

The RCMC/FEL Junior Fellowship* program provides financial support to talented junior researchers interested in conducting (ethnographic) research or publishing on the collections of the Tropenmuseum, Museum Volkenkunde, Afrika Museum and Wereldmuseum.
Students (BA, MA, PhD) and early career scholars (i.e. +5 years since obtaining their PhD) scholars with a background in museum studies, anthropology, archaeology, art history or related disciplines can apply. We offer four stipends in total, each of max € 1,500. The types of activities we support are related to conducting (ethnographic) research and/or publishing on the museum collections.
We appreciate creativity and innovative ideas. Activities we do not support are for instance the organisation of symposia and travel to conferences to present work.
*From 2012 to 2016, the RCMC/FEL Junior Fellowship program operated as the
Dr. Steven Engelsman Grants.
This fellowship is co-sponsored by the Foundation for Ethnology in Leiden (FEL), which also co-sponsors the annual Adriaan Gerbrands Lectures.
A jury will read the applications and select four Junior Fellows. The jury members for 2020-21 are:
Callum Fisher, Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH), Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Working title of dissertation and project: “From Provenance to Potentiality: Museum Practices and Dispersed Collections,” with a focus on the dispersal of the objects in Hamburg’s former Godeffroy Museum.
Robert Flahive, Ph.D. Candidate, Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT), Virginia Tech, Working dissertation title: “Rethinking the Histories of Colonialism and Modernism through Architectural Preservation,"' with a focus on the relationship between architectural preservation, modernist architecture, and colonialism. For the RCMC Junior Fellowship, Flahive studies the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam.