
The BSA Office and the Chair of the Fellowship Committee cannot provide technical support for the Kaleidoscope platform. If you are having trouble submitting your application or a recommendation, please be patient and rest assured that your issues will be resolved.
No one will be penalized for delay arising from a technical problem.