The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) offers one postdoctoral fellowship biennially for two consecutive academic years. The A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow will reside in Washington. During both years of a two-year residency the A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow carries out research and writing for publication and designs and directs an intensive weeklong seminar for the seven predoctoral fellows in residence at the Center. In the second academic year, while continuing research and writing in residence, the fellow is expected to teach one course (advanced undergraduate or graduate) by arrangement at a neighboring university in addition to directing a weeklong seminar for the predoctoral fellows at the Center, which may repeat the one designed and directed in the first academic year.

The A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship supports research in the history, theory, and criticism of the visual arts of any time period or culture.

The A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow will be in residence at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts for two years and will participate fully in the activities of the Center throughout the fellowship period. The fellow will be provided with housing in an apartment near the Gallery, subject to availability, and with a shared study. The fellow has access to the notable resources represented by the art collections, the library, and the image collections of the National Gallery of Art, as well as to the Library of Congress and other specialized research libraries and collections in the Washington area.

Applicants for the A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship must have received the PhD degree within the five years preceding the next application deadline. Applicants for 2020–2022 must have received the PhD degree between October 1, 2014, and October 1, 2019. The fellowship is awarded without regard to age or nationality of applicants.