Applications due October 15, 2021
2022 Dillon Fellowship
Pequot Library in Southport, CT is pleased to announce the Dillon Fellowship for 2022, which will provide support to researchers or librarians working on the library’s collections for projects lasting one month. The Dillon Fellowship will provide a stipend and living expenses for fellows, not including housing, for one fellow per calendar year.
A Dillon Fellow may come from two different professional paths:
- For writers and researchers, the Fellowship offers an opportunity to pursue a creative project while actively participating in the daily life of Pequot Library. Applicants should be working on a book project, fiction or nonfiction, or a feature-length documentary film. We are particularly interested in proposals focused on the history of libraries, but any projects that incorporate Pequot’s rare books and archival materials will be considered. Among the library’s noted strengths are its collections of Americana, local history, fine arts press, and historic children’s books, as well as its pamphlets and printed ephemeral materials from the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries.
- For librarians, the Fellowship extends an invitation to envision a sustainable preservation program. Applicants should have an M.L.S. from an accredited institution and at least two (2) years’ experience in a non-profit, academic, or public library.
Pequot Library was founded in 1889 by Southport residents Virginia Marquand Monroe (1837 – 1926) and Elbert B. Monroe (1836 – 1894). The Library building, designed by noted American architect Robert H. Robertson, opened to the public in March 1894. Pequot Library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is only a short walk from the Southport train station on the Metro North line. For over seven generations, Pequot Library has been a cultural beacon of Fairfield County, providing traditional library services and diverse programming to our local and regional community. In recent years, the library has returned to a focus on its Special Collections, two annual exhibitions based around materials in the collection, a retrospective cataloging project, and now the Dillon Fellowship Program. The Dillon Fellows will be an integral part in this new chapter for Pequot Library.
Fellowships are open to graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, professional academics, independent scholars, librarians, and professionals working in archives, libraries, or museums. Inquiries and completed applications should be directed to specialcollections@pequotlibrary.org. Applications should also indicate the proposed research output to which an award of the Dillon Fellowship will contribute (i.e. articles, conference papers, thesis chapters). All fellows will be asked to produce a brief report of their research at the conclusion of the fellowship, and will be invited to give a lecture or other agreed upon public program at Pequot Library relating to the project undertaken as a Dillon Fellow. The award has a maximum of $3,000.
The application deadline for 2022 fellows is October 15, 2021, with the award announced in early December.
Click here to view our Dillon Fellowship Policies
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