Call for 2025 SVA / Robert Lemelson Fellowship Program
Link to application: https://forms.gle/gpQ4KGhyGhQumfuk8
Application Deadline: Applications must be submitted by 5:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time on Friday, April 4, 2025. Late applications will not be accepted.
The Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) and the Robert Lemelson Foundation (Lemelson) seeks applications for the 2025 SVA/Lemelson Fellows program. Now in its eighth year, the SVA / Lemelson Fellowships provide graduate students working in the field of visual and multimodal anthropology with funding to pursue exploratory research for and/or methods training to prepare for their doctoral dissertation research. Research projects supported by the Fellowship should have the potential of advancing the field of visual and multimodal anthropologies. We expect to award up to six or seven Fellowships in 2025 with each Fellow receiving up to an amount of $6,000, depending upon need.
Who is eligible to apply?
Fellowships are open to all graduate students without regard to citizenship or place of residence. We encourage diverse students to apply, broadly considered.
Applicants must be currently enrolled in a graduate program at the time of application and during the period of the fellowship. Applicants’ proposed research must be in the field of visual anthropology, broadly defined, but they do not need to be students in departments of anthropology.
Applicants cannot have completed more than four years of graduate education, including all institutions that they have attended. Normally, fellows receive their awards after their first or second year of graduate doctoral training as they begin to develop their dissertation research projects.
Applicants must be current members of both the Society of Visual Anthropology (SVA) and of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) as of April 1, 2025.
What kind of projects are eligible for funding through the SVA / Lemelson Fellowship?
A wide variety of projects have been funded in the past including projects that require travel for exploratory research, training in the collection of visual data, and purchasing equipment. Fellows conduct research across the globe and on a variety of topics. During the global pandemic, when travel may be difficult for many, we also include options for at-home research including, but not limited to: archival research, netnography (e.g. interviews over the internet), and production and post-production activities (such as testing equipment or techniques, working with found media, etc.)
What goes into the application?
Applicants are asked to provide three PDF documents as part of their application:
A Project Statement of between 750-1,000 words (excluding references) where the applicant describes the specific research activities or training they will carry out with support from the SVA/Robert Lemelson Foundation Fellowship. The statement should address the following:
Explain in detail how you will use your time, including any preliminary data you will collect and the analysis you are considering.
Please specify the ways in which this preliminary research and/or methods training has the potential to make your dissertation research more successful.
Please indicate whether you have ever spent time in the field site in question. If so, please indicate the length of time and experience you have there, and how this bout of research will be different from previous visits.
Finally, your statement should specifically address how your research program has the potential to advance the field of visual/multimodal anthropology.
A one to two-page Curriculum Vitae that includes:
Details on the applicant’s education with dates of enrollment;
Any research funding, fellowships, and awards received, including amounts and dates; and
Any relevant academic publications and presentations you may have completed. You should include details on prior employment, volunteer work, and other experience only if it is directly relevant to your proposed fellowship research. Other information, such as teaching experience, should not be included.
A Budget and Budget Narrative created using the template provided here: https://tinyurl.com/SVALemelsonBudgetTemplate.
Documentation from your program stating that you are registered as a student and are in good standing. This could be a letter from your advisor, a department chair, a graduate program director, an unofficial copy of your current transcript, etc.
Note: Your project statement must describe the type of visual work to be conducted over the summer and can include multiple methods and phases of work. All Fellowships must culminate in some form of presentable project which will be presented at the American Anthropological Association meeting in November 2025 and will live on the SVA website. Fellows are required to attend the AAA Annual Meeting to be held in New Orleans, LA in November 2025. Fellows will also complete two status reports: a mid-fellowship status report due by August 15, 2025 and a final report due by December 31, 2025. Fellows are also encouraged to create blog posts about their experiences for the Society for Visual Anthropology social media and website.
How does the Fellowship funding work? Are there specific budget requirements?
Applicants must use the provided budget template (found here as part of their application: https://tinyurl.com/SVALemelsonBudgetTemplate) to prepare a detailed budget and narrative. Fellowship funding may be used to cover a variety of expenses including:
Travel expenses (including but not limited to things such as airfare, ground transportation, visa application fees, etc.);
Living expenses and housing;
Fieldwork expenses (such as gifts for participants, translator, and field assistant fees);
Purchasing of multimodal equipment;
Online access and training, memberships, bandwidth, etc.
All other reasonable and justified expenses.
Fellows will be provided with an upfront, lump sum at the beginning of their Fellowship and expected to provide copies of receipts for expenses at the end of the Fellowship in accordance with the fellowship guidelines and approved budget proposal.
What can/can not be funded with the SVA / Lemelson Fellowship?
Funding cannot be used to pay for graduate school tuition.
Funding can be used for methods training, but the methods in question must be tied directly to the larger Fellowship multimodal research project. It will be this project that is the focus of the selection committee’s review. For example, proposals for general methods or statistical training are unlikely to be funded.
No more than half of the funds ($3,000) can be spent on online education expenses or online memberships (such as training courses or memberships such as Adobe Creative Cloud).
Of the total amount granted, up to $2,500 may be used to purchase video/film equipment. Equipment purchased becomes the property of the Fellow.
Of the total amount granted, $600 must be set aside to be used as travel support to attend the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in November to present the Fellow’s work either in person or virtually.
Funding cannot be used to collect data for the Fellow’s master’s thesis or a doctoral dissertation.
Funding cannot be used to support language training in more commonly taught languages (such as Spanish, French, and Arabic). Some funding can be used to support language instruction for languages where formal instruction is limited, but the focus of the Fellowship project should be on pursuing exploratory research rather than strictly language instruction.
Fellows are prohibited from accepting the SVA/Robert Lemelson Fellowship in conjunction with any other summer or research funding for the same projector over the same time frame as the proposed research supported by the Robert Lemelson Foundation Fellowship.
We expect to fund proposals between $3,000 and $6,000. You may request a larger amount than the stated limit, but it is very unlikely that an award over $6,000 will be made.
What is the timeline for the 2025 SVA / Lemelson Fellowship?
Applications are due April 4, 2025 by 5:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time. Late applications will not be accepted.
We expect to notify fellows of their acceptance in late April 2025.
Fellowships will begin in early May 2025.
Fellows will conduct their research during the summer and early fall of 2025. A mid-Fellowship report will be due August 15, 2025.
Research activities should conclude in time for Fellows to present their work at the American Anthropological Association Meeting in November 2025.
A final fellowship report is due by December 31, 2025.
I have other questions not answered here or something in my application has changed. Who should I contact?
Contact the chair of the SVA/Lemelson Fellowship Committee, Ashley Stinnett at a.ashley.stinnett@gmail.com
